Thread: What got you guys into straight razor shaving?

I thought it might be interesting to hear what brought us all to the love of pressing cold steel against our throats lol?!!! For me there was a certain mystique about it that always piqued my interest, I was a 19 year old impressable young man who just started a apprenticeship for millwrighting, my mentor was a crusty old, been there done that kind of guy who seemed larger than life and harder than wood pecker lips! He just so happened to shave with straights and had a certain affinity / love for sharp oblects. I remember thinking this fucking guy is insane "badass but insane" needless to say he lit my fire all those year ago and well here I am now , and I don't think I'll ever shave any other way. I'm grateful for that dude telling me all he did not only for my career but lighting my fire for this wonderful and might I say damn near exclusive hobby we all enjoy. I'd love to hear what lit your guys fire and why you got into this almost lost art!?

Admins if this doesn't belong here I apologize wasn't sure whether to post here or the conversation section move accordingly!!

It was just a natural progression for me. Years ago I bought my brother some T&H shave cream as a gift. I knew he liked it but I didn’t use it. When I ordered there was a sample. So I tried it and liked it. So I looked into it further. Everyone was pushing safety razors. A little while later I was shopping for cartridges for my razor and was angered at the cost. Imagine that. I looked into DEs again and saw the cost of a blade being a few cents. So I tried it as a cost saving thing. I was shocked at how well it shaved. So I was doing the DE thing for a bit and liking the whole wet shaving experience. But I kept reading that a straight razor was the best. While at my knife shop, getting them sharpened, I saw a Boker there. So on a whim I bought it and tried it. Horrible . I didn’t know about shave ready. I didn’t know about honing or if people would do that for you. I tried other razors hoping the experience would be better. Some were marginally better. Later I found this place and bought a shave ready razor. Like everyone else, one razor led to two, two to three, three to four….strops, hones, soaps, brushes, aftershaves, balms. What was supposed to be a cost saving thing lead to an expensive obsession.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

It was just a natural progression for me. Years ago I bought my brother some T&H shave cream as a gift. I knew he liked it but I didn’t use it. When I ordered there was a sample. So I tried it and liked it. So I looked into it further. Everyone was pushing safety razors. A little while later I was shopping for cartridges for my razor and was angered at the cost. Imagine that. I looked into DEs again and saw the cost of a blade being a few cents. So I tried it as a cost saving thing. I was shocked at how well it shaved. So I was doing the DE thing for a bit and liking the whole wet shaving experience. But I kept reading that a straight razor was the best. While at my knife shop, getting them sharpened, I saw a Boker there. So on a whim I bought it and tried it. Horrible . I didn’t know about shave ready. I didn’t know about honing or if people would do that for you. I tried other razors hoping the experience would be better. Some were marginally better. Later I found this place and bought a shave ready razor. Like everyone else, one razor led to two, two to three, three to four….strops, hones, soaps, brushes, aftershaves, balms. What was supposed to be a cost saving thing lead to an expensive obsession.

Reading that last sentence made me grin! No truer words my friend!!

When I first started growing a beard, I was not happy with the shaves I got (electrical and cartridge).
I started looking on the internetz for DE razors or any alternatives, when my dad walked by and said, heh, those aren’t real razors, my grandfather used real razors!
I went to my grandparents house and asked if they still had their parents’ razors.
A few weeks go by and I was in the possession of my great grandfather’s and his father’s razors along with his natural combo coticule and his horsehide strop.
That started it all for me.

50 years ago I was in the UK and spotted a “Royal Guardsman” straight at a flea market for cheap so I bought it. That was the start. Then I discovered my dad, who had never used a straight razor, had 2 very good strops hidden in the basement. It turns out one of those is a Kanayama! Then I picked up a Norton 4k/8k and a barber hone and started honing without really knowing what I was doing.

Over the years I picked up other vintage razors at antique shops and flea markets and eventually bought a new TI from Phil at Classic Edge Shaving in Ontario. It was part of a package with a paddle strop (felt one side, balsa the other), CrOx, small badger brush and a leather bench strop. It was the first truly shave ready razor I had experienced and set the stage for the purchase of more stones.

The internet (Lynn, Glen and others) showed me videos about how to properly hone with the Norton and barber hone. Over the years I acquired other hones and started to learn how to use them. SRP in its former and current incarnations has contributed to and enabled my passion for this hobby and got me started on minor restorations.

Did you ever ask your dad why he had those strops?

Originally Posted by DZEC

Then I discovered my dad, who had never used a straight razor, had 2 very good strops hidden in the basement. It turns out one of those is a Kanayama!

Wait a second, how did that happen? Damn!

Originally Posted by Axeman556

Did you ever ask your dad why he had those strops?

I suspect he bought them as a “disciplinary” threat for a rather undisciplined son ; )

He also had an old hand-sized combo coticule in his toolbox that he used to sharpen knives. We lived in a corner grocery store that had a small butcher shop with all the knives, cleavers, sharpening steel and a huge maple chopping block.

As in my job, focus on technique leads to a better performance of tools.
Studying the edge of the different DE / SE blades, I reached the honing of knives.
From there, honing the straight razor. But theory is useful just in practice.
So I joined this community to understand what to buy.
As they say ... the rest is history.

My father had one when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure it was my grandfather's which he got from him when he died. He didn't really use it much but he did also own a sharpening business. He would go out to job sites and pick up saws to sharpen but also people would bring him knives, scissors and occasionally razors to sharpen. He had a knack for those kinds of skills and could get anything "razor sharp." Anyway, I just always romanticized about that thing; the shaving, honing, stropping, the whole bit. One Saturday night when I had just started shaving I got out his straight and tried it out. I can remember thinking, "wow, that was harder than I thought but, huh, not so bad." Next morning we went to church and the youth director looked at me and said, "did you get attacked by a cat?" I hadn't even noticed because they didn't show up right away but I had all these tiny cuts all over my face. I think the thing that really got me started shaving with one though was that I started cutting my own hair (flat top/ whole other story) and I could shave my own neck with a safety razor in the mirror (you need three mirrors BTW) but it was never as close as the barber got it with a straight and later shavette so I went out and bought a hair shaper razor from the barber/beauty supply which I still have today and use occasionally. One thing > another I remember my first foray with the straight of my Dad's and started shaving my face with it.
Years go by and I wound up getting his razor which I still have. I also wound up with his barber hones and the old belt he used for a strop and a bunch of his other hones. It was still just a casual interest until one day my wife took me to an antique store as a novel thing to do. In one case were some straights which were affordable so I bought a couple. Took them home, cleaned them up, tried to hone them on the barber hones, tried to find information on their history, found SRP, segue, segue...+/-200 razors, a wheel barrow full of rocks and a string of dead animal skins and cloth later here I am writing about how I became obsessed with this hobby; The End
.....or is it just the beginning???