...Amused by the conflation of "efficiency" and price

[member 119848]

@sharpstar90 , everybody is different. My guess is that the excitement of the first week shades away with time, but the enjoyment of using a quality piece remains.
I had the experience of using a high-end razor (a Timeless) , that I enjoyed but I finally decided to sell it.
The reason why I sold it was 1) I prefered more blade feel and 2) I realized that I prefered light-weighted razors.
I ended up buying (and enjoying) Feather shavettes and bakelite razors.
My perception of value may be different that most poeple. But where I see value may not always be pricey.

 

[Southsider]

The "snob factor" works well in consumerism. Ask Cadillac or Lexus. I use a plain ol' Gillette Tech for 95% of my shaves.

maybe but I was a lot happier driving an Acura over a Nissan Maxima. But we are talking about razors and with this type of item your incremental improvement for more dollars spent can be quite minimal or nonexistent. I have been very happy shaving with a Game Changer .84-P and I would have to say that this brand provides about as much bang for the buck as you can find.

 

[cw62803]

None of the razors I own give me a better shave than the stupid Pakistan-made pot metal razor that came free with my subscription to The Wet Shave Club. I can't imagine the Wet Shave Club spent more than $10 apiece for those razors. But they have the perfect weight, efficiency, and smoothness for me.

 

[tonich]

Many folks mention the amount of money they spent on the latest, coolest stainless steel razor just to show off.

 

[PreachTheWord]

I generally only see folks mentioning price when they got a deal on something. I can't really recall folks who buy expensive razors making a big deal over what they paid for them.

 

[les24preludes]

The world is full of cheap GEM/Ever Ready razors that use the rigid PTFE blade. I know of nothing better in DE shaving, and it may be debatable if anything is even as good.

 

[amateriat]

I generally only see folks mentioning price when they got a deal on something. I can't really recall folks who buy expensive razors making a big deal over what they paid for them.

Agreed.

When I started with the whole DE thing, I dove into the deep end of the pool - first with a Merkur Vision, of all things, then a Futur. Skip forward a few years, and I'm rocking vintage Gillettes (as someone here at the time predicted I would, the wise guy), and pretty much mothballed the Merkurs - they weren't bad, just not working for the way my shave routine had evolved. Now? It's the Parker Variant, all day long (unless I'm traveling, in which case it's a Parker A1R). The key word here is evolve: what worked best for me in the past, or what I thought worked best, turned out otherwise, in part because of some price/quality equation I had in my head at the time...razor X costs more than razor Y, so there has to be a good reason, no? Trouble is, that "good" reason may have little to do with just how much better a shaver the thing is overall, and more to do with materials, manufacturing costs, and limited production/distribution, among other factors.

There's nothing wrong with buying a pricey razor "just because." You like the effort put into the design, materials, the fact that it's "Made In (fill in preferred country-of-origin here)." All good, and the more stuff that's out there catering to us crazy wetshavers the better (and keeping Gillette execs up late at night...that alone is worth it). But if one's quest is to get that happy feeling a close, smooth, zen-like shave offers, it pays to look past that price tag to see what the thing can do for your shave beyond being a cool bathroom fixture...although, for the record, I like cool bathroom fixtures too. ;-)

 

[BBS-1]

My observation is at least with DE razors is the more aggressive or more unsafety they are the more they cost. More aggressive doesn't necessarily = more efficient. The exception seems to be in the early model vintage stuff like the old types or for SE the early GEM Ever Ready razors or when you get into high end collectible stuff but with the collectible stuff it is a different pricing model. I guess there is also some sort of sadomasochistic relationship between price and pain when it comes to DE razors.

 

[mozartman]

Good technique trumps most everything else in traditional shaving! At least IME.

OK, but I have many, many years of practice wet shaving every day, starting in the mid-70s with the Gillette Super Speed which was then still the standard, proceeding from there to the spectacularly-misnamed Good News, and so on. My technique is now probably decent enough most days. But there are mornings when I am both rushed and still semi-comatose. I am not trying to prove myself the master of some hyper-aggressive beast and I have no time for bloody nicks. Also, if I had a beautiful $300 work of metallic art, I'd probably drop it on the floor and give it an ugly scratch.

On the other hand, we all want a smooth, comfortable shave, and nobody wants to be on the way out in the evening only to have one's wife say one should go back inside and shave again. So whatever works best given all of that is going to prevail, at least in my bathroom.

 

[Uncas]

Whatever anyone chooses to spend on their toys is certainly none of my business.

 

[pork]

If you want efficiency, do away with the DEs and get a Feather AC DX, because I doubt any razor is going to match it in that department (at any price).

 

[PreachTheWord]

Every high-end razor that I have encountered can be ordered with a mild or aggressive head. My Timeless (not the most expensive razor out there) only has a blade gap of .38 and is a mild shaver. All of this boils down to personal preference. We all pay for what we want and don't have to justify our purchases to anyone. Shave with what makes you smile (Lord knows I do). Expensive or inexpensive makes no difference as long as the person wielding the gear is happy with that gear. If someone posts on here that they got a vintage Gillette for $2 and they love the shave, then I'm happy for them. If someone else posts on here that they bought a $5000 razor from a company founded by Tibetan monks who make 1 razor every 10 years from Unobtanium and it makes them happy, then I'm happy for them.

