Have you ever wondered why humongous beards were a lot more prevalent back in the day?

Certainly we push the envelope in terms of minutiae and pedantry, but that is surely our prerogative. Let's face it, when it really comes down to it shaving is a mundane, repetitive, and ceaseless task - why not spice it up and make it interesting as we do? It doesn't hurt anyone, and in fact it progresses and enhances the knowledge and techniques of shaving in general and, in our case, straight razors in particular. And this has clearly struck a chord with a lot of people when you consider the membership numbers of the various shaving forums.

And so while I take your point, we should remember that times move on and it is incumbent upon us to move on with them. Keep the good bits (straight razors), throw away the bad (walking 5 miles to the well and back to get water) and embrace the contemporary (synthetic hones). You can conserve everything in a little time bubble, but if everyone did that how would we ever progress?

So I for one am very pleased we are part of a progressive movement here.

James.