Thread: Old timers, what have you seen change over the last ---- years?

As they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. I'm in agreement with Robin on that one. I can only speak about from when I joined, but I think that wasn't too long into the life of SRP.

Ducks were and still are popular. Pumas were the rage a while ago too. Big old wedges have always been favourites as well. In fact in my view very little has changed on the razor front with the exception of a marked increase in the number of (custom) makers. Back when I first joined there were very few, and most of them were in their early stages - Bill Ellis, Joe Chandler, Papabull, Maestro Livi come to mind.

Honing? Again, not much has changed. There is still some kind of mythical shroud that covers the honing world. When I first joined there was this weird thing going on where forum kudos was linked to (self-proclaimed) honing ability, and people were vying for the "honemeister" title. I think because Lynn was one, and people wanted to be like Lynn but am not sure. You'd see funny things like someone come along in their first post asking all these newb questions about honing, and then within 6 months would suddenly be the new honemeister on the block, setting up shop refusing to hone wedges or do resto honing because they were too hard... come to think on it, not much has changed there either!

Hones have changed IMO a lot. Very limited range in the synthetics back in "the day", or at least very limited knowledge of the useful ones for razors. There was a bit more knowledge around about the naturals - coticules and thuringians in particular were well-known, though recent years have shed much more light on the various kinds of coticules and their accompanying price-points. Back when I started a coti was a coti. Man were we (and our wallets) an ignorant bunch!

But now of course the synthetics are everywhere. Again, when I started it was all Norton 4/8. Everyone was setting bevels and doing resto honing on the 4K, maybe lower grits if you were lucky to find one. A lot of us were either shaving off the 8K side or the real fancy-pants went onto a pasted strop (CrOX mainly). Some of the lucky few had a (gasp!) $200 Escher thuri. Some really rare birds had these weird Japanese naturals that clearly would never take off as they were too fiddly to use and there was next to no information about them. And they were ridiculously priced.

Strops haven't changed too much either - the materials people use is probably about it. Let's face it, there's not a lot you can change with a strop besides the leather type.

Soaps and creams, and brushes and aftershaves etc? I never cared too much about the "software" side of things, so I never paid too much attention to the trends. But I do think they are mainly trends with good ones standing out and remaining constant over time. Castle Forbes is one that sticks in my memory. I'm sure Martin de Candre will be another.

So there you have it - a grumpy middle-aged man's view of the world of (forum) straight razors. Now git offer mah lawn!!!

James.

Originally Posted by Phrank

I'm almost two years in, and the one thing that hasn't changed for me is that it's still an awful lot of fun.

I've always loved history, and to be able to learn how to shave with a straight razor, to use tools that are 80-200 years old, to use fine soaps instead of expensive, crap canned goo, let alone not having to use those cartridge razors has been an extraordinary amount of fun, let alone how enjoyable being a member of this community is.

Prices and fads, like bell bottoms and disco balls come and go, and the prices change, but that's true with anything I guess...but for me, two years on, to still feel the same excitement every time I have a shave, the same level of interest to learn more, to see the work of the razor makers and highly skilled restorers, the SOTDs, to have that time as a relaxing moment to start the day, or have a break, well, I hope that part never changes.

Amen Phrank

For me in the 50 some odd yrs of shaving I have gone from the gellete safety razor to injector razors back to the gellete safety razor to electric razor to gellette safety razor to straight razor to through away cheap razors to the expensive through away razors to straights now. Oh and the one electric razor I had was a Remington rechargeable. I went about a week with out shaving one time and was late for a date . went home showered changed cloths and grabed the razor. started to shave driving down the road and the razor stuck on my face. choked down. I got rid of it and went back to the double edge gellete. (still can't spell)

Originally Posted by rhensley

For me in the 50 some odd yrs of shaving I have gone from the gellete safety razor to injector razors back to the gellete safety razor to electric razor to gellette safety razor to straight razor to through away cheap razors to the expensive through away razors to straights now. Oh and the one electric razor I had was a Remington rechargeable. I went about a week with out shaving one time and was late for a date . went home showered changed cloths and grabed the razor. started to shave driving down the road and the razor stuck on my face. choked down. I got rid of it and went back to the double edge gellete. (still can't spell)

Oh my, that just makes me cringe!!!

