Thread: Straight Razor hobby reactions

I was working on my heat with a friend and mentioned my grinder I am building and he asked me why I was building a grinder. I told him for restoring razors and possibly grinding some down fresh too.

He gave me a blank stare and said "That's a thing?!" Ha it was so funny. Any one else had similar experiences or funny stories?

I do get some blank stares when I buy the washers, sheet and rod stock at hardware stores and they ask me why I need stuff that small and thin. Usually, once I explain what I'm using it for the guys are like" Awww man that's bad ass," the girls still give me that blank stare like I'm explaining how to build a blown 396 stroker small block from the ground up lol!

I tell the guys at work what I am up and they are still waiting for me to come in with half my face missing..

..........

most people i know just think im nuts for even using a straight razor .. the topic usually comes up when people see me and notice my bare cheeks , cause up till the straight razor kick im on most people have never saw me with bare skin on my face !!

My entire family and inlaws were all "supportively skeptical" when I started out....calling me a rennaisance man, etc. But it fit with the scotch, cigars and smoking jackets.

Lots of people have given me weird looks. However, things changed when I dedicated a whole shop to it, and then started being revenue neutral. Now all of a sudden, I was a bit of an entrepreneur. No one bats an eye anymore.....

Unless you say something about what you use to shave with in this country, no one finds out...or cares. If you do say something about your shaving habits or refer to it as a 'hobby', people start wondering if you've escaped from an asylum somewhere.
It is just shaving afterall. Nothing interesting about that. Some men do, some men don't. Some men neeeed a lotta lovin', and some men don't...Ok now where's the the number for that asylum again...


Mick

Originally Posted by Maxi

My entire family and inlaws were all "supportively skeptical" when I started out....calling me a rennaisance man, etc. But it fit with the scotch, cigars and smoking jackets.

Lots of people have given me weird looks. However, things changed when I dedicated a whole shop to it, and then started being revenue neutral. Now all of a sudden, I was a bit of an entrepreneur. No one bats an eye anymore.....

LOL this is exactly my story.

Originally Posted by ace

If it took me an hour to shave, I'd quit.

There is shaving and there is "shaving". As a teen my mom wondered what I was doing in the bathroom for so long...I was "shaving"

All kidding aside, if I find the rare opportunity to do so, I might soak in a tub then eventually shave, then clean up the area...if I'm really lazy and slow, it might take up to an hour?

Most think it is awesome. A couple of colleagues at work are given straight razors a try, for various reasons. Not because they are really 'into it' like I am, but because they have skin irritation from their cartridgs, or because it's much cheaper.

What also happens is that people are now asking me to sharpen their kitchen knives, and a couple of people have also asked me to forge them a kitchen knife. The fact that I forge knives puts me way up on the manliness scale with most people. I'm a systems engineer, but everybody knows 'computer people'. Being a skilled engineer is not the big badge of distinction it once was. But the ability to fire a forge and shape metal on an anvil is rather unique among the people I know.