What Do You Now Mainly Shave With?

[Tarak83]

Brand new to DE shaving, not to wet shaving. Current shave set up:

Merkur 34C
Trying a variety pack of blades (next to try is Derby)
Viking shave brush
Shaveology sensitive skin pre-shave oil
TOBS Eaton College shaving cream
Nivea Post-shave balm for sensitive skin

I just got a 1956 Gillette super speed in the mail yesterday. That will be my next shave.

 

[iShave415]

Merkur 34C
TOBS Jermyn Street
Thayers Witch Hazel
Proraso White Aftershave balm.

 

[rbscebu]

Bump

 

[camoloc]

is there anything else besides an SR?????

be well all.

camo

 

[SterFry]

Feather Artist Club straights.

 

[mattps1]

After about 5 months on the Straight Razor journey, I've changed my vote from mainly DE to SR.

I like a good DE shave, but most of the time prefer SR now, time permitting and when not too tired/physically exhausted! Fatigue and SR mixed drastically ncreases my chance of cutting myself.

 

[GBerry]

I have some carts left but they mostly collect dust.

I much prefer DE razors. Short list: Merkur HD34C, Muhle R89, RazoRock Mamba 0.53 & 0.70, RazoRock GC 0.68, Edwin Jagger 3ONE6 and most recently Standard Supply Co Envoy.

The Envoy pulls a wonderful shave with a Gillette Perma-Sharp (Gold Box).

The 3ONE6 is no slouch either.

 

[srqshaver]

It's interesting to see how few SE shavers there are. I suppose because that's where much of my interest lies that's what stands out to me in SOTD posts.

I really like SE razors. Injectors, GEMs and half DE blades are what I've used this far but I have an AC razor and blades samples from TryaBlade on the way. I'm not sure I'll like it as much as my other SEs but I'm definitely interested in finding out.

I do use DEs as well and have several that I genuinely like. These include Schick Kronas, a Rockwell Model T and 6C, and a Gillette Red Tip Super Speed.

 

[GV27]

DE just has so many more options, and in vintage razors the Gillettes are a lot easier to identify and date than Schick, Gem, Ever-Ready etc. So people can geek out about getting a "birth year" Gillette, or getting this special edition or that limited edition while with an SE you're kinda stuck with "I think that's somewhere between 1912 and 1940" (I know I'm exaggerating slightly here). Then there are very few modern SEs and most of those are half-DE or Artist Club. There are one or two injector razors being made, and I'm sure there must be a Gem-style (paint-scraper) razor being produced but I don't know where to get one. But there are hundreds of different DEs being produced.

Then there are the blades. The Gillette-style DE blade has been a world standard for over a century. It has continued to thrive in countries where people were/are too poor or too frugal (or too smart?) to go all-in on cartridges, so there are dozens of different DE blades available and people can have fun trying different blades, discussing different blades, etc. For SEs the selection is super limited. For a half-DE sure you can snap anying in half, but there are only a few options for "half" blades that come ready to go. For AC there are only two manufacturers and they're pricey. For the vintage stuff there are only a couple of injector blades available and while Gem-style blades can be found in any hardware store there are only a couple you can get a decent shave out of. In both cases, again, the blades end up being pretty expensive compared to most DE blades and there's not much to discuss beyond saying "the coated Personna-Gem blade is the only one worth shaving with."

These days I'm mainly rotating between three razors - two SE and one DE: a 1930's British-made Ever-Ready 1912, a ~1940 Schick Injector E3, and a 1950 Gillette Super Speed.