Where am I now............
Several years ago about 45 (1961) to be approx. I used to shave with a DE Adjustable. While in the Navy I bought some lime scented shaving cream which made my face break out with a very bad rash. I had to go to an electric razor. I used this until around 1972 when I decided to grow a beard. I would shave around the edges every two or three days with a Mach II. I had the beard until 2002 when I started to use an electric razor again. The reason I shaved off the beard was because it was getting so white it looked hideous with my gray hair. I actually did not like shaving and especially did not like shaving with the electric. Last September 2005 I bought a DE Adjustable just like I used way back when. I also bought a mug and a regular badger brush and some Williams shaving soap. Using this was really cool. I started surfing the web for razor stuff and joined both SRP sites. I had also thought that straight razor shaving was cool because I used to watch the barbers do this when I was very young. So reseached this straight razor thing. I went to my barber and talked to him about it and loaned me a razor to use. It felt sharp but it turns out that it wouldn't cut any whiskers. I returned it and he said to go to Tulsa Barbers Supply in Tulsa, Oklahoma and buy some stuff. So went there and bought a Mehaz razor an Illinois 361 strop and a Super Funjab hone. When I go home I tried the razor and it also would not shave to well. I honed it and stropped it which helped quite a bit but it still would not shave to well. I thought if I am going to do this I am going to do it right so I bought a Thiers-Issard Sheffield Silver Steel with Red Stamina Scales. This was a very nice razor and it shaved right from the box. Well I was hooked. So after researching some more by reading a lot of stuff from the SRP.com site I ordered both Norton stones the 220/1000 and the 4000/8000. This made honing a lot nicer plus I had determined that this honing thing had a large learning curve. After buying all of this I then started surfing eBay for razors and started buying razors off eBay. I started buying some pretty nice and decided to start to collect them. I now have 75 razors of which some of them are pretty nice.
I also have several different shaving soaps of which I rotate every day. I have three shaving brushes one is the regular badger another is a small silver tip badger and the last one is a Vulfix Silver Tipped Badger which is really soft.
I guess that I am really hooked because I really love this hobby or whatever you call it.
Bill Watkins