Thread: What Was Your Inspiration To Straight Shave?

A friend of mine told me he had gotten a straight razor kit from his parents for his birthday. I carried the idea around for years, as I thought it too expensive at first. When I discovered the existence of the shavette, I pulled the trigger and got myself a basic kit. Several months later, I pulled another few triggers on a strop, coticule and ERN The Crown & Sword Razor (which is still one of my favourites). After that, it went downhill with my bank account.

I hated being at the mercy of King Gilette and I had dreams of actually saving money (hahahaha good one). I also thought it was very nostalgic and a man can never have too many hobbies. Besides, I LOVE knives and weapons and have a collection so I thought straight razors would be fun and practicle since I can use them every day. Never once have I regretted anything About this hobby. Very fun and useful.

My inspiration to start using a straight was to just do things old school. There are just certain things and attitudes that should never change and shaving, IMO is one of them. No fancy, fruffy, 18 blade gadget is ever gonna give as good a shave as 1 finely crafted blade

Because I don't know how to sharpen cartridges.

It's just plain cool. I think I saw Lee Marvin in some old movie straight shaving.

Originally Posted by Phrank

I got into it when I saw a video on LiveLeak, was called, "The Manliest Shave", and it got me thinking, next thing you know, I ordered a starter kit from The Classic Edge, lurked here for about 5 months before posting, and the rest is history. Turns out the gentlman in the video, Willi, is/was a member here. So after a year and a bit, which I worked out the other day, that I am still probably between 150 and 200 shaves, which makes me a novice at best. Either way, my skill level and experience are nowhere near Willi, who makes it all look so simple.

My inspiration:

That right there is off the chain. He's done a 2 pass shave in the time it takes me to lather. Oh and he'd stropped too

After 20 odd years of shaving with a a cartridge got to the stage of it being a mundane choir and got to only being practiced 1 a week or so.
Then my nephew bought home a shavette to try (no idea yet why he chose to try it) so I hit him up for a play early this year, found I really liked it and made the choice to peruse this way of live, so started the search for a blade & bits found SRP early luckily and have never looked back, no longer a choir (even with shaving every 2nd day) but a way of life, SWMBO is happy with the regular clean shave again & I look forward to shaving again.
& it comes with a whole other hobby side of searching, restoring, making blades etc not to mention all the other fine details of this life choice.
So thanks to all who I put to make this site so great

Originally Posted by DaveTheGeordie

That right there is off the chain. He's done a 2 pass shave in the time it takes me to lather. Oh and he'd stropped too

When I first saw the title, The Manliest Shave Ever, I was thinking to myself, "he's not going to shave with that huge kitchen knife hanging on the wall is he!?!"

And it all started for me with that video, crazy eh? Guy takes off a full beard, no pre-shave, no post shave, nothing fancy, no conferences on angles etc....just get's the job done!!

If you do a search, at first a lot of members here thought the video was sped up, he came on and said it was real time...

Originally Posted by Phrank

When I first saw the title, The Manliest Shave Ever, I was thinking to myself, "he's not going to shave with that huge kitchen knife hanging on the wall is he!?!"

And it all started for me with that video, crazy eh? Guy takes off a full beard, no pre-shave, no post shave, nothing fancy, no conferences on angles etc....just get's the job done!!

If you do a search, at first a lot of members here thought the video was sped up, he came on and said it was real time...

Even my wife was watching and she has lost all interest in shaving. She laughed when I told her how long it takes me.

How fast did he do his neck? Nuts!

Originally Posted by DaveTheGeordie

That right there is off the chain. He's done a 2 pass shave in the time it takes me to lather. Oh and he'd stropped too

I think that he spent to much time lathering!