Thread: Then and Now

Well, I'll tell you.

I think the less work thing is the reason the DE took off. I enjoy my Great Granddad's DE. It's only 96 years old or so, but still delivers a stellar shave.

However, if I like doing the work, I will haul out the 200+ year old straight and shave.

The history is great with these things, regardless of your weapon of choice and they didn't come out of a 5 pack plastic bag at the drug store.

I think men back in the day didn't get the best shaves unless they went to a barber to get their face steamed, toweled and then shaved. Most people I know that had a grandfather, like mine, who straight shaved said they didn't have stones and all the other fancy tools. My grandfather had this coarse stone that probably wrecked his edges and he didn't even know the difference out there. I still have his stone and I don't even like it on knives so I can't even imagine how it was used on razors too.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure safety razors took off because men didn't know how to maintain their razors like we do now and didn't even want to bother with a pocket or barber's hone to maintain them.

I have old Gem, gillette, and Ever ready razors that shave amazingly well but I prefer my straight hobby.



OH!!! the title of the thread should be called, "at that point in time"

LOL!

I'm guessing that in the past, spending money in shaving gear or barber shop shaving wasn't a top priority in the family budget. I know it wasn't in mine 50 years ago.
Today is different, wet shaving has become some sort of a hobby, and as such, we spend money accordingly.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

From what I've read about Gillette they darn near went broke at first. IIRC the thing that really popularized the DE was WW1. The men were issued straights and DEs. The DE was easier to handle all the way round and the replaceable blade more convenient, especially for troops in the field. Chris Moss wrote in his tutorial on using a straight that he bets the men back then did one pass and called it good. I think he is probably right.

Jimmy hit on something. I've always been interested in the "The Great War, " I remember hearing or reading that the British Army issued straights well into the post war period. Someone wrote that, "The British Army that shaved and shined in the face of the enemy died in 1914, the high command just didn't know it yet." When US troops of the AEF first arrived in France in 1917, many carried straights, but as new units arrived, many were using the "new" safety razor. It was cheap to make, blades could easily be made by the thousand, compared with the effort put into making a straight razor blade. That freed skilled workers and machinery for the war effort.

Let's say you're in a trench. How are you going to maintain a straight razor? Not even to perfection, but usable? What about stropping? A safety razor is so much easier to maintain and use. After the war, many kept using their safety razors because they were used to them.

Just my thoughts.

Nothing mysterious here and nothing that unusual about the straight as opposed to other things. it's all about convenience throughout our society. How many people have had, for instance a slice of homemade bread as opposed to the junk commercial bakeries make. Look the next time you go to a supermarket. How many folks have basic ingredients to make home cooked meals as opposed to chemical filled convenience foods. Look at how many people simply eat all their meals out or get take-out.

It's really like that with everything. It's not a matter of whats better it's a matter of what's convenient and easy and folks are willing to trade the quality for what's easy for them. Besides, after a time you forget about what so good about the old stuff and the newer stuff becomes you're reality.

In our case most of us look at shaving a a hobby. That was not the case years ago. Like I always say, my dad who's 95 always tells me when his dad shaved everyone knew it because they could here the yelling and cussing from the bathroom and that was enough so my dad never had any desire to pick up a straight. There is also the psychological point that when something new comes out all the younger folks flock to it and tend to be the advance guard as things change.

"The best a man can get" is a late tag line. I'm sure Gillette sold his first million on convenience, not quality.

Glen,
I think the information age(SRP for many of us) gave us the ability to fully understand the best of the past and present in terms the best hones of the past and present. Our grandfathers walked into a hardware store and were satisfied with whatever limited hones were on hand. I still believe more of us that are shaving now are not just getting good edges, but have pushed the carbon steel to the structural material limitations and getting professional quality shaves.

I believe most home shavers of the past were satisfied with functional medeocrity. The masses of functional honers were good targets for addiction to a new controled substance, disposable razors.

The demise of the razor however was a propoganda campaigne financed by the Gillete Brothers and master minded by the skills of Madison Avenue advertising. People were told what to think, and so they did what people always do... they stopped thinking and bought into the hype.

I feel very sorry for a man who has never experienced what a good shave really feels like, and I am sure that many souls of the past that had razors that pulled and tugged and dreaded their shave routine.

This society values convenience/cheap (although those replacement cartridges will cost you) over quality, thanks in no small part to massive advertising.

People are pretty much brought up to believe that taking the time to learn to do something for themselves really well is a bad thing--far better to just buy something cheaply made instead & let it "do it for you". Sad, but I don't see much changing, @ least for the majority of people. As TheBigSpendur says, the new way becomes your reality if you haven't been exposed to better.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I started thinking of the difference in edge comfort from when I started 30 years ago and used a Pure White Arkansas stone once a week to up keep my edges, I never even knew the term bevel set let alone what it really meant...

Must be Yin & Yang G man ~ I used a Black Hard Arkansas & it was just dumb luck if I got it right.
I learnt to shave off the hone as my stropping left something to be desired
Not many pleasurable shaving moments in my memory from back then.

On a tangent I bet the Japanese always got good shaves. Their razor design has never changed & the same kind of hones were in use from at least the 12th C
Mind you I'm pretty sure some form of disposable blade tool was issued to troops in 20th C war time.

I think in the western world when straights were the only game in town you either learnt how or suffered. When DE's began to be marketed, well, you didn't hafta learn how any more.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

That was my question, we now say "at the price of luxury" -BUT- was it ???

I say no. Not in the slightest, and I'll tell you why.

When Gillete started up his thing, not everyone switched. The people who were just trying to get the scruff off their face before work never cared, switched right away, and never missed it because as you suggest, they probably just did the bare minimum.

At the other end of the spectrum, you had the dandy-set. (I know, nobody here likes the term.....) Anyway, they enjoyed the pleasure of a fine shave. They probably had a good barber that they took their razors to for anything more than a touch-up. They almost certainly had a good hone for touch ups at home and knew how to use it. Do you really think they bought in to the safety razor?

Then of course you've got all the people who simply started with a safety. They didn't lose or miss anything because they didn't know what they were missing.