Originally Posted by 57vert

Oh my, that just makes me cringe!!!

If you think it makes you cringe think of me. I pulled over on a state high way and took the head of the razor apart and messed with enough to get off my face and out the window of the car. the girl I was dateing didn't appreciate me not shaving either.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Got a link ? Or are you talking about B&B ? Ain't no such animal on SRP AFAIK ........ not since they 'upgraded' to the classifieds. Archive lasts a few pages and is deleted/replaced.

Good catch. I didn't notice that had disappeared.

When I first got into this hobby, the options were pretty sparse. I don't recall any new production razor other than dovo really. On the yahoo group, I remember reading the comments of the more experienced members raving about vintage Pumas. I even translated a puma catalog from french to english for a forum member.

Information on the art and razors was difficult to obtain, and the supply of vintage razors was still quite limited. This website which I frequently consulted, was the only guide I could find at the time: RazorCentral - Alles über Rasiermesser

When youtube came to existence, Lynn's videos were extremely valuable, especially given the lack of mentorship in my area. I followed the advice at the time, and bought myself a norton 3k/8k, which could be bought from Lee Valley in Canada. I do recall one video in which he displayed his affinity for the dubl duck wonderedge, and as you can imagine, the ducklings followed.

Cleaver sized blades have always been popular to various degrees, be it 8/8 filarmonicas, W&B etc..

Other razors "du jour" came and left of course. One example is the Le Grelot 1/4 hollow fad, pushed by an individual on another shaving forum who seemed to espouse the highly subjective and completely unreliable practice of "reviewing" razors.

So what has changed? I will focus my attention on one particularly troublesome phenomena, to me at least. The proliferation of shaving vlogs on youtube and other social media platforms, or what I like to call "shaving exhibitionism". This has led to higher percentage of valueless content, "artisan" shave soap shilling, and bad advice from self-proclaimed experts. The life-cycle of your typical wet tubing butterfly, consists generally of the following phases:

1) Egg: Actively watching youtube videos before purchasing their first gold dollar razor.
2) Caterpillar: An enthusiastic but very slow display of a new shaving skill.
2) Chrysallis: the transitional phase, marked by publicly touting a vendor's honing skills and discretely learning how to hone gold dollar razors.
3) Butterfly: The shameless display of the greatness of their gold dollar honing abilities and the selling phase ( egg laying)

The good news is I am seeing more artisan soaps and creams. The bad news is I have watched my beard go from brown to gray to white.

Originally Posted by MisterMoo

The good news is I am seeing more artisan soaps and creams. The bad news is I have watched my beard go from brown to gray to white.

The bad news is I am seeing more artisan soaps and creams.
~Richard

Originally Posted by Badgister

So what has changed? I will focus my attention on one particularly troublesome phenomena, to me at least. The proliferation of shaving vlogs on youtube and other social media platforms, or what I like to call "shaving exhibitionism". This has led to higher percentage of valueless content, "artisan" shave soap shilling, and bad advice from self-proclaimed experts. The life-cycle of your typical wet tubing butterfly, consists generally of the following phases:

1) Egg: Actively watching youtube videos before purchasing their first gold dollar razor.
2) Caterpillar: An enthusiastic but very slow display of a new shaving skill.
2) Chrysallis: the transitional phase, marked by publicly touting a vendor's honing skills and discretely learning how to hone gold dollar razors.
3) Butterfly: The shameless display of the greatness of their gold dollar honing abilities and the selling phase ( egg laying)

Bahahahaha

God that is dead on the head accurate



To be added that this "Transformation" occurs within a 3-6 month time period