Straight Shaver Interview - Mr. Scruffy

[Luc]

Harry (Mr. Scruffy) agreed to do an interview a while back. I've didn't post it with all the action we got on the board in the last month... I'm slowly resuming to normal and I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. All interviews can be found in Wiki.

as always, if you have any further questions for Harry, please do ask in this thread.

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Who are you? / Where are you located?
My name is Harry and I reside in Houston, Texas.

How do you take your coffee?
Black

What happened that made you seek a better shave, or if the chicken came before the egg, how did you find B&B?
Shaving my face and neck had always been an unpleasant chore for me. Early in my career I wore a suit and tie to work and had to shave every day. Monday shaves weren't so bad because I didn't shave on the weekends and my face had two days rest. By Friday my neck was a bloody mess. I had to buy new dress shirts every month or so because the dry cleaners couldn't get out the blood stains from the collars. My current job has a more relaxed atmosphere and I was able to get away with shaving on Mondays and Thursdays only.

A couple of years ago SWMBO and I were shopping at Bath and Body Works for a birthday gift for my brother's girlfriend. On a lark, I bought a small tube of Bigelow shave cream. I used my fingers to make lather with the Bigelow on my first shave. I had found the first step to the perfect shave. Later that week I discovered B&B while looking for shaving brushes on the web.

What was it that held your interest?
The breadth of shaving knowledge here and willingness of the members at B&B to help a new guy were an unexpected surprise. And all the cool stuff!! Vintage DE's and straights and brushes and blades and soaps and fragrances and... you know what I'm talking about.

How soon did you did you become a Moderator?
After being here for about 18 months, half that time as a steward, Joel asked if I would be interested in being a mod at B&B. I am now 2 months into my service as a mod.

If I remember from your posts, you started with DE's before switching to straights; What did you start with?
My very first DE was a Feather Popular. It was a good razor but I soon found myself wanting something heavier. I managed to find a birth year Gillette Super Speed and also bought a sampler blade pack from WCS. I also discovered eBay and antique stores and had over 100 DE's in a month's time. After more experimentation I found that my favorite DE/blade combos were Gillette Blacks in a President and Personna Red IP's in a 46-47 Aristocrat.

Shave Cream & Soaps? what did you find that worked well from those initial trials?
Making lather came naturally to me. I didn't have a very steep learning curve at all. In retrospect I would have to say that I always used a lot of product, in some cases too much. Maybe that's why it came so easy.

The only product I had difficulty mastering was MWF. My early lathers were always thin and watery. I couldn't load enough onto my brush and I didn't like having to chase the puck around the ceramic dish. In a rare moment of brilliance I decided to mill the puck back into the container so it wouldn't slide around so much. Doing this apparently increased the surface area of the soap and made it easier to absorb water so it became easier to load my brush.

Where did you get your first straight razor? was it shave ready?
I bought my first straight for $1 at an antique store in Ottawa, Kansas. The blade was rusty and the scales were cracked and the wedge was missing. I sent it to Ambrose who made a new set of scales, cleaned and honed the blade.

Here's a picture, it's a New West


Determination is key with shaving with a straight, how did you push through the Month + of sub par shaves? Did you know there was a light at the end of the tunnel?
Did I push through? No.

After three months of straight shaving I was still getting lousy shaves and it took longer than using a DE. So after three months I laid down my blades. I thought what was point? I was getting BBS shaves with my DE's in less time with less hassle.

Long story short, I had an incredibly lucky score of collector grade razors and it occurred to me that it was pointless to own these razors if I wasn't going to use them. So I sent a few of them out for honing and I have been using a straight razor every day since December 1, 2010.

Funny thing, my technique improved greatly after my layoff. I guess that I had forgotten my bad habits. within two weeks of returning I was getting consistently BBS on my cheeks, chin and jawline. I'm still working on the areas on either side of my Adam's apple and getting closer daily.

