Thread: Doing it on a budget!

Nice all the ways we can find to shave costs ( pun intended). I finally got a nice actual straight that I will be using shortly but here is my setup prior to this.

Williams soap cake ( yeah it sucks but was the only thing available locally) 1.50

Coffee cup from work to hold soap 0.00

smaller coffee cup to build lather 0.00

Fromm Hair shaper ( small shavette style straight ) 5.99

VHD Brush 6.99

That has been my setup that I normally shave with. Total Cost 15.00

My wife bought me some Jack Black shave cream recently which I will be using 22.50

Homemade Leather Strop ( I had extra from a different project I was working on ) 3.00 average for leather used

Homemade Linen Strop ( my wife sews a lot so always have workable scraps)

Vintage Shave Ready Boker 20.00

Extras 45.00 so total of 60 bucks. Just depends on the resources available to you.

Now I just need to make it over to my dad's house and steal his Shopsmith so my life is easier when it comes to cutting small thin woods.

Being a cheap bastige...uh I mean frugal wet shaver on a budget, I think I can provide some input here.

The shavette option Troggie mentions above is a good one as they are really affordable, probably locally available and don't require the additional gear that a traditional straight razor does. For me at least, my Diane and Fromm shavettes were a good basic training for a traditional straight. The Fromm is a great choice and gives a very good simulation of a real straight. However, special blades are required. The Diane is a good choice and takes standard double edged blades cut in half. I wouldn't however recommend the Magic or the Dovo. If you'd like, I have a Fromm shavette and most of a box of blades I'll gladly PIF you.

I'm not a Williams hater, really I'm not BUT for tallow based goodness that runs circles around Williams (and most soaps 10 times the price), do yourself a favor and look up some Arko Shavestick. For a price similar to Williams you get several incremental increases in quality and the shavestick really is a cool and convenient way to do soap. No mugs or cups necessary, simply wet your face with hot water, crayon the shavestick on your face against the grain of your beard apply a moistened boar brush and after about 3 nano-seconds of circular scrubbing, the Arko will explode into a rich slick (cat's a$$) lather. The downside is that unless you are really fortunate, Arko shavestick will probably need to be ordered on line. Although in Michigan you may be able to locate it at a Mom and Pop Middle Eastern grocery store (it's made in Turkey.) VDH Deluxe (generally available on the cheap at Walmart) is also a very good choice and delivers solid performance at an affordable price. Back to Williams for a second. If you end up going in this direction, do yourself a favor and invest a couple dollars in a tub of Noxema (yeah, the cold cream stuff your Mom probably used to take off makeup.) Prior to applying the Williams, rub the shave area down with Noxema and just lather the Williams over the top. It does a good job of supplementing the Williams and makes thick lather not such a trick. There's also a nice mentholy tight skin feeling as well. I can also PIF you an Arko shavestick. It will get you started and probably last a good three months or so.

Brushes: The VDH is the go to noob shaving brush. They're affordably priced (generally < $10), available at Walmart and for the most part very effective and enjoyable. I have one an really enjoy it. However, VDH brushes have one flaw, occassionally there's a quality control issue and you'll get a hold of one that sheds like a husky in equatorial Africa. An Omega boar ( a much better quality brush, IMHO) can be had for less than $15.

Now, on to "real straights" on a budget: Warning: If you're a purist or a honemiester, this might be a good time to quit reading this post. So there I was, much like you anxious to jump into straight razor shaving but without a bunch of money to spend. Antique shops are good bets. Patina is OK but I'd probably steer clear of anything really rusty (especially around the edge) or anything with severe hone wear (i.e. looks like someone took it to a power grinder and beat the wee out of it.) With that, here's what my first straight razor rig looked like:

• Boker Red Injun #102 antique store find ($20)
• 3" horsehide strop antique store find, great condition, I just saddle soaped it and took off ($30)
• Large coarse/fine wet stone from Ace Hardware ($8) and a roll of electrical tape ($1.50)
  
  • Probably far from the ideal hone set up but after a good bit of homework on SRP, I was able to make my old straight deliver BBS shaves that were hella comfortable and very effective.

My humble beginnings of course grew from there and I now have 5 straights in the fleet that I've cleaned up and honed myself. True, none of them would have a chance in a beauty contest but they all give outlandish shaves. Besides, IMHO, straight razors, like people are best with a little patina on them. If you'd care to take me up on my PIF offers or have other questions, feel free to shoot me a PM.

I decided to go straight razor after going to the store and getting ripped off again buying Gillette refills. I'm tired of supporting their expensinve monopoly! It's un-American! So...

$35 straight razor at antique store;
$10 sharpening at local barber shop;
$15 at Tandy Leather for a 3 x 26" piece belt leather
(I already had Neatsfoot oil for light treatment);
$6 at Fred Meyers for shaving soap; and,
$7.50 at Fred Meyers for boar brush.

$73.50 total.

strop &amp; tommy picture by jbtusa - Photobucket

While I like doing things on the cheap, I have a hard time passing up a quality item for a reasonable price, even if it is rather expensive. Heck it's taken me a few years to get most of my gear upgraded to a quality that I may never have to replace. So if I don't have to replace it, I'm saving replacement costs down the road. As an example...

I started using the same stones I used for my kitchen knives, so they are serving double duty so to speak. My brush was a sale item at a local knife store as well as my first strop, both cost about 35-40 for the pair. They are now my travel kit... After a while I bought my first Japanese natural stone at a local japanese hardware store (Hida Tool) for under $50, and later resqued my grandfathers coticule from the drawer of obsoleteness. They became my upgrades and I still use them today. Last year I was able to scrape enough together for a Tony Miller strop. I just don't see that thing wearing out

As for my razors, I have only bought 1 new razor, the SRP limited ed TI. All the rest are Ebite or local shop finds under 15-20 each and rebuilt. I've sold many to buy more and keep the hobby and goodies moving

So all I'm saying is that you can look at budget items in two lights, low cost items you have to replace regularly and spending a bit more and never having to replace it.

Start off with the items you NEED to keep going, than keep an eye out for the good quality stuff at good prices when they pop up Save the replaced pieces as back ups and travel sets so the $$ is still getting spread out.