old fashioned safety razor

[Dustin21]

today i shaved with a old fashioned safety razor with single edge razor blades.. i will be shaving with nothing else from now on my face is ultra smooth.

why in the world did we give up using these to shave with and goto using these costly disposable razors with 8 dollar refills.

[Fins/413]

Cause they will cut a hunk out if you aren't carefull I guess. Also the razor makers can charge more.

[Branson]

Like one of these?  My favorite.  I actually wore out my first one, so I've bought maybe four or five for back ups -- just in case.  Got one in its original cardboard box, and another in the heavy plastic Schick box for travel.   Especially for trimming around a beard or mustache, they're the best.  I think I was about 18 when I got my first one.  Haven't used anything else in over 40 years.

[Branson]

Cause they will cut a hunk out if you aren't carefull I guess. Also the razor makers can charge more.

Cutting chunks  -- no more than any other safety razor I know.  My older step-son takes it even further.  He uses a straight razor -- one of the old "throat cutters."  He researched razors and determined these actually give the best shave.  I'm more modern in my outlook.

[Papaw]

I don't shave much, just on the neck and above the beard line on the cheek when the strays show. I use an old Gillette double edge razor, and shave dry.

[OilyRascal]

I like the idea of "old school".  I may try it next time I have a need, but I don't shave anymore.  I will on occasion trim so I don't look like that grizzly man on tv when I was a child.  I've worked to long for people that told me I had to shave - I'm being a rebel now.

[Neals]

I use an electric most of the time but have a couple old safety razors I use sometimes.

[Dustin21]

will only cut you if you rush or dont learn to properly use them.
heres the one i have (pic stolen off the net)

[john k]

I ventured off to the fancy triple-quadruple blade refill pricey things for awhile.   Have got hooked on the disposable yellow ones, what is strange, one will be dull with one use, two maybe.  Next one I will shave daily for two weeks and it still cuts good, the whisker, not the hide.  I had a gorgeous Gillette, double edge.  Was in the nifty clear and blue plastic case, still had a couple of packs of the blades you slide out of the little blue safety holder.  Found it in the trash one day AFTER I had burned, daughter tossed it cause I never use it anymore, why is it kids of hoarders don't hoard or even understand the basic necessity to do so?

[Neals]

Seems to me it is not just the kids of hoarders but most everyone under 40 or so. I think it comes from mostly good times for the last quite a few years.For most on here I'm guessing as kids it was a long way to the store and not a lot of coin in the pocket when we got there. Our parents were putting bread on the table during the depression. If I had threw out Dad's spare razor he would have wore out his belt on my backside. I guess it all made an impression on me. I get more joy out of salvaging something than buying a shiny new one.

[Branson]

I don't shave much, just on the neck and above the beard line on the cheek when the strays show. I use an old Gillette double edge razor, and shave dry.

That's about me, too.  Keeping the edges neat. 

[Branson]

Seems to me it is not just the kids of hoarders but most everyone under 40 or so. I think it comes from mostly good times for the last quite a few years.For most on here I'm guessing as kids it was a long way to the store and not a lot of coin in the pocket when we got there. Our parents were putting bread on the table during the depression. If I had threw out Dad's spare razor he would have wore out his belt on my backside. I guess it all made an impression on me. I get more joy out of salvaging something than buying a shiny new one.

That's a great joy!  I think the Depression sharpened people's needs to keep up what they had in ways today's under 40 folks don't quite grasp.  On the other hand, there seems to be a mind set that is native to some people.  My family's big outings are mostly going to flea markets.  And after we get home, we do purchase reviews with each other. 

Now my step sons are electronics fanatics, and you'd think we were just 180 degrees apart.  The younger one is all about electronic games and computers (he and his brother actually invent electronic games).  The thing is, he appreciates the older technology, and when he finds some 1980s part or device that was one step away from the dump, his enthusiasm for finding it, buying it, and putting it back to use is 100% like my enthusiasm for finding, say, a Stanley 101 1/2 plane.  He knows what he can do with older stuff, some of which he can't do with the shiny new stuff.  When we get back from the flea markets, we do "purchase review" with each other, and while I don't know squat about electronics, or he about old saws and hammers, we take a lot of joy in listening to each other about what we have might be, and what we can do with it.  Some folks, regardless of when they were born, just have a big place in their hearts for the joy of such things.

[scottg]

I consider myself very conservative on the subject of razors and shaving.
All I have is one drawer full.
 That's it!  No big collection, no thousands, just one drawer full. And not even a big drawer!
 I have had many over the years, but let them all go, except the top dogs in that drawer. 

I've got a Rolls Razor. English made.  Its in a silver plated box. One side of the box opens with a stone under the lid. The other side opens too (after you snap the first back in,  with a strop underneath that side. The razor comes partially apart and you snap just the handle and blade into a track inside the case, and it rolls up and down to stone or strop the blade for you as you merely push.
      This is in a mint outer box with all paperwork, never used.
 
   I have an auto strop in its velvet lined box. An American invention. It uses a long ribbon to semi-automatically strop, stored inside the box.

  Both of these resemble safety razors but were early and have single permanent blades.
 
   A curve-fit. First exclusively woman's disposable blade safety razor with a very curved head, in a nice paper covered printed box.
   
 A Bicycle razor. Sold at train stations for travellers. It comes in a clamshell case of bakelite, no bigger than 2" long overall, in the perfect shape of a bicycle seat.  Inside is a solid brass, fully functional disposable blade safety razor, no longer than 1 1/2" long.  Tiny disposable blades in their little wrapper.

 Only 3 or 4 straight razors, the top of all I ever had. (dozens over the years).
 Highly decorated handles and blades, each in its slide apart 2 piece paper mache case.

   TOP quality shaving brush. Folding pocketknife straight razor. A few other things.

   But there is one more I want, and can't find.
  In the late 1950/early 60's  (so new you would think they would be dime a dozen) there was an American made safety razor that was just the pinnacle of all disposable blade razors. The most elaborate, most adjustable razor ever made.
 I have had a couple but they were used beaters, and I eventually let them go.
 I want one mint in its box.

Hoarding is holding onto completely worthless junk when you know you shouldn't.
  Collecting is researching your subject thoroughly and slowly accumulating the top examples ever made...
   of worthless junk. 
  yours Scott

[m_fumich]

I'd love to use a straight razor. The good ones are expensive though. I do like the old fashioned way of doing things and I try to get my son to do the same. I use shaving soap in a mug and a boars hair brush. My son did come to like that. The last can of shaving cream I owned was given to me in basic training 24 years ago.

[scottg]

I'd love to use a straight razor. The good ones are expensive though.

 Are not!
   I don't think I ever paid over 10 bucks.
Granted this was long and hard looking,  but there are some phenomenal razors out there!! 
If I'd had only a little more to spend, I'd have even better! I saw them offered over time.

 Retail new, would be for suckers.
  Nothing made now comes close to even the low grade stock of yesteryear, when everybody used one.
   yours Scott