 

[sharpstar90]

A lot.of eloquent statements. This is a good topic.

Personally, I am happy with all of my razors. I have 15 and feel it is enough. Just when I think I've had enough of one of them, I use it again and discover another side of it I hadn't noticed. This is the same with all my shaving products of all prices. That's probably what eventually killed the RAD. The collection sort of reintroduces itself the more I use it.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I assess how efficient I am with any given razor, not the efficiency of the razor itself.

I also don't blame pens for my poor handwriting.

 

[rabidus]

My ATT SE1 is worth every penny and then some.

 

[mozartman]

I assess how efficient I am with any given razor, not the efficiency of the razor itself.

I also don't blame pens for my poor handwriting.

Yes, but I've noticed some razors, maybe due to having a lot of blade exposure or some other aspect of their geometry, do give me a closer shave more quickly and easily, often with the trade off that a single small slip results in a nasty nick. Others won't nick me almost no matter how careless or sloppy I am, but give me a close shave less quickly or easily. And I don't reach these conclusions lightly. Anything I try I typically use every day for at least 3 or 4 weeks.

Of course, that trade off doesn't always apply so neatly. For me the Rockwell 6S is very smooth and mild, yet easily gives me an ultra-close shave. The other two razors I'm using regularly these days also give me great shaves, but the Game Changer is very slightly less smooth than the Rockwell, especially with the .84 plate, and the Gillette Slim is a lot less smooth. Is all that due to my lousy technique? Could be. But you can't blame me for sticking with what works.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Yes, but I've noticed some razors, maybe due to having a lot of blade exposure or some other aspect of their geometry, do give me a closer shave more quickly and easily, often with the trade off that a single small slip results in a nasty nick. Others won't nick me almost no matter how careless or sloppy I am, but give me a close shave less quickly or easily. And I don't reach these conclusions lightly. Anything I try I typically use every day for at least 3 or 4 weeks.

Of course, that trade off doesn't always apply so neatly. For me the Rockwell 6S is very smooth and mild, yet easily gives me an ultra-close shave. The other two razors I'm using regularly these days also give me great shaves, but the Game Changer is very slightly less smooth than the Rockwell, especially with the .84 plate, and the Gillette Slim is a lot less smooth. Is all that due to my lousy technique? Could be. But you can't blame me for sticking with what works.

I'm not saying the technique renders the choice of razor totally irrelevant, I'm in the process of PIFing a Fatip Grande, because it's not a good match for my face. I can get a good shave with it (and was determined to do so before I let it go - I'm stubborn like that) but it takes too much effort for it to be enjoyable, and there's too much margin for error for my liking. I still tend to judge myself first, and the razor second though.

 

[Bogeyman]

I'm not saying the technique renders the choice of razor totally irrelevant, I'm in the process of PIFing a Fatip Grande, because it's not a good match for my face. I can get a good shave with it...but it takes too much effort for it to be enjoyable, and there's too much margin for error for my liking. I still tend to judge myself first, and the razor second though.

A very apt description. I feel the same way about vintage Gillette OC razors. I just had to be too damn careful around my mouth & chin for my liking. Shaving shouldn't be akin to live ordnance disposal.

 

[steffenapelz]

I have owned both an ATT M1 and Karve (when it was still considered unobtainium earlier in the year) and they both became "just another razor" because neither shaved as well for me as my much less expensive Fatip. I have since bought all the versions of the Razorock GC and Mamba and they are BY FAR my favorite razors ever despite being only marginally more expensive than the Fatips and drastically less expensive than the ATT. When I shave, I care only about the performance of the razor. And so far, I have not really noticed a direct correlation between price and quality of shave, although I will be the first to admit that I have never shaved with the most exclusive razors like Wolfman, Timeless and CG...

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[muzichead]

I have 3 razors in the cabinet to choose from every other morning when I get ready to shave... I have a '61 Fatboy that I had re-plated, Stainless General SE, and a Ti Timeless .95 SB.

I honestly can't remember the last time I used the Fatboy and use the General once or twice a month at best. I have shaved with the Ti Timeless for 98% of my shaves and has been that way since acquiring it last February on the BST. It just shaves that much better than anything I've used in the past and everything else I had was sold off as I just can't see keeping something that I will never use again. I've kept the Stainless General because it shaves very comparable to the Ti Timeless and the Fatboy I've kept in hopes to pass it down to the next generation and is the only reason it hasn't been sold off.

I can only attest for myself that the purchase of the Ti Timeless was worth much more than what I paid for it, as being almost 58 yrs young, I have had the best and closest shaves in my life using it. I have the same feeling every time I go to shave when I open the cabinet and automatically I pick up the timeless without thinking because I know what the shave will be after I've shaved and I'm reminded of the very 1st shave with it and the satisfaction I felt is still the same and puts a smile on my face every time... No other razor has given me this and I'm sure this is the last razor I will ever have to add to the cabinet for the rest of my time here!!