OK.... Sorry for the long post with the pics & links, but I thought at least a few people would enjoy this story.
I found B&B and have been DE shaving for a little over a year. I've acquired a bit of gear (about 10-15 varieties of soaps/creams, several handles/heads), but I think I've managed to keep my acquisition disorder in check... especially when compared to some of the folks here on B&B.
But of late, I've been considering trying straight razor shaving. I tried it once in the 90's, but it didn't work out too well. I bought a couple of straights, a strop, & a nice pewter shave mug/brush combo... but I really didn't know what I was doing. Tried a couple of times with crummy results & gave up. After being on B&B, I realize that I was doing many things wrong that virtually guaranteed failure - didn't lather properly, didn't know what was good soap & what wasn't, didn't know what a good brush was & what wasn't, knew nothing about SR technique (or DE technique for that matter), etc. I didn't really know how to get the info I needed. The internet & World Wide Web were still young & places like B&B either didn't exist or were hard to find/ difficult to use. And did I really need to buy a book to learn how to shave? C'mon! No way!
==> I put the gear away & never used it... but kept it...
A while back - before I got into DE shaving - my wife cleared out a few things from the bathroom I wasn't using. Unfortunately, I was unable to rescue the strop, mug, & brush, but managed to save the SRs. This past weekend - after getting the SR bug again - I dug them out to see if they were in decent shape/ usable. And this is what I found....
Inside the first case...
And the second case....
Imagine my surprise when I found a blade similar to the first one for ~ $130 and the second one for almost $350!
Dovo Straight Razor 5/8 Half Hollow Blade Black Acrylic Handles
DOVO 5/8 Bergischer Lowe Horn Scales
And to think my wife nearly sold them at a yard sale for a song!
(It still kills me my nicely worked, heavy, English pewter shave mug was probably sold for $5 - $10 when it probably cost around $40 back in the 90's & closer to $100 today.)
Anyway... hope you enjoyed to story. I can't tell you how happy I am that I rescued my straights even though I've never used them regularly - especially when I found out what they cost. Plan to get some less expensive stuff to learn on (like maybe used, but servicable stuff from Larry at Whipped Dog) before I start using these, though. (Though that 2nd one might never get used - it just looks too nice & might become/ remain a collection item.)
I found B&B and have been DE shaving for a little over a year. I've acquired a bit of gear (about 10-15 varieties of soaps/creams, several handles/heads), but I think I've managed to keep my acquisition disorder in check... especially when compared to some of the folks here on B&B.
But of late, I've been considering trying straight razor shaving. I tried it once in the 90's, but it didn't work out too well. I bought a couple of straights, a strop, & a nice pewter shave mug/brush combo... but I really didn't know what I was doing. Tried a couple of times with crummy results & gave up. After being on B&B, I realize that I was doing many things wrong that virtually guaranteed failure - didn't lather properly, didn't know what was good soap & what wasn't, didn't know what a good brush was & what wasn't, knew nothing about SR technique (or DE technique for that matter), etc. I didn't really know how to get the info I needed. The internet & World Wide Web were still young & places like B&B either didn't exist or were hard to find/ difficult to use. And did I really need to buy a book to learn how to shave? C'mon! No way!
==> I put the gear away & never used it... but kept it...
A while back - before I got into DE shaving - my wife cleared out a few things from the bathroom I wasn't using. Unfortunately, I was unable to rescue the strop, mug, & brush, but managed to save the SRs. This past weekend - after getting the SR bug again - I dug them out to see if they were in decent shape/ usable. And this is what I found....
Inside the first case...
And the second case....
Imagine my surprise when I found a blade similar to the first one for ~ $130 and the second one for almost $350!
Dovo Straight Razor 5/8 Half Hollow Blade Black Acrylic Handles
DOVO 5/8 Bergischer Lowe Horn Scales
And to think my wife nearly sold them at a yard sale for a song!
(It still kills me my nicely worked, heavy, English pewter shave mug was probably sold for $5 - $10 when it probably cost around $40 back in the 90's & closer to $100 today.)
Anyway... hope you enjoyed to story. I can't tell you how happy I am that I rescued my straights even though I've never used them regularly - especially when I found out what they cost. Plan to get some less expensive stuff to learn on (like maybe used, but servicable stuff from Larry at Whipped Dog) before I start using these, though. (Though that 2nd one might never get used - it just looks too nice & might become/ remain a collection item.)
