Thread: Asheville NC meetup ; April 26-27th

Originally Posted by rickboone

Okay, this is my article. Use it or not...

Sometimes people question why have a meet up. With so much information online, what's the purpose? To some, a meet up is just joining for drinks with a few members of a forum and looking at razor collections...



With so much information available online can you really benefit anything in person? Truth of the matter is you can.

Not only do you build lasting friendships not just relationships with people you build true and lasting friendships.
People that you talk to on a regular basis people that you have empathy for and share things with, true friends.
It may sound odd to have people that come together that share a common interest something as silly as shaving or sharpening. It's not any real hi tech stuff there, no fancy cars or anything. Just shaving.


The more odd thing is you have people from all walks of life; you have truck drivers mingling with doctors and scientist and chefs and soldiers. There is no social class in the razor world. We are all shavers. Blue collar white collar go out the window we United as one Brotherhood.

Several have commented they learned more in a day or two in person than they had a year or more on the forums. There's so much truth in that statement.

About two years ago I attended my first meet up in Atlanta Georgia. Lynn Abrams was there Joe Chandler and Simon and sic boater. Of course others, these were just some well known SRP folks there at the time. It was here Moose became known too
Up until this point I have been trying to learn how to properly hone a razor. I had gotten decent results but none of which I was real happy with. Some other seemed to have enjoyed the edges I was putting on, maybe they were just being nice? Personally I did not. And, being my face, I had to like the shave. I had read and read and studied and studied about setting that bevel. The bevel is set when you can cut arm hair or when it feels a certain way on your thumb or finger nails. All these different tests yet for me it was really hard for me to interpret what does it truly mean and how do I really know? That was until I saw it for myself in person.
I believe it was Joe Chandler that helped me get a bevel set on a razor and said this is how supposed to feel. He handed it to me and it made a world of difference. I was nowhere close in my previous attempts.
He also spent some time with me that day to help me look through a microscope and realize what I was up against. I was trying to remove a double or triple bevel.
So yes in person really does make a difference If you ever get a chance to get with other straight razor users or wet shavers, do it. It doesn't matter if they don't have the skill set that some others have, they know more than you think and so do you. When two people come together with similar interests, great things can happen and doesn't matter if you have been doing it one month or 10 years. You come together and start brainstorming you come up with ideas and techniques and figure things out.


Fast forward to October 2013. I had a meet up in my neck of the woods. There hasn't been anything in the southeast in quite a while so I tried to get some people together. It was a relatively small turnout, less than 10 people I presume. I worked diligently at getting Lynn to come he just never fit into his schedule.
Well at that meet up I met some great folks, Kevin and Chris along with several others. Kevin and Chris and I had remained in contact quite a while. Kevin took some things he learned at the meet up in October then he went down to the Midwest visiting with Randy and Ron and also visited with Lynn, picking up on even more knowledge. But it was not so much the knowledge he picked up on it was the relationships he built while he was there.


Earlier this year I got a message on SRP from a gentleman that just transferred through the army to Columbia from Washington State. Glenn had actually sent him over to me. The message read something along the lines of Glen said you just had a meet up and do you know if there will be another one anytime soon I hate that I missed it blah blah blah. I told the gentleman he did indeed miss it but I would be glad to meet with him, and for past couple of months I've met with him at least once a week trying to impart any little bit of knowledge that I have to help him along.


At the October meet up Kevin had made a comment that he had a place in Asheville that we could possibly do a meet. With that little bit of knowledge I called Kevin up and says remember what you told me? Let's do it! But, we have one catch! I've got a soldier here that's only going to be here until May so therefore whatever we do we need to do it quickly. Kevin said let me make some phone calls and I'll get back to you. Couple days later he calls me up and says we can do it on this date. Then he and I had contacted Lynn and he was able to come as well.
Kevin also relied upon the relationship he had built in the Midwest contacted Randy and Ron and had them coming in as well. Before you know it, it spread like wildfire. It was tremendously awesome to be bringing this many different personalities and ideas together.

The planning stage is never an easy task but we managed. I would not have done it any other way. Kevin kind of took the reins on building in assembling a team. Heck getting prizes quickly turned into a full time job. However at any time I could have called anyone of them or emailed anyone and got something taken care of without issue. What I like about these guys is not only are they willing to help but they're brutally honest with you and will tell you your idea sucks it's not going to work. But they also offer some alternative suggestions. I have that to say that we all have the same goal in mind, that is to further the support and educate as many people as we can about wet shaving. As Lynn says, further the sport... It doesn't matter to which group you belong. We are here to share the joy of shaving.



