The Minimalists Requirements For Traditional SR Shaving

[KW Driver]

The Nani 12k alone costs about $80. Not really for the minimalist. Perhaps you should just use DE/SE.

you're conflating minimalism with expense. your minimalism as listed has how many components?

you want minimalist? one razor, one stone set (Coticule works well once mastered), one strop, one facial lubricant. that's minimalist to the extreme.

a custom razor, a 300mmx80mm coticule and slurry stone or a quality sized JNAT and nagura, a Kanayama/Tony Miller/____ strop is minimalist, but not inexpensive.

and we had a member here use a GD66, Coticule (plus an Ark for awhile), Arko, a single brush, a single strop for a year straight, just to do it. that was inexpensively minimalist. he even had to repair the GD scales that broke during his experiment to continue it.

so you can have both inexpensive and minimalist, or you can have extravagantly minimalist.

but use the proper terminology to put forward your arguments, not argue against another's minimalism because it doesn't espouse your unstated/poorly articulated version.

Edit: you did refine your position later on. I can't quote your later refinement in this as an edit.

 

[RayClem]

So, how much is your face worth to you? $100, $500, $1,000 ...

Pick a figure and spend it. It is not what your face is worth to you but rather how much you are willing or able to spend. Not everyone has a lot of excess funds.

In the Philippines $50 is a week's salary for many full-time workers.

It is best to define value based on opportunity cost rather than absolute dollars. If you have $100, how should you best spend those funds to meet your needs and desires. If you have to spend those funds on food, clothing, and shelter, then perhaps you should grow a beard. Once your basic needs are satisfied, then you can start looking at other lesser needs and preferences.

Some people who can afford to do so spend many thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgeries, spa treatments, etc. Personally, I would consider that to be a waste of money, but everyone has to determine what they consider their appearance to be worth to them relative to the resources available.

 

[Seveneighth]

you're conflating minimalism with expense. your minimalism as listed has how many components?

you want minimalist? one razor, one stone set (Coticule works well once mastered), one strop, one facial lubricant. that's minimalist to the extreme.

a custom razor, a 300mmx80mm coticule and slurry stone or a quality sized JNAT and nagura, a Kanayama/Tony Miller/____ strop is minimalist, but not inexpensive.

and we had a member here use a GD66, Coticule (plus an Ark for awhile), Arko, a single brush, a single strop for a year straight, just to do it. that was inexpensively minimalist. he even had to repair the GD scales that broke during his experiment to continue it.

so you can have both inexpensive and minimalist, or you can have extravagantly minimalist.

but use the proper terminology to put forward your arguments, not argue against another's minimalism because it doesn't espouse your unstated/poorly articulated version.

Edit: you did refine your position later on. I can't quote your later refinement in this as an edit.

Yeah I kind of misread OP's original post.

I think there are two things that put someone off starting - the potential cost and the myriad of stuff they need to get and understand and master just to get started.

One stone, one strop, one razor might turn out to be more expensive and harder to learn but the prospect of buying fewer things and mastering them is sometimes more attractive for some people.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Are you able to hone, do minor repairs to razor & strop, etc yourself and need absolute cheapest?

GD or Vintage in beater shape ($5-15)
Vintage strop that needs some fixing or "Starter" strop ($15-30)
Films and a pane of glass ($20 or so Im guessing)
Stick of arko ($1?)
VDH/Surrey/modern equivelent Boar Brush ($1-5)
Dollar store aftershave ($1)



If not:

Decent vintage restored shave ready SR ($10-30)
Decent strop ($40-50)
Decent finishing hone for touch ups ($20-50)
Stick of Speick ($5)
Semogue 1470 ($10)
Dollar Store Aftershave ($1)

About $50-100?


Problem you encounter is that a lot of saving money depends on either luck or knowledge a beginner doesn't have. I've bought a dozen or more vintage barbers hones I think are good touch up hones for a beginner for $10-30. I've bought hundreds that weren't. So CAN a beginner buy a swaty or a dubl duck for $20 and check the finisher/touch up hone box? Sure. Will they? Maybe... one in ten times... the other nine times they'll get a poor example that gives a subpar finish. Can they buy a $10 eBay special that'll shave fine? Sure. Will they have the experience to identify good candidates and the skill to get it to shave ready? Probably not.


Basically... what could an experienced shaver BUILD a starter kit for a buddy they were introducing to the hobby for? Maybe $50 and less than an hour of their time. I've pieced more than one of these kits together in the past... Strop is usually the priciest bit.

What could an actual starter build a similar set for themselves for? $150-300 I'd guess....possibly less thanks to resources like our BST.

 

[karacha]

Ralph Aust razor. A small cow hide strop or a paddle strop with one side pasted? Balsa strop or a film setup? I think (although I am not an expert and a straight is just one of many "systems" I use) you could keep up almost indefinitely with this if you are careful with your razor and never drop it or chip the edge in any way. If not indefinitely, then certainly a very long time. I use my Aust 5/8 here and there, certainly on a weekly basis, and have been shaving with it for 11 months now without using anything but a leather+balsa setup. Shaves great.

 

[Legion]

For me the bare minimum would be a vintage straight, a Nani 12k and a strop. If my equipment were anything less than that I’d just use a DE/SE.

I would say the same, except substitute the Nani for a coticule and slurry stone. That way I could take the razor from dull to shave ready if I ever needed to.

This may not be the cheapest way to go. But the components will last my lifetime, so spread out with nothing more to pay, it's pretty good value.

 

[Legion]

Are you able to hone, do minor repairs to razor & strop, etc yourself and need absolute cheapest?

