Thread: Ever Too Many?

Before your obsessed pathology gets the better of you and I get a knee-jerk "You can never have too many...," I'd like an honest opinion if there is a limit of how many items one should have in shaving gear.

For instance, I now have four shaving brushes and only use two of them often, one infrequently, and the other nearly never.

I have perhaps nine straights, plus another two or three that still need enough work that I don't consider "owning" them yet.

I possess about ten soaps and another four creams.

I have been able to justify most of my acquisitions by saying that I am still experimenting, wetshaving for under a year and straightshaving for about half that. Different types of badger hair or knot size; different width or grind or origination of blade; different scents, milled v. soft, vegetal v. tallow of soap, etc.

But I also notice that where I tend to be a minimalist in other facets of life (one wife, no girlfriend) I start to either feel guilty about buying yet another material item or suspect I am not able to fully appreciate the items I do have, using a soap once weekly at the most, for instance. I can fully afford what I bought and more without blinking an eye, it is just the excess that gets me. (Of course, didn't stop my purchase this weekend from both Billy and BonSavon.)

Since this is cheaper than psychotherapy, I will leave further comments to the peanut gallery. Of course, I count on others supporting my RAD/SCAD, as those with any restraint stopped tuning into SRP/B&B/SMF a long time ago.

Thanks,
Paul

Hmmm...interesting dilema considering your user ID. I will give you a simple answer, no. Although all you really need is one of each, razor, strop, hone, aftershave, mug and soap... get as much as your heart desires. Life is short, the art is long, and there is so damn much stuff to try...


Scott (sitting in the peanut gallery waiting for Clarabelle)

Paul,
I hear, I sympathize, I don't think I know of anyone that has fully completed a 12-step program for any of the shaving related addictions.

That said, I am a recovering acquirer. When I started, in short order I ended up with half a dozen brushes...fortunately, I found my perfect brush (a Chubby 2 in best) sold the rest--with the exception of my T&H turnback travel brush--and am quite happy with a single brush.

I bought dozens of creams...kept telling myself there was so much to try and kept promising myself that I was not going to get another until I'd used up at least one. Unfortunately, great deals kept popping up...someone on B&B was having a garage sale, KMF was closing out a couple of scents for $1/tube, Charles Trywhitte closed out their cream for $4/tub, C&E changed their Almond formulation and closed out the remaining stock for $8/tub. It seemed that the madness would never end, but after calculating that I now own enough cream to last (easily) for the next 5 years...I haven't purchased any in about 8-months.

The real toughie...razors. They're great fun, they're all different, many brands are superlative shavers, and they're an art form. This ignors the fact that there are some great deals available on e-bay if you know what to look for and the countless hours of enjoyment bringing back a great vintage razor from the edge of extinction--oh the humanity!!! My solution was to purchase a set of 15 razors that came in a barbers box...this brought my collection up to a couple of hundred. However, all of my shave ready razors became part of my regular rotation and I decided that any shave ready razors that would not fit into my barbers box went up for sale. I have maintained this limit of 15 ever since and each time I find the time to restore a razor, it is either sold, or bumps another razor out of my current rotation and that razor is sold.

Sorry I can't offer a better solution, but so far it works for me.

Cheers,
Ed

Personally, I think you can have too much paraphenalia (soap, brushes, mugs, scuttles, creams, lotions, aftershave, cleansers, toners, moisturisers, etc, etc.). But that's just me. I buy what I need and use them - no experimentation, I'm just not interested in that sort of stuff. I'm the same with hones - bought a Norton 4/8k early on, it sharpens my razors, and I'm happy.

However, when it comes to razors and strops .... well, different story. So many razors, so much experimentation to do! Heavy or light? Wedge or hollow? Solingen or Sheffield? Stainless or Carbon? Old or new? Then there's sizes, and degree of hollowness. Not to mention scales: material, colour, inlays...

The limiting factor, in my humble experience, for any of this stuff is your "better half". Maybe you should ask your question of them?

James.

You most certainly have too much stuff. I advise you to send it to me. What are you waiting for? Start packing it up man! Chip Chop!

Paul,

I've asked myself this same question, mainly because I'm limiting myself to just one of the main hardware items, so far: One Dovo Straight, Shavemac 220 brush, Moss scuttle, Tony Miller Strop & Tony Miller Pasted Bench Hone. I do have a few creams & soaps, still trying different ones to see which I prefer...and, those will always get depleted.

I've limited my hardware while I learn to straight shave, figuring that if I get too carried away with the stuff, I'll retard my ability to learn proper technique, etc. Now, I look at straights all the time..it's my nature to go overboard with hobbies, and I've been close to ordering some very fancy razors when I'm online at 11:00 pm!

There's a similar trend with many guys hobbies, as has been discussed on this site. I race road bicycles, have for the last twenty years, and went through a phase of buying bikes....which, with good bikes running $2,500-6,000+, makes shaving an activity where having a few extra doesn't seem so ridiculous. BTW, I still have six bikes, but all of them get used every year....that's my marker; if I go a year without riding a bike, it gets sold or donated to my team (http://www.pcwcycling.org/) for use with our junior development program.

I intend to use the same scheme for this hobby..as I collect more stuff, if it goes "X" long without being used (and doesn't have some sentimental or collector value), off it goes. The big question: how long is my X value?

Good Luck....

Bob