Thread: if you had to do it all over again...

I did the first forty years without benefit of the internet forums. I could put a shaveable edge on a razor but it was nothing to write home about. Then I found SRP and all of a sudden things started add up one revelation at a time. Thanks to Lynn's and Glen's videos, all the many informative threads and a couple hundred emails from Sham while he fine-tuned my game.

Would I want to do it over again NO. I just want to enjoy the beautiful edges I am getting now.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

if you had to do it all over again... I might just be the Dalai Lama of shaving .

Shoot, Oz! I Always thought you WERE the Dali Lama of shaving!

With fifteen years of straight razor use I have enjoyed all the steps, good or not. I would have started more than two decades earlier had I known...

Gentlemen,

If I were to do it all over again, I would start much sooner in life, and I would be more selective choosing my early razors, brushes and soaps. But then, like life, the world of traditional shaving is a journey with beginning, middle and, wishfully, no end.

I have a small treasure of razors and traditional shaving paraphernalia now, but that pales compared to what I have in knowledge and skill.

Mathew Arnold said: "Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming." I hold to that with everything in my life, including the straight razor world.

Originally Posted by Obie

Mathew Arnold said: "Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming." I hold to that with everything in my life, including the straight razor world.

My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." (a buddy of mine ate more than 40 pieces of Ferrero-Rocher candies the other day, and all he got was a tummy ache -- come to think of it, that was a "stupid is, as stupid does" moment, dontcha think?)

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Shoot, Oz! I Always thought you WERE the Dali Lama of shaving!

Nope. I'm just the great & powerful Oz.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Would never have bought any hones,let the pros do the deed,would have bought 4 kgs of P160 before they quit making it.
would have bought more Palmaras back in the day.

Here you go:

P160 Shave Soap 1kg Tipo Morbido

In all honesty I wouldn't change a thing. I started out with good gear and the learning curve was fairly easy so no regrets.

OTOH, if asked the "if I knew then what I know now" question I would have bought all the razors I still want (Le Grelot, Filarmonica, W&B, among others) when they were actually cheap. And when I still had a good amount of disposable income lol

When I started I bought and bought and bought sooo much stuff. I rationalized that I could clean and refurbish a lot and sell some. To date, I have sold 2 razors, 2 paddle strops , and 1 brush. I would have concentrated on more desirable unique vintage razors I have a lot, but I also have a lot of beaters that are still functional but not as much of a treasure to me. I would have bought less natural stones. Every time I read about a new natural stone I had to have 1 or 10 of them. I would be perfectly happy to have 20 or 30 primo razors in my rotation with 2 or3 strops and 5 to 10 hones. Instead I have so many razors that if I live to be 200 I probably won't be able to do justice to all of them.

i would have straight away bought the de-pews i shave with now.