I seem to be using a hotrodded $4 Chinese copy of a Parker a lot these days, on trips, where it's very convenient.

It's not really similar to a straight in my inexperienced opinion. My experience is that it's harder to just directly stab yourself in the various ways a straight can esily do, but very easy to skim off a couple of layers of skin, as with a DE. But I'm finding that as my straight shaving is getting better and I'm learning to go light, my pseudo-parker job is getting better even quicker.

Its advantage is its disadvantage: the ease of getting every last bit of stubble, and a couple of layers of skin with that. I just never burn myself at all with my straight, which is pretty nice.

I think you should do the best of both worlds: chopstick shave.wmv - YouTube