Hello All!
My name is Rob and I am from Chelsea, Michigan, near Ann Arbor. I am a 50 year old father of three and husband to Judy (my wife of 29 years). My oldest lives on her own and my other two will be gone for the summer (my son at an internship at Honda in Indiana and my youngest daughter in a study abroad program in Berlin, Germany). So, my wife and I will be a couple again for the first time in 26 years. I have hobbies but I need something else to lessen the interaction (quality time) between my wife and me. <smile> I figure taking up the straight razor is the perfect new hobby (learning curve, getting to know the tools of the trade, etc.).
At present I shave with a Merkur Futur. I took up DE shaving a couple of years ago and figure that the next logical progression is taking up the straight razor. I have never used a straight razor but have shaved my face using a Benchmade knife while camping. So, at 50 I am a complete newbie to this and I am looking forward to it.
I have shaving soap, a good badger brush and a shaving soap cup. So, I'm set there. I am looking pretty hard at Boker and Dovo razors. From what I can tell, they seem to make decent lower priced/more entry level razors. Gold Dollar razors were recommended on another forum and an internet search on Gold Dollar brought me to a sticky from the forum administrators of this forum stating that they would not recommend them...not that I was really considering them very highly anyway. I don't know, Gold Dollar may be "okay" but the name just doesn't engender excellence in shaving like a German name does.
I am happy to have found this forum and I look forward to learning a lot!
Thanks,
Rob