Thread: Straight razor shave in 1880?

I found a 4/8s Genco Jr. and an ancient (not 6 million years old...but cut maybe 110-150 years ago) thuringian stone in the drawer of a shaving stand in the shed. I asked my 80+ year old Mother about it. Not her Father's but, her Grandfather's.

She said when she was a little girl (1930's), he would shave on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He drew water from the well, built a fire in the cook stove and shaved in the kitchen before breakfast. He had one razor, one stone and used his belt as a strop. Soap was made once a year in the Fall after hog slaughtering. Ingredients were "hog renderings", lye, stove ashes and vanilla extract, period. She also said that he had made his own brush from, she thought, horse hair? Aftershave lotion was bay rum from the only barbershop in town, 12 miles away. A gift from his wife or daughters?

Mom said she remembers well that he whistled as he shaved.