Now my favorite question... if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose:
3 razors:

• Filarmonica EPBD I got from Mark
• Sears Roebuck Sta-Sharp
• Dubl Duck Dwarf

2 brushes:

• 2009 B&B LE with Ebony Handle
• Simpson Eagle G3 in Best from the Operation Smile Fundraiser

3 soaps:

• Czech & Speake Oxford and Cambridge
• MWF
• Valobra Menthol

2 creams:

• C.O. Bigelow
• Godrej Deluxe

3 colognes:

• Creed Windsor
• Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire
• L'instant De Guerlain Pour Homme EdT

3 Aftershaves:

• Bigelow 1200 ASB
• Musgo Real ASB
• Thayer's Witch Hazel

What is your strop preference and what is your stropping regime?
I own several strops and have yet to settle on a favorite, but I do prefer a fast, slick draw. I also prefer the linen component of my Tony Miller horsehide strop over Hess linen and the cloth component on Kanayama strops.

I strop 25-30 times on the TM linen and then 60-70 times on leather.

What is your honing set up for eBay specials?
I still haven't mastered the hone, so I'll need to get back to you on this one.

How often and what's your method for touching up your straights? favorite finish?
I find that I need to touch up a blade after about 10 shaves. I use a two-sided Dubl Duck barber's hone and a hard wool felt hanging strop with .25 micron diamond spray. 3-5 laps on the DD and 5-7 laps on the wool strop. Then 50 on linen and about 100 on leather.

Are you currently reading a book? or perhaps even better; what book will you be reading next?
I don't read as much now as I used to, but I enjoy science fiction, histories and Mark Twain.

Favorite Movie or two?
I have more than one or two -

“Outlaw Josey Wales”
“Lawrence of Arabia”
“The Longest Day”
“Coconuts”
“Patton”
and “Forrest Gump” to name a few

With what fictional/historical character do you most identify?
Check out my avatar. TR was truly a self made man.

Do you have any mottos, sayings, or quotes to live by?
Work hard, play harder.

What has been the best advice you've gotten from a member at B&B?
“Mind your blade angle, don't apply pressure and relax, it's only shaving”

If you could give one piece of advice to someone new at this, what would it be?
“Mind your blade angle, don't apply pressure and relax, it's only shaving”

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A few pictures


From left to right:

• 6/8 Full Hollow Diamond Hayashi 120
• 6/8 C.V. Heljestrand MK42
• 5/8 Sears Roebuck & Co. Sta-Sharp
• 5/8 Kohler Craftsman
• 6/8 T The SCHEöN BURG
• 7/8 Filarmonica EPBD

In the drawer:

• 5/8 Dubl Duck Dwarf
• 5/8 ERN No. 421

Also in the rotation:

5/8 Ellis Hybrid



5/8 Filarmonica Doble Temple No. 12


A few from my collection. I got lazy and didn't want to take most of them from the cases and wipe the oil off to take pics. So I left them.

[johnmrson]

Another excellent interview. Nice to meet you Harry.

[maxman]

I'm learning so much about the people I respect here.
These interviews are wonderful
More! More I say!

[Vlad]

Nice interview! It appears our Mr. Scruffy (aka Scruffmeister) is actually a guy named "Harry". Yep, interviews are great for learning more about people.

[Harvitz81]

Glad to meet you Harry! Another excellent interview.

[Wid]

Another great interview, thanks for sharing Harry.

[dakotaev]

Great read, fantastic collection.

[dpmtherrien]

Very nice interview Harry. Good to learn about you, and very nice collection.

[Antique Hoosier]

IMO, the greatest "in the wild" capture of multiple QUALITY straight razors EVER, was accomplished by this Gentleman. He scored a King's Ransom of awesome blades in one fell swoop at an antiques fair. Jaw dropping haul!

[wimbouman]

Nice!
I love these interviews!

[mdunn]

Hi Harry!

[Brent]

Another great addition to the series!

[franz]

Nice interview!

[gearchow]

A nice mini shaving biography. Super job!

-jim

[taffy]

Nice read.

[StillShaving]

Thanks for sharing your experience and the photos of your nice collection.

[brianw]

Glad to see you came back the the straights Harry.... Awesome collection makes my 6 look pathetic !!!!

[Dennard]

Wonderful interview with Harry! Many thanks!