I started getting interested in wet shaving somewhere around the beginning of November. On Black Friday I went out to Walgreens and bought a Van der Hagen bowl and brush set and was really tempted to buy the Van der Hagen safety razor, but held off. I knew my father had a safety razor he was no longer using, and I was hoping he would let me borrow it.
Christmas comes and I am over my parents' house, and I ask my mom is she knew were my father old safety razor was. I described the razor to her, and was looking at me like she was completely confused and said he never used anything like that. In my head, I am thinking that he's 89 years old. I guarantee you he used a safety razor at some point in his life.
An hour later I go and use the bathroom and do a tiny bit of digging through drawers and find this razor:
which I have learned is a Parat Rocket. My father came to the US in the early 50s from Bavaria, so I have to assume this razor is from the late 40s. I'm upset about the brassing, because it was not there when I got the razor. I polished it up with the dawn and a tooth brush. But the knurling was being stubborn, so I took some Flitz to it and this happened.
But anyway, on with the story...
I brought the razor out and asked my father if I could borrow it. He said "Borrow it, you can have it!" I was obviously elated. I remember watching my father shave with this razor when I was a kid in the 70s and early 80s, and I thought it was cool that I was going to be able to shave with it.
The my dad tells me to hold on, and comes out with these:
He tells me I can have all of them. The one in the middle is a 1968 Tech, and I don't know the date of the Lady Gillettee off the top of my head. I think the '68 Tech was my grandfathers, but I can't be sure, and my dad doesn't remember where he got it.
On Christmas night I drive back to my house with the family. December 26th rolls around and now I've gotten the bug. I order 50 Feather blades, and, for yucks do a Google search for Gillette. 2 hours and $3.00 later and this is now mine:
Research tells me it's a 1951 Gillette Tech with bakelite handle.
My blades arrive a few days later, and since I have never shaved with a safety razor before, the Feather blades do a number on my face.
Unperturbed, I order some Astra SP blades, and decide I really want an adjustable razor. Again I scour Craigslist and eBay and I find someone local on eBay with this beauty:
The listing was for a Gillette Slim Adjustable. I contact the seller and tell her, if she agrees to change her listing to a Buy It Now for $25.00, I'll immediately buy it and do local pick and pay cash, saving shipping and paypal fees. She agrees and a few hours later a Slim Adjustable gets added to my collection.
Then I get this idea in my head that I really want a long handle Black Beauty. Again, I scour Craigslist and eBay and find one seller who has a Black Beauty in my town who has one up for auction with a starting bid of $39.99 with free shipping. I contact the seller and make a similar offer, change the listing to $30.00 Buy It Now, and I'll be at their house with cash in 15 minutes, saving them Paypal and shipping fees. Well, the guy just is not interested. He's convinced that there will some kind of bidding war for this thing in the last 5 minutes of the auction. I didn't think he'd get any bites, since there were a lot of Black Beauties on eBay for a BIN price between $25-$35 in various conditions. But it was time to move on. As I was staring at the auction. eBay recommendation another auction, that I jumped on. A Goodwill store in Indiana had this listed for $50.00:
5 razors for $50 was a pretty sweet deal.
So, it's hasn't even been a month since I started this journey, and through some serious luck on my part, my collection of razors now looks like this:
I have yet to shave with them all. But I'll get there.
So, that's my Christmas story.
Christmas comes and I am over my parents' house, and I ask my mom is she knew were my father old safety razor was. I described the razor to her, and was looking at me like she was completely confused and said he never used anything like that. In my head, I am thinking that he's 89 years old. I guarantee you he used a safety razor at some point in his life.
An hour later I go and use the bathroom and do a tiny bit of digging through drawers and find this razor:
which I have learned is a Parat Rocket. My father came to the US in the early 50s from Bavaria, so I have to assume this razor is from the late 40s. I'm upset about the brassing, because it was not there when I got the razor. I polished it up with the dawn and a tooth brush. But the knurling was being stubborn, so I took some Flitz to it and this happened.
But anyway, on with the story...
I brought the razor out and asked my father if I could borrow it. He said "Borrow it, you can have it!" I was obviously elated. I remember watching my father shave with this razor when I was a kid in the 70s and early 80s, and I thought it was cool that I was going to be able to shave with it.
The my dad tells me to hold on, and comes out with these:
He tells me I can have all of them. The one in the middle is a 1968 Tech, and I don't know the date of the Lady Gillettee off the top of my head. I think the '68 Tech was my grandfathers, but I can't be sure, and my dad doesn't remember where he got it.
On Christmas night I drive back to my house with the family. December 26th rolls around and now I've gotten the bug. I order 50 Feather blades, and, for yucks do a Google search for Gillette. 2 hours and $3.00 later and this is now mine:
Research tells me it's a 1951 Gillette Tech with bakelite handle.
My blades arrive a few days later, and since I have never shaved with a safety razor before, the Feather blades do a number on my face.
Unperturbed, I order some Astra SP blades, and decide I really want an adjustable razor. Again I scour Craigslist and eBay and I find someone local on eBay with this beauty:
The listing was for a Gillette Slim Adjustable. I contact the seller and tell her, if she agrees to change her listing to a Buy It Now for $25.00, I'll immediately buy it and do local pick and pay cash, saving shipping and paypal fees. She agrees and a few hours later a Slim Adjustable gets added to my collection.
Then I get this idea in my head that I really want a long handle Black Beauty. Again, I scour Craigslist and eBay and find one seller who has a Black Beauty in my town who has one up for auction with a starting bid of $39.99 with free shipping. I contact the seller and make a similar offer, change the listing to $30.00 Buy It Now, and I'll be at their house with cash in 15 minutes, saving them Paypal and shipping fees. Well, the guy just is not interested. He's convinced that there will some kind of bidding war for this thing in the last 5 minutes of the auction. I didn't think he'd get any bites, since there were a lot of Black Beauties on eBay for a BIN price between $25-$35 in various conditions. But it was time to move on. As I was staring at the auction. eBay recommendation another auction, that I jumped on. A Goodwill store in Indiana had this listed for $50.00:
5 razors for $50 was a pretty sweet deal.
So, it's hasn't even been a month since I started this journey, and through some serious luck on my part, my collection of razors now looks like this:
I have yet to shave with them all. But I'll get there.
So, that's my Christmas story.
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