Thread: Extended travel shaving kit

Gentlemen,
I'm taking an extended trip (3-4 months) and wanted some ideas for a shaving kit. My normal travel kit is a puck of soap, a Best Badger brush, my travel straight (Outback Beater), newspaper for a strop and witch hazel. However, I'm going to be living out of panniers and doing mostly camping and some hotels. I just don't see how I can maintain a straight that long on newspaper. I've not used a DE before but my thinking is that may be the way to go. I just would hate to go back to cartridges. I would probably not take my little best badger and pick up a synthetic brush for the trip.
If I was to take a straight would you think a barbers hone would suffice for touching up? I've not used one before.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks!

Sounds like you are planning an extended bike trip. If you are flying to where you want to go and taking only a minimum of stuff with you without checking any baggage, you may not have a choice about using a straight razor. If you are travelling with only carry ons, you can pack an empty DE and buy blades when you land.

If you are not flying and it’s allowed, I suggest a coticule that can take a blade from bevel set to finish and a travel strop. You can find coticules that are quite compact and can be rolled up inside a towel and fit nicely into a pannier.

You could bring some paste and use that on newspaper if your edge ends up needing a touch up.

Flying and checking your bag, a decent finish hone or barber hone would work fine. As long as you know how to hone.

Carry-on take a DE and buy blades when you get to where your going. OR, if you know where your going you couple ship 2 or 3 razors to the location and they will be there before you or shortly after. That long of a stay id have to pack up most everything i own. Ok, maybe not, but i couldnt do it wth a carry-on bag.

Not going to be on a plane so I have some flexibility. It is a bike trip starting at San Francisco Bay and ending in Yorktown, VA. I like the newspaper and paste idea (have both!); pretty simple and won't take up any room in the panniers. If the edge gets too rough I can always have the wife mail me a backup along the way. Seems doable.
Thanks for the suggestions!

A two sided barber hone would maybe fit the bill but If you are worried about size and weight I am sure you could come up with a list of members across this great land to borrow a hone from if needed.

If you come as far north as Mn and need a touch up let me know!

There you go. Make your trip to include stopping by a few members homes. Bet you would not have any worrys than. Now if i knew what a pannier was. Ha. That might have helped.

I have an old weck sextoblade that travels very well. It uses the longer blades and shaves close to a straight. If you get the vintage blades they are strop-able and you can maintain them for a bit. Modern blades are chemically sharpened or coated to give them an edge and neither will strop, those ones you just do your two or three shaves and then give them a toss. There are the feather systems as well. Options!

#ShavesAcrossAmerica#. Maybe that should be my Instagram handle!

I have an Exide barber hone, which is two sided and quite small. The fine side is pretty fine for a barber hone. I don't remember exactly, but I think it's around 4"x2", maybe smaller - great travel-sized hone.

I would be happy to lend it to you for your trip, as I never use it - I just keep it for the day that I take a similar length trip (it won't be anytime soon). I'd hate for you to have to go 4 months without an SR shave!