Thread: Then and Now

I'd make an analogy with film photography: until the late 1990s, film was the standard tool that everybody used for their pictures. With digital taking over the photographic world, the basic standard of quality is much easier to attain, and people think you're a weirdo if you're "still" using film.

Film, as a medium, requires some work to get a picture out of it, and many people scraped by with disposable or cheap cameras using inexpensive amateur film that was badly stored, and shoddily developed in seldom maintained chemistry, with the result that most of these pictures are now fading away.

But we must remember that film-less photography existed beyond the laboratory since the 1980s, and was then called "video still cameras". The technology was still analog (like a VCR), and never caught up until 1) the CCD image was digitized in-camera and 2) the internet was sufficiently widespread to allow image sharing.

So today, the people like me who are using film treat themselves to now-inexpensive professional cameras, and spend lavishly on using the best films available, and work hard to create pictures we're proud of. The days of approximately gauging exposure, slapping prints in and out of developer directly into the fix with minimal rinse are over, since we do not use film to merely get the picture anymore. We use film as an artistic medium, and so we try to achieve the best possible quality. If we need a picture quickly, there's always digital (this is not to say that there aren't superlative fine digital printers, but just to explain the logic behind those who go the extra mile to use film today).

We tend to think of technology evolving in a strictly linear fashion: newest is the best, and that's the same for all sorts of other aspects of life. Remember when Juicy Fruit advertised itself as the gum with a "fascinating artificial flavor" ? Artificial flavours came later, thus would be better!

I think there are 3 important factors at play here:

First, there is the convenience. There is no doubt that DE's are easier to maintain and you can get a nice shave in little time (or so I've heard from qualified sources). Straights were not public domain, a few would have them but most would go to the barber. In a manner of speaking, DE's were the first successful DIY product that worked fine. Certainly convenient, and time and money saved to top it off.
Second, there is the clever marketing, specifically the successful labelling of the new DE's as "safety razors", implying that the straight razor was unsafe and might even slice your jugular/nose/something. Extreme sports were not invented at the time, and most people didn't want a "life or death" session in the bathroom.
Third, there is the strive to "get in on the new thing". Even more so back then than these days it was an "out with the old, in with the new" wind sweeping through western societies, making it unthinkable to hang on to old stuff as new and (supposedly) better products became available.
I propose that the comfort of the shave was not any better at all. On the contrary. Remember, there was a single blade in the DE's at the time, and blade technology was in it's early days. Straight razors had been around for a very long time already, and we know they were high quality. They were just not so easy for the layman to use and maintain.

You guys need to get off it. You have your fancy shave prep routine and products and fancy hones and other accoutrement's and the constant push to get the ultimate in skill, products, whatever and you think 100 years ago why those guys not having our advantages couldn't possible have gotten great shaves. All it really shows is ignorance of history and fact.

Guys got plenty great shaves with minimum work cause that's all it really took or takes then and now. Also having a razor professionally honed was easy and quick and cheap. Only up to a few years ago and I mean like ten or less guys mostly used the Norton 4-8 combo and maybe one finisher and it worked just fine.

The DE sold because of the convenience. It's the same as how many cars are sold in this day and age with a manual tranny or no A/C or no Power Steering.
Advertising played a vital role and like everything else the young initially flocked to the DE as the modern way exactly the same as when wrist watches came out folks stopped using pocket watches. The pattern is the same.

You can't look at old razors and make assumptions based on their condition at present. Razor's were made by the bazillions and the ones we see are just a fraction of what was produced and who knows how these have been lying around and used as whatever in a house for years. It's no different than looking at a display of beat up old pocket watches from 1910 and saying these things were poorly cared for and junky.

I agree TBS.

I have a pocket watch kind of like that. The gold has worn to brass, the dial is cracked and chipped and it has three different hands. But it runs strong and accurate. Reminds me, I need to have it serviced.

Some may see it as abused, I see it as well loved.

PZ93, I have an old Illinois key wind from about 1876, a big heavy sucker plated with lots of silver, these old watches rock!

From where i live, straight razors were maybe the most common way to shave up until WW2 or so (and for most it was also the only way to shave). Of course there were DE's before but they were sort of luxury that were used only by few better folks. It was the same with barbers; they were very totally unknown in the countryside and rare even in cities. Something that were used only by those few who had way too much money. The war changed it all. DE's become common just before or during the war. You don't use straight razor in trenches. You have something else to worry about.

Standards for shaving quality were much lower back then. For most shaving was just something that had to be done every now and then. Something like brushing your teeth. I think they had never heard or thought about getting BBS. Shaving was just something not to waste a second thought.
But people of those past days weren't stupid. They knew how to make things done. They maybe had methods and ways to use different materials for honing their knives and tools and razors to make them sharp enough. Methods and ways and tools we have forgotten long ago. With materials you didn't necessary had to buy but something you had at hand in most countryside household. Most people really didn't have extra money back then so probably they just used what they had.

Back in the late sixties when i was a size of a fire foam extinguisher i lived in a small country town with my grandparents. Back at those days there were still people who lived voluntarily at forests, away from civilization,on some deserted cabins. Almost all were veterans and most were winos. They were known as 'Horizon painters' for some reason. My grandfather had a truck & agricultural machine repair shop. He knew some of those men (some had been his companions in arms during WW2) so he gave them short jobs every now and then as some of those men were still really handy with repairs & tools. I remember he told me once that he had seen some of those men 'shaving' (=getting rid of their facial hair) with a piece of a broken glass. Obviously no BBS. I also remember that shaving that way was not a mystery or big thing to my grandfather but rather the fact that those men didn't even want to spend their money on cheap DE's. It was the poverty or their hard life that made him wonder and sad.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

PZ93, I have an old Illinois key wind from about 1876, a big heavy sucker plated with lots of silver, these old watches rock!

There was a time in this country when a pocket watch and a horse were the most valued things the average person owned.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There was a time in this country when a pocket watch and a horse were the most valued things the average person owned.

I would throw in a decent firearm into the mix, for snakes and such.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Only up to a few years ago and I mean like ten or less guys mostly used the Norton 4-8 combo and maybe one finisher and it worked just fine.

A few years ago? At my house it was 1/2 hour ago.

You'll have to excuse me for not reading the whole thread... but

Back in the day they had access to all the vintage hones we now use. Coticules, Eschers, CF's, etc. There were also pastes, though maybe not the same as today; I don't have the paste info, but I know QuickNicker has looked into it quite a bit. Just because you (Glen) used an arkie doesn't mean everyone did. And that wasn't in the hayday of straights anyway. Actually, I'd assume straights were werese 30 years ago than now and back in the day; a dark age of straights, if you will.

With regards to the condition of ebay razors - well, there was a lot of time for those things to be abused.

Who's to say the edges now are any better than they were back then. I for one assume they were just as good then as they are now, assuming they were properly honed (and there is lots of improper honing going on today, just as I assume there was back in the day).