Thread: Ever go back...just to see?

Recently, for sentimental reasons mostly, I resurrected a Weck Sextoblade and bought some blades of various kinds for comparison. It was an interesting exercise in comparison and helpful as a gauge for my edges. Any of us who hone should be able to surpass the keenness/comfort of one of these...but are we really? If you don't compare you don't really know do you? After so much water has gone over the fall the recollection fades.
This made me wonder about the multi-bldes we abandoned en masse. Anybody ever try one again after however much time it has been? For me it has been a decade, maybe decades and I'm not sure I remember. I'm not sure I want to but I see value in knowing what we left.

What about you gentlemen?

I have periodically gone back to shavettes with DE blades as well as a Weck and Vintage DE razors themselves.
The quality of these are exceptional really. I am always impressed with the feel from a new DE blade in either a shavette or DE. I believe they are a tad smoother than a well honed straight but it is VERY close.
It may even just be that the straight has more resonance and not appear the same because of it.
The former are held very close to the edge.

The problem with the DE blades and Wecks (mostly DE's) is that the shave is not near as close as a straight, at least for me. I can feel stubble much faster when using these methods.

The same killer edge on a straight leaves much less stubble for much longer and it's just as smooth.

On occasion, I'll try the DE that was issued to me at Parris Island just to compare what I have now to what I had then. The difference is night and day! Never tried a shavette but maybe someday!

Great analogy and food for thought Paul!

I used to make a point of occasionally shaving with a Feather in my Adjustable Aristocrat or my gold Executive, just to keep my hand in. Also I have always regarded the Feather DE blade as the edge to beat when honing. It is a pretty high bar and I am doing good just to match the edge, let alone beat it. For raw cutting power I think it is very near the physical limit of sharpness in a steel blade. I do still on occasion put half of a Feather in an Artist Club style shavette and I do enjoy the shave, just not as well as from a nice straight. Again, mostly just to keep in practice. Those cheap shavettes make good traveling razors.

Good feedback and useful food for thought but mainly what I meant was have you ever tried a multi blade cartridge razor again just to see what it was like.

I started to the other day. My wife uses one I abandoned for her legs but I didn't for whatever reason. I think I didn't
trust the blade and didn't know if there were more. A couple of things I do remember is that I had to shave every day to keep from looking scruffy. I did actually shave every day with a straight for quite a while until I started shaving more than one pass. I was so in the habit of NOT overshaving with a cartridge because if I went against the grain especially I would get a rash and irritation. I never even tried to get a BBS shave because it would take several days for my face to recover and i looked like i had either bad acne or poison ivy in the meantime. I was finally convinced to try it with a straight and now on the day after there is really not enough to shave.

I tried a disposable cartridge razer a couple of years ago, just to compare against a straight. It wasn't as bad as I used to get with shaving with one every day. I put it down to techniques I learnt from SRP. Using a decent brush and soap/cream can make all the difference too.

Disposable.....Never again. I know what's in store for me. I left it alone 40 yrs ago.

But I do keep a few DEs around, for emergencies/injuries that keep me from using a straight. Like when I almost lost the end of my thumb, or a hose clamp/zip tie incident that so many of us deal with that work in garages n such.

Thanks Paul, now I'm having flashbacks of yesteryears. Have to put steel to stone to clear my mind, so I can sleep tonight.

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

I tried a disposable cartridge razer a couple of years ago, just to compare against a straight. It wasn't as bad as I used to get with shaving with one every day. I put it down to techniques I learnt from SRP. Using a decent brush and soap/cream can make all the difference too.

For me it wasn't the shave was that bad but the clogging during a shave was maddening. Continual smashing against the sink was the norm.
To get a decent shave was also many, many passes and still nowhere near as close as a straight.

Did exactly that, not too long ago…

I went back to the Trac II, Atra and Sensor. There was not much sense in going back to Mach 3 and whatever came later because by that time I already had abandoned cartridges.

I got quite good shaves from above razors applying what I had learnt over 30 years from DE and straight shaving. The reason that many shavers see the light when they switch to DE shaving may be in no small part because these novices learn at the same time to appreciate what a decent pre-shave and two to three pass shave can do to improve results.

I remembered that the Trac II tends to clog with lather too quickly, on the Atra I often lost the cartridge in my toiletry bag during trips because something had pressed on the release button on top of the handle, the Sensor worked fine, but by that time Gillette had already discovered how to gauge shavers with cartridge pricing, even though Sensor cartridges are cheap by comparison to later stuff.

The Atra release issue can be overcome with some aftermarket handles. Remember the Merkur MII handle, quite good looking, ingenious design that adapts to all sort of cartridges, and is of course out of production…






So if I had to consider one, for air travel or whatever reason, I would take either the Atra or Sensor system, most likely with third party cartridges because I have developed a distinct dislike to Gillette cartridge pricing…


B.

Glad that works for you. That's what matters.