GD or Vintage in beater shape ($5-15)
Vintage strop that needs some fixing or "Starter" strop ($15-30)
Films and a pane of glass ($20 or so Im guessing)
Stick of arko ($1?)
VDH/Surrey/modern equivelent Boar Brush ($1-5)
Dollar store aftershave ($1)



If not:

Decent vintage restored shave ready SR ($10-30)
Decent strop ($40-50)
Decent finishing hone for touch ups ($20-50)
Stick of Speick ($5)
Semogue 1470 ($10)
Dollar Store Aftershave ($1)

About $50-100?


Problem you encounter is that a lot of saving money depends on either luck or knowledge a beginner doesn't have. I've bought a dozen or more vintage barbers hones I think are good touch up hones for a beginner for $10-30. I've bought hundreds that weren't. So CAN a beginner buy a swaty or a dubl duck for $20 and check the finisher/touch up hone box? Sure. Will they? Maybe... one in ten times... the other nine times they'll get a poor example that gives a subpar finish. Can they buy a $10 eBay special that'll shave fine? Sure. Will they have the experience to identify good candidates and the skill to get it to shave ready? Probably not.


Basically... what could an experienced shaver BUILD a starter kit for a buddy they were introducing to the hobby for? Maybe $50 and less than an hour of their time. I've pieced more than one of these kits together in the past... Strop is usually the priciest bit.

What could an actual starter build a similar set for themselves for? $150-300 I'd guess....possibly less thanks to resources like our BST.

I've spent literally thousands of dollars so I can be a minimalist shaver.

 

[rbscebu]

With some of the posts here in this thread, I can now better appreciate the problems a DE/SE shaver may have when enquiring in B&B about trying out SR shaving on a limited budget and/or having limited space.

 

[seattleshaver]

A shave ready razor and a two sided paddle strop with paste on one side. You can't get more minimal than that.

 

[rbscebu]

Taking bluesman 7's suggestion in post #4, probably the best minimalist approach considering cost and/or available space would be:

• A truly shave-ready Gold Dollar 66 for about $25(?).
• A dual leather and denim Strop for about $10 on AliExpress
• Some stropping paste for a dollar or two. Others here would have to recommend which to get as I have never used it.

This would get you started for under $40 and cover your requirements for many months. If you want to refine your SR edge even further, you could then get the diamond pasted balsa strop setup.

All sounds good to me.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I think a big part of it is the dispute over whether the cheap strops work.

I've had one that didn't. Doesn't mean they all don't... but I can't recommend something I have doubts would work.

Technically, the CHEAPEST is a $1 disposable blade straight and a broken in half DE blade... ~$1... but you're not really experiencing a straight, just getting a feel for the process. But yes, start up costs are high relative to DE shaving. There's a decent enough DE razor with a pack of 5 pretty OK blades for $1 at the dollar store. It's a different class. Straight razors require good steel... we're very fortunate a few Chinese manufacturers have started putting out razors with decent steel (Gold Dollars) and helped keep the price down for the razors themselves. It also requires a decent leather strop. There may be equivalent good and cheap strops out there, may not be. It also requires a decent method of touching up. Film is probably the "cheap" alternative there.

But all that is stuff you don't need to DE shave.

 

[camoloc]

I think a big part of it is the dispute over whether the cheap strops work.

I've had one that didn't. Doesn't mean they all don't... but I can't recommend something I have doubts would work.

Technically, the CHEAPEST is a $1 disposable blade straight and a broken in half DE blade... ~$1... but you're not really experiencing a straight, just getting a feel for the process. But yes, start up costs are high relative to DE shaving. There's a decent enough DE razor with a pack of 5 pretty OK blades for $1 at the dollar store. It's a different class. Straight razors require good steel... we're very fortunate a few Chinese manufacturers have started putting out razors with decent steel (Gold Dollars) and helped keep the price down for the razors themselves. It also requires a decent leather strop. There may be equivalent good and cheap strops out there, may not be. It also requires a decent method of touching up. Film is probably the "cheap" alternative there.

But all that is stuff you don't need to DE shave.

film and good strop???

I ran the WB on the light green 3M 14k last night briefly......worked well.

camo

 

[bluesman 7]

I've spent literally thousands of dollars so I can be a minimalist shaver.

Then I started going to out of state razor meets...To save even more $.

 

[bluesman 7]

Another way of thinking about minimalism.

Straights are somewhat minimalistic by nature as they don't require much infrastructure compared to what it takes to manufacture DE blades. Starting from nothing, knapped flint would probably be the least infrastructure route to a clean shave, but after that an open steel blade is the simplest. Shaving existed for thousands of years before the idea of a safety razor came along.

Sorry for the off topic musing.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Holding a coal from the fire against your face would be the least infrastructure route imho.

 

[bluesman 7]

Holding a coal from the fire against your face would be the least infrastructure route imho.

I wondered if someone was going to suggest singeing the hair off with a torch. I hadn't thought about hot coals.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I vaguely remember reading that there's some evidence in cavemen dig sites that hair singeing was one of the earliest methods of grooming.

 

[camoloc]

I vaguely remember reading that there's some evidence in cavemen dig sites that hair singeing was one of the earliest methods of grooming.

wow, they undoubtably argued about "How hot is hot enough".

then you got choice of wood types (and from which geographic region) to throw into the whole matter. nothings ever simple.

camo

 

[bluesman 7]

wow, they undoubtably argued about "How hot is hot enough".


camo

I would think that 'How close is too close' to be more on topic.

 

[camoloc]

I would think that 'How close is too close' to be more on topic.

lol......they'd both be intertwined I'd think!!!

camo