Thread: Economics

I'm trying to get an idea of what is involved with the economics of straight razor shaving. It seems to me after reading a little that straight razor shaving is more of a hobby rather than a simple means of shaving in the morning, for most on this site. I say that because I'm seeing people with multiple straight razors. I've seen honing videos with people that have like ten honing stones. And the razors, brushes, hones..... all come in very expensive versions. All this is well and good, if that is your hobby thats fine, but I want to know what is the cost of straight razor shaving minus the frills.

Its seems to me I need to buy one razor and that should last me my entire life. That goes for my two honing stones (what I've so far gathered as to how many stones you need 250/1000 & 6000/8000 grit), my strope (what do you need paste for?), and not that I need it, but my brush and bowel should last my entire life to. All I see I need to continue buying is shaving soap and aftershave care products.

Base on that assumption an initial cost of say 300 should be good for fifty years, which if I shave five times a week should be pennies a shave. Now I know I'm wrong, each straight razor has a life and there is probably more I'm not taking into account. So what does it cost if your just conserned with getting a good shave with regular equipment your maintaining?

Dovo Best Quality from the Art of Shaving $80
Strop from the Knife Center $40
Hone 8000/4000 from Knife Center $80
That’s ….. $200.

All else is a sunk cost as you would use it shaving otherwise but, to start off you could easily get all you need for a year for about $100 to $200 as per taste.

The “consumer surplus” derived from the pleasure gained from shaving is dependent on individual factors.

If you intend on shaving for 50 years 5 times a week that’s 52x50x5 or 13,000 shaves. $200 divided by that many shaves is $0.015 a shave. And yes you should be able to use the same razor/stone/strop all your life but if not just add a penny or two for arguments sake.

I can’t take off the cost of disposables as I don’t know how fast you go through them or what quality you use.

Originally Posted by Knife

but my brush and bowel should last my entire life to.

I'm sorry, but this is one of the best typos I've seen in a while!!

On to business. You can get started for less than 300. You can also get started for a whole lot more. One of the difficulties judging either way is that it takes a little while for your skills to develop. There are some initial costs, and perhaps a few more depending on how long it takes you to get up to speed.
For instance:
You might chop your strop in half, that'l cost you.
You can decide to have a professional honesman hone your razor, that'l cost you
You might roll your edge over and need re-honing by your chosen honesman. That might cost you.
You might instead buy hone(s) for yourself, that will definitely cost you, but it's what I did.
You might whack your razor on the sink, you better believe that'l cost you.

What I'm trying to say is that in the complete absence of mistakes you can certainly acquire what you need to start for less than 300 and be shaving happily for your natural life. The problem is that you are probably going to make mistakes. Starting with less expensive (good quality, not cheap) will help you save some initial costs should you choose the straight and narrow path.

as an aside, there are several reasons to get more than one razor, even if it's only two. Some people advocate letting a razor rest for a day, etc.
Keep searching around, you can find plenty of money saving tips from like-minded people!

SRP has one heck of a starter kit for $164 that includes a Dovo razor honed by Lynn himself, strop, brush, soap and some other small stuff. That can't be beat really...

If you ever get into wet shaving you will ask yourself "why did I wait until now?". Even if you didn't care for it, you could sell your strop and razor, keep the other stuff for your every day cartridge shaving...but once you are bitten you are done for...

Welcome to SRP.

First of all, you have to understand that shaving forums attract a certain OCD type, oops, I mean hobbyist . And we certainly enjoy showing off our toys, along with latest & greatest finds....

But, CAN it be economical? Absolutely, 1 blade, 1 strop, 1 brush, 1 soap/cream, 1 barberhone/pasted strop and 1 aftershave (optional) are all you will ever need if that's what you choose to do. It's just that there's no fun in that

You can definitely make what you've outlined work, but I would advise, at the very least, a second razor. Two reasons...
if you opt not to hone your own you can still shave while one is out for honing.
If you opt to hone your own you should have one to establish a base line with. I.e., you want something in shave ready condition while you're honing so you can compare.

As to the brush and bowl they last you. Brushes do detiorate. Also, you have badger (multiple grades), horse, boar, and synthetic to chose from so you may end up experimenting to see what your face likes best.

Thanks guys, I'm sure once I start I'll want really nice gear and get more fancy with it, but right now I'm trying to avoid buying replacement blades all the time. And its not even the cost, but I use the replaceable razor til I feel I need a new one which means a few rough shaves at the end. The alternative or at least what I thought was the alternative (now confermed) I could be saving boat loads of money buying just one razor, haveing a perfect and better shave everyday, haveing fun doing it, and I'm not an environmentalist, but I do like the idea that with straight razor shaving I'm not producing so much waste.

Now lets get to brass tacks, I had been wanting to straight razor shave (is it called wet shaving?) for a while now and out of impulse I've already bought a twenty dollar straight razor, thinking it would be "shave ready". The thinking was I would pay twenty bucks to see if I like shaving like that and then spend the extra money after I knew I did. At this point I want to see what I should do to figure out if I even want to shave with a straight razor, without spending alot of money. Should I send it out to be professionally honed, buy a hone (is one combo stone enough?), or maybe theres a throw away cheap straight razor approximation thing our there?

Did you look through the "razors to avoid" in the Wiki? If your razor isn't on that list I would send it out to a pro the first time around.
I've got a Dovo shavette and it isn't bad. However, had I discovered SRP before I got it, I wouldn't jaw gotten it. I would have purchased from whippeddog or holi4pirating (if I couldn't find something in my budget in the classifieds) Both fellows sell well honed blades at very reasonable prices. I've got blades from both and am quite happy with them.

The bare minimum is brush, bowl/mug, soap/cream, strop, styptic, and razor. An aftershave splash or lotion is highly recommended but if you want to be hardcore you can skip it or just use a light lotion like cornhuskers.

Originally Posted by str8fan

Dovo Best Quality from the Art of Shaving $80
Strop from the Knife Center $40
Hone 8000/4000 from Knife Center $80
That’s ….. $200.

All else is a sunk cost as you would use it shaving otherwise but, to start off you could easily get all you need for a year for about $100 to $200 as per taste.

I think this is pretty good. Esp the comment about 'sunk cost'.
(I personally now have a TON of that...)
But - Add Brush and Bowl/Mug for Shaving Soap.
And, indefinately, the soaps & creams themselves.
I would point out, esp soaps, even though some can look expensive, they can go really really far, and last quite a while.

Maybe add price of second strop right from the get-go? (If you're like most, or many - I can't speak for everyone, you may as well just write the cost of the first one off right now. )

Actually, I've gotten several good deals on razors over the past few months. If I were to resell them, I would be shaving basically for free. I'd bet there are many who are in the positive category after many years of buying/selling. But then you get into the cost of your time, which is probably more valuable.