Going back to what I said earlier about my first meet up and what I learned in person, at this meet up I got to talking with Tom, or Java. He was quite new to honing. Actually had never honed on his own. Was just keeping his razor edge up with a balsa strop.
While he claimed to be quite satisfied with the results and doing rather well with using just that, he was ready for something different.
We talked about various touch up stones finishing stones that he could use to maintain his edges. Before he left I gave him a set of lapping film. Said you could use this to hone up a razor keep it refreshed what have you and I was showing him how to use it.

Sitting beside us was a complete set of Shaptons that the Shapton company had company had brought in. (God I want a full set of Shaptons now). I encouraged Tom to jump on those stones and to practice, that way when he got home and needed to use his film he would have some background knowledge, rather than just trying to rely on what he saw and heard.Tom begins honing as he has Richard or stropper, and myself observing. Richard can observe things that I miss. Ron walks up and notices a couple of other things. Ron asks do you mind if I interject which we replied not at al,l please do. That's the beauty of these Meetups. Tom had 3 people observing what he was doing and selflessly giving him tips and advice that he would not have picked up anywhere else. As he was doing this they were easily and quickly able to spot what may have been some potentially bad habits and correct it right away. So now with Tom goes home and practices on his film or whatever medium he gets to hone his razors, he's armed with much more knowledge then a person that's been reading the forms for 3 years. He's way ahead of the game. And truthfully if Tom was the only person that we helped or that got anything from the meet up, the entire thing was worth it to me.

That is what this is all about to me. Just passing it along. In any way. We all have a talent that we can pass along to the next person. Spread the word.

Thank you all for coming and supporting this event. Thank you for the comments and feedback provided. You all are special to me and I appreciate all of you.

Long story short,you did good.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Long story short,you did good.

Ha, it was a long story. But, it wasn't me. I made a phone call. Offered ideas and collected prizes. I appreciate it but there's so many others that deserve credit for getting this thing going. Thank you.

Is the number thing for the scuttle? My ticket number at the convention ended in 13, so I will go with that.

I need to change my number to 6, since 13 is taken.

Originally Posted by lindyhop66

Is the number thing for the scuttle? My ticket number at the convention ended in 13, so I will go with that.

It is a custom lathering bowl, you'll choose one that's pictured, but yes.

Who got one of SRD's new natural strop? That thing is gorgeous. Want!

Originally Posted by lindyhop66

Is the number thing for the scuttle? My ticket number at the convention ended in 13, so I will go with that.

I need to change my number to 6, since 13 is taken.

Sounds good.

If two people choose the same number, prettiest person wins.

That or time stamp. Or I'll have my son do his meenie meenie moe catch tiger by a toe.

Originally Posted by rickboone

Who got one of SRD's new natural strop? That thing is gorgeous. Want!

I won an SRD strop and couldn't decide the type leather. Maybe it's the natural. Joe Neer (nipper) won a strop as well.

I've been stropping with nothing else since.

Originally Posted by rickboone

Sounds good.

If two people choose the same number, prettiest person wins.

Then I guess lindyhop66 can pick 13 to and know if that # hits I will get an honorable mention

I'll pick 21 even though I've never been to Vegas.

As best as I can estimate, this was my 15th shaving meet-up. I will remember it as one of my favorites. Many people have already been named and thanked and they deserve every bit of recognition they have received. It took a lot of work to pull this off and I consider the entire event to have been a huge success. I am very grateful for the effort they put into it.

Honestly, I'm at a loss for anything new to write after reading all of the other comments about the meet-up. I started out writing a list of reasons that the meet-up was a success but they were all pretty obvious. Basically I can narrow it down to we had fun, we met new people, we learned new things, we played with toys, we left with free stuff, and nobody died. Success.

It's rather difficult to explain one of these meet-ups to the uninitiated masses who suffer with modern razors. When I tell people I'm going to one of these gatherings, I usually describe them as being like Comic Con, but with sharp things, rocks, and old guys. I understand the puzzlement on their faces.
"Wait, you're going to sit around and talk about shaving?"
When I first heard of wet-shaving as a hobby, I thought it was absurd.
"How about brushing my teeth or washing my face? Can I make those into a hobby too?"

Whether you call it a hobby, or a sport (like Lynn does!), or a simple necessity, wet-shaving is greatly improved when you learn more about it and these meet-ups are great for that. Honing seems to be the most challenging part of using straight razors so beginners tend gravitate to it at meet-ups. It's easy to get carried away with that but the organizers of this event made sure to include other essential aspects of straight shaving as well. There was ample opportunity for everyone to follow their own interests and that's why the videos and photos show people spread out around the room.

Simply put, I truly enjoy attending these meet-ups and highly recommend everyone try to attend at least one. Next year's Asheville meet-up will be even better than this one!