Tried this on friday and got de-listed without a single hit. Not a good weekend topic I guess…
I shave with a brush and would like to try a straight razor, but I’m having a hard time getting consistent info on good suppliers, care and feeding of the razor etc. Are there any anachronistic Dopers out there who can make some recommendations?
(this is for folks who Shave with a straight razor, not those who might use them for other “hobbyist” purposes…)
Thanks in advance,
stubbly 'vark
I did it exactly one time, and then realized how easy it would be for me to get very, very seriously hurt, so I gave it up as an experiment that didn’t work out.
My father gave me the razor (it had been his father’s) and it really was a beautiful thing - mother of pearl handle and a very nice feel to it. He didn’t have a strap for sharpening the thing, so I went to a barbershop and asked the little Italian guy who had shaved me before (I’ve posted about getting a professional shave on here before - DO IT), if he’d sharpen the razor and give me a few pointers. He was happy to, even though he warned me that the thing would be unbelievably sharp and to be very careful.
From what I can gather, the key is keeping the thing sharp - and I mean sharp. So sharp that you don’t even feel it when you cut yourself (I didn’t, and I cut myself pretty badly). All of a sudden there’s a red streak mixing in with the shaving cream and you go “Uh oh.”
My advice, unless you’re willing to take good care of the thing, keep in sharp, and take your time (no getting up late, swipe swipe swipe, out the door), keep to your Mach 3.
Yeah, but there are some of us who would love to abandon the whole consumer rat race and get a blade that, with proper care, could last 40 years.
Feel free to abandon whatever you want, just don’t cut your own throat when doing so.
Actually, Beagledave, I did Google on this extensively before I posed the question. The problems with the majority of the information I found include:
a lot to do with collecting and care of collectibles as opposed to actually shaving with them (viz., one of your links)
lots of choices for purchase but no clear indication of which one(s) might be best for me, and no clear way to pose the question…this is why I was kinda hoping for a doper recommendation along the lines of “I have a Blitzkrieg Alfa from Dommerhunststoffelplatz Steel Gmbh, and it’s great!!”. At least then I could winnow down the dozens of apparent choices…
instructions sometimes poorly translated or parsed
impersonal information. I was also hoping for some dialogue here: “oh, I do this and it’s marvehluss”, “don’t do it, you’ll tracheotomize yourself”, “make sure you get an old-time barber who can strop for ya” etc…
Anyone else out there? Helloooooo? I know Scylla made reference to straight raz shaving in one of his threads. There’s gotta be one or two of you out there, [sub]no?[/sub]
thanks again,
anachronovark
Shaved with a straight razor first. It was a Red Devil. Dad got it for me on my 17th birthday. It had too wide a blade, so I couldn’t shave under my nose well( I have a mustache) In time I bought a couple of no-name razors, a Dovo, and I now use a Winchester. I also use a disposable blade razor occasionally.
This is a lot of work. It’s hard to find a good razor- one that hasn’t been tempered properly will not hold an edge. You might get it sharp enough to shave only to have it dull down halfway through. Many old/antique blades have been sharpened past their temper and are worthless. A good new razor can cost you 200 bucks easily. A cheap one is a recipe for slicing up your face. A good strop can be very costly as well. This could cost you a bunch of money to find out you don’t like it.
You’ll find a lot of premium single and double edge razors out there as well. You might find them a better fit for your needs, and not as likely to cut yourself.
b.
I’ve often pondered getting a throat-cutter just to deal with my sideburns. Keeping them straight, much less even with each other is the biggest pain in shaving for me (well that and as of last week I now have to ever day). Considering the mess I can make with a safety razor however…
I have used a straight razor, but not on a regular basis. It’s just too much work, you have to be very careful, etc. I don’t cut myself when I do use it, but since I don’t use it regularly, it takes me twice as long.
The main times I have used it is when I have shaved off a full beard when job hunting, a safety razor just doesn’t work well for that sort of thing.
The main thing is to keep it sharp, keep it at the correct angle to the face, keep the skin pulled taut, and NEVER, EVER move it along the line of the blade – the main time you will forget this is when moving from one spot to the next.
If you are mainly doing this to get out of the consumer rat race, I would suggest going to a safety razor and just do the hot lather part of it with real shaving soap, a shaving mug and a good silver-tipped badger-hair brush. That will eliminate the aerosol cans used in shaving cream, and it feels darn good besides. If you boil water for your morning tea, you can use the same boiling water in the shaving mug. You can buy the expensive ceramic mugs, but the cheaper heavy rubber mugs retain the heat better in my experience.
I was shown how to use a straight razor by a couple of old-timers who had all these great stories and conflicting advice (such as how to use your hand as a strop :eek: – it does work if you have rather leathery hands).
This is not the kind of skill you can pick up from a book easily.
Have somebody who knows show you.
I found an old italian barber shop, and the guy was more than happy to spend an hour with me and wouldn’t accept payment. He also showed me how to fix up my blade after a month of shaves.
Look for a little Italian man in a barber shop. You can’t go wrong.
Or, look for a barber school.