How many razor do you own ?

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Originally Posted by Badgister

I used to have over 50 razors, now I am down to 10 and who knows, eventually maybe less. Mostly vintage full hollow Solingen razors, which is what I like most.

You will quickly discover that certain razor brands will get a lot of praise on the internet forums. Which brand, model etc.. will fluctuate over the years. Many neophytes are drawn to such hype and will blindly fork out cash for such razors thinking they may have magical shaving properties or simply.. pour épater la galerie.

If you want to be sensible with your money, avoid the hype. There are plenty of beautiful and affordable razors out there that will shave as well if not better than the razor du jour.

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That's what I'm guessing that even the low end razor should do a pretty good job if they are cared properly.

But I heard about the razor Gold Dollar, do these fit in your category "beautiful and affordable" razors ? Or these ones are an exception ? ;)

And Badgister, do you know a place cheap around Montreal to get new Straight Razors ? If I ever decide to get a second one. One for shaving and one to practice honing/stropping.

Do not confuse products like the Gold Dollar with a quality razor. There are many vintage German/British/Swedish SRs that do not have the name cache of some of their brethren that shave just as well. There are a lot of crap razor shaped objects, RSOs, on the market trying to cash in on the wet shaving rise in popularity.

If you are buying new get a recognized quality brand razor from a reputable retailer that supplies them shave ready to try and avoid the low cost pretty looking junk out there. By buying a less costly model in a line you are not compromising blade quality you are just not getting nor paying for embellishments that do nothing for the actual shave although they do dress up the razor.

Bob

4 - Dovo, Ralph Aust bought new and 2 I reconditioned and rescaled (Torrey, and Stoddard).

Adam

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Originally Posted by ericr999

That's what I'm guessing that even the low end razor should do a pretty good job if they are cared properly.

But I heard about the razor Gold Dollar, do these fit in your category "beautiful and affordable" razors ? Or these ones are an exception ? ;)

And Badgister, do you know a place cheap around Montreal to get new Straight Razors ? If I ever decide to get a second one. One for shaving and one to practice honing/stropping.

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Gold dollar razors do not fit that category I am afraid.

For new razors in Montreal there is Vasco and centre du rasoir. I believe they only sell Dovo razors and they are quite overpriced and never shave ready.

If you want my personal recommendation, I would highly recommend Ralf Aust straight razors, they are well priced and always come shave-ready from the maker. I ordered one directly from Herr Aust, and I was lucky not get killed with import fees and shipping was very reasonable.

What a great question. I wish I knew how many I have. A pure guess is about 100 total. 50 shave ready and 50 not shave ready. I keep about 25-30 in daily rotation, but haven't bothered to count exactly how many. It would be a good exercise for me some day.

Seven in my weekly rotation and four in my travel rotation. Then there are a number of razors that I have to fix and sell.

I love these threads!

I am on the low end I think. I have 21 regularly used straights, 12 not so used DE razors. I have sold or given away close to 70 razors.

Wow... okay a lot of people do have a lot of razors! Wow man! How do we end up buying so many razors ? (Because I think I'll probably eventually end up having at least a few...)

For the look, trying a new blade, new shape, for fun ?

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Originally Posted by ericr999

How do we end up buying so many razors?

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Peer group pressure and bad examples.

1. We tell beginners to "branch out", and "experiment" at a stage in their learning process where they ought to be learning how to strop and shave with one razor, and properly. Thus, we are making it unnecessarily hard for beginners to master the, admittedly steep, learning curve.
2. Since they will inevitably encounter problems at that stage, they will think that the razor is at fault. It isn't. But they will buy more razors.
3. When they think they're doing OK, we tell them that their razor is good, but hyped razor du jour is better.
4. We claim bragging rights, but don't tell anyone that in order to "score" that one "holy grail" we had to spend hundreds of dollars on shoddily restored or otherwise defective razors.
5. We keep buying new razors in the hope that somewhere out there, there actually is a holy grail. There isn't.

It really is that simple.

I have 13 straights and 2 DEs. The DEs are both the same, one for the house and one for the travel kit, and I used them before I switched to straights. Most of my straights are either different widths, grinds, or tips, as I bought a variety over time to see what worked best for me. I pretty much use just one straight now, but will take one of the others for a spin now and again if I want to mix things up. The only thing I really rotate are soaps/creams and their complementary balms/splashes, as I don't like to use the same scent every day. But even so, I don't have enough to use a different scent each day of the week; I have about 5 combinations to choose from.