Thread: What is WRONG with You Guys????

I collect razors because they are interesting and beatiful. I shave with them because it would be a shame to have all these purpose-made tools lying around doing nothing; and because straight razor shaving is a "man skill".

Switching to DE shaving from the Mach 3 led me into straight shaving. I joined a couple wet shaving boards and kept reading about straight razor shaving that was included in these boards. I am now hooked on straight shaving and will never go back to DE. I get closer and more irritation free shaves with the straight and think it is way cool to be shaving like my grandfathers.

bj

Being a blade lover, and now a beginer knive maker, straights apeal to me. There is some thing with shaving the way my grandfather and great grandfather used to, that makes straight shaving special to me. Also shaving with old razors. Last night, I stropped up my John Barber and had the best shave since I started straight shaving. I have a long way to go, and still a lot to learn.

Originally Posted by Garry

Sadly he had to spend some time in hospital due to mental illness ..

Sad yes... But lucky for you maybe?

Originally Posted by zepplin

Besides all the obvious: better for the skin, use of neat soaps and creams, better for the enviornment, shaveing how our Grandfathers did, etc., etc..

To shave with something that most people consider dangerous is just very, very cool!!

Plus,......Stropping is very, very sexy!

Tony's strops are sexiest! And: the strop comes in very handy in bondage rituals as well....

Originally Posted by Kees

Tony's strops are sexiest! And: the strop comes in very handy in bondage rituals as well....

Could we leave that for another forum...

There is something very basic about living life on purpose.

Grinding beans for the coffee, sharpening the razor,

The simplest aspects are the most overlooked. I'm fairly sure that the secret to a happy life is a focus on doing the basics extraordinarily well.

We often spend our energy on the complex and the difficult trying to stretch our skills without developing the underlying strengths required to be successful. The homily of too busy to sharpen the axe is true and likely far more understandable for those of you who have tried to hone a #$%$#$^! straight razor.

My new years resolution this year was to become very good at the very basic life skills. I thought I might start when I wake up. My coffee is excellent. Now I'm working on my morning toilet. Once I have a good edge and 3 excellent razors I will likely work on Breakfast.

Small things done 20,000 times add up to a lot more than big thing done once in a way that our culter does not tend to respect.

Just my thoughts...

Clearly there is something wrong with me,

- Bob

I think I liked the nostalgia aspect somewhat. Its not because it was 'macho'. Some of the guys i'd describe as 'macho' hear about the fact that I use a straight and think i'm a nutter

The other reason was to save money because as we all know in the outset it is expensive but if you take care of it you never have to buy another razor again your whole life.

Yeah... How's that going for you all?

Perhaps it was simply a resentment for having to pay Mr Gillette for the triple-bladed tractors to drag accross my face. They are WAY overpriced and the amount I have to spend on them every month I could buy a new razor once a year!


Speaking of which, I havent bought one yet this year....

EDIT: I know what it comes down to. Masculinity. There's something about it thats just very male. Apologies to some of our members (you know who you are) but to me its just a very masculine thing. Yes above all I think thats it.

Originally Posted by RobertFontaine

There is something very basic about living life on purpose.

Grinding beans for the coffee, sharpening the razor,

The simplest aspects are the most overlooked. I'm fairly sure that the secret to a happy life is a focus on doing the basics extraordinarily well.

Bob, you are absolutely right. Too few of us stick to this way of life/lifestyle nowadays.
What you said explains perfectly the difference in mentality between a straight-razor guy and a M3 guy.

3 main reasons for me (no particular order):

1) I've always thought it looked wicked cool.

2) I don't like paper plates, disposable razors or other consumables because I don't like having a recurring cost of time and effort to replace them. Plus, sometimes you'll run out and be screwed. I guess this is more self-reliance than environmentalism.

3) I have a weird collector's mentality. I don't need fifty or a thousand razors.
But I would absolutely love to get three identical Henckel blades (with barber notches. ) and get someone to put custom identical scales on with inlaid I, II, III. Something about me likes sets and consistency way too much. I read comics (dork!) and have two copies of one trade paperback because the first copy I got was from a different printing and the spines don't match on the shelf.