So, you are having problems shaving with a straight razor and can't figure out why...

Consider me helped. I think everything you said is right. Many, many times I've thrown in my two cents, only to find it was a bit off the mark. Just as you describe. Although, I do feel a little behind the power curve now. I've been at this for seven months, and still don't think I oughta be giving very much advice to anyone. I've even gotten in mild arguments here on SRP, which forced me to question what I thought I knew, and effectively sent me back to square one. Thanks AxelH. :) But anyways, I can see how someone who received my advice, a "senior member" with several posts, could think I knew more than I know. As I just mentioned, even I thought I knew more than I know. So that said, I think I've at least got enough knowledge to say, you're right. I'm thinking maybe at the 3 year mark I might have something to contribute. Which is quite a bummer, but 7 months went pretty fast, so...

Scott,

Great thread!! Maybe this will end up in the sticky section! Thanks for the insight and time It took to post this.

Best Regards,

Howard

Well said! I particularly liked the INFORM YOURSELF paragraph.

It's so important to read information when you're starting something new. Asking questions really only helps when you need clarification based on information you have already distilled.

That's how I feel, anyway.

Thanks Scott!

I rarely use my head for anything other than shaving.

I only have one thing to add to that Scott...

If you give up send me all your razors!!! ;)

Actually. Scott here sold me the best razor I ever used. If you ever find one that he is selling, snatch it up. Amazing honing. To bad my roommate decided to play with it, and took out (2) 1/4" chunks of the blade... Grr, but that is life.

As I said on your blog, I agree with most of what you have written, the point about brushes is where I disagree. A boar brush is a personal preference issue, not "skimping". You can get great quality and performance from them and I, for one, actually have been preferring them these days. I enjoy amazing performance out of a $15 boar that doesn't have anything to envy from brushes I have that cost 10 times as much.

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Originally Posted by jdto

As I said on your blog, I agree with most of what you have written, the point about brushes is where I disagree. A boar brush is a personal preference issue, not "skimping". You can get great quality and performance from them and I, for one, actually have been preferring them these days. You cagey great performance out of a $15 boar that doesn't have anything to envy from brushes I have that cost 10 times as much.

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I must say I agree with this. I was always of the opinion that a badger was the only way to go...until I purchased my Omega Boar...absolutely love that brush and lately have been using it more than my Silver tip. The only thing is, no matter what brush you use get a decent one :)

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Originally Posted by Catrentshaving

The only thing is, no matter what brush you use get a decent one :)

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I agree, however a person would be less likely to get a junky brush if they go with a badger hair as my first brush was a boar hair brush that I now use cleaning my guns.

This was written for beginners, you gentlemen have obviously had the opportunity to sample a few brushes...I hope anyways. All I have to support my comments other than my opinion, just like yours, is that there must be a reason that the major majority of the brush makers use badger hair. This is what I call "splitting hairs".

Most new shavers (please note that this was written in the beginners section) don't know what true quality out there is with all of the junk flooding the market & many are on a budget...just as I was. As you noticed in my blog, I mention just one brand name just to avoid all of the opinions and people muddying the water for beginners. I made reference to two online shave specialty shops, I know that they sell quality products and would comfortably tell a new person to wet shaving that they could buy pretty much anything from either and they wouldn't buy junk.

I wrote this blog to help folks, not to "split hairs" on opinions of shave brushes or anything else. Please gentlemen, if you are looking to muddy the water with opinions then just PM me and keep it off this thread. We are veteran shavers, lets just help out the new guys and keep up the Pay It Forward (PIF) tradition no matter if it's information or goods.

It's not splitting hairs. Saying boar brushes are inferior is erroneous. I'd take a good boar over a scratchy best badger all day and would recommend that to beginners. You can get a great quality Omega or Semogue for $10-$40, which will keep you happily and comfortably shaving for decades with proper care. A $40 badger is a low end brush. I truly appreciate the effort to help beginners (which I still consider myself to be), but I think you are doing them a disservice by making that statement.

I have a few boars and a few badgers. I use them all.

Taking a line from my original post in this thread, it's on the beginner to do some research and then they will hopefully come out on top.

Boar brushes are by no means inferior. Even the Shopper's Drugmart Omega boar for $14.99 (canadian) is a great starter brush. I have all sorts of badgers too....and the least used one is a Vulfix. It was my very first brush, and I bought it on the notion that a price tag reflected value. It turns out that I was spectacularly wrong.

However....AFTER I went back into the brushes and beginners sections are started to look around a bit more I began to purchase brushes based on recommendations, and not the price tag. Since then I have ammased a collection that I enjoy, non of which cost more than $75. Oh....and the $75 was my first badger brush that was barely used.

I also think it's a great thing for beginners to see differing and sometimes extreme points of view. If I wanted the same thing all the time, I'd just do a Google search and have the results tailored to my browsing. Instead, I read the posts here first. That gives me a robust amount of information that I can distill and use to my advantage.

It's all about the info.

When you talk about the quality of products you need to consider two aspects, one is objective and the other subjective.

If you buy basic brush at Walgreen's and it sheds like crazy each time you use it and the 10th time you use it the puck falls out and after 3 months it develops a crack in the handle I don't think anyone would argue about it being a poor quality and poor performing product.

On the other hand someone may pick up basic boar brush for say fifteen bucks and love the way it feels and lathers and looks. That reminds me of my friend who bought a Yugo when they came out and thought it was the best car in the world and wouldn't hesitate to drive cross country in it. He would laugh at folks spending "big bucks" for a different car. That car was his ultimate truth in cars.

It's all the beauty in the eye of...thing so we all need to remember no matter how long we have been at this thing and no matter how many soaps we might have used (for example) and think the Williams is garbage compared to the Castle Forbes there are plenty of guys who think the Williams is the best they ever need and for them they are right. They might even prefer it to CF and they would be justified saying that too.

Some might change their minds over time as they sample more items and some might not or have no desire to go further and they are all right.

So the ultimate truth here is that there is no universal truth for everybody. It all differs for each individual.

All the brush talk aside, I would like to second Scott's recommendation on finding a mentor if you're having a lot of troubles. Luckily I lived closed enough to him that I was able to take up his offer to help me, and it made a big difference in the quality of the shaves that I was getting... not to mention that he honed my Henckels, gave me one of his paddle strops and a bottle of aftershave, then shared a few beers with me. Thanks for all the help, Scott!