Cheapshaver Forum

[Steve56]

No worries.

 

[abies]

I used to think that, until I met a local gentleman and friend through B&B who is into wet shaving to save money. I hone his straight razors for him when he needs it. I’m paraphrasing, but he’s told me several times that ‘I call myself frugal, but my wife says I’m cheap’. He drives a nice BMW. What is surprising is that he likes, and will pay for a Filarmonica 14 straight razor as long as it’s not top price, and a Filarmonica 14 is not a cheap razor. I loaned him one and then helped him find a couple for himself. Really surprised me. They’re the only ‘uncheap’ shaving gear that he owns.

I’ll add that if you’re not shaving with a straight razor, as in you are using consumable blades, IMO you are not truly cheap. And believe me, if consumable blades were cheaper, my friend would be using them !

So here’s a cheap set up, except for the Belgian coticule hone - straight razor finishers have always been expensive for what they are. But keep in mind with the items below, you can shave for the rest of your life with no more hardware cost.

Gold Dollar Chinese straight razor. The last ones like this one, I paid $5 each shipped. The downside is that you’ll probably have to have it honed the first time by a knowledgeable person unless you are a knowledgeable person, because they are rather crude. The cheapest that I’ve bought a nice vintage straight razor is $8.

A razor hone. Pasted, flattened balsa will do nicely for about $20 for a robust set. Lapping film is about as cheap. I don’t use them so I can’t show you, I always thought that pasted balsa and film were bit ‘fiddly’. Stones are more expensive, $50-100 but a lifetime investment and you can use them on knives too. My cheap friend uses a 10k Naniwa synthetic hone ($50) and a pasted strop afterwards.

A piece of leather for a strop. Any clean leather will do.

Omega 49. You can get cheaper, but for $8.99 I’ll spend a couple of extra bucks for the 49.

So about $35 using pasted balsa or film to maintain the razor and you can shave for the rest of your life, or most of it, with no more hardware. A SR does require more of you though, and many people for good reason won’t and shouldn’t go this route, but it is the cheapest IMO.

View attachment 1969236

One thing I've always wondered about is the maintenance costs of straight razor equipment. It seems like people either periodically send their razors out, or have to buy paste, or a new strop because theirs got damaged, or a flattening stone, or whatever.

This isn't a criticism, I just don't have a good sense of what those costs really look like. You can also get a pack of disposable blades for pretty cheap that will last you a year to a couple of years, so there's a question that comes up of what other hidden costs might be accrued in that time period with a straight.

What I'm curious about is what someone would actually be spending on using a straight razor in a typical five year timeframe. I don't get the sense that in reality the average user doesn't spend any money on maintaining their razor in that period but am probably wrong.

 

[Steve56]

It depends on who does the maintenance. If you send it out for honing that kind of eliminates the cost advantage, and people who do so usually have two or more razors so they can use one while the other(s) are in transit. Cutting your strop and having to replace it is not a maintenance cost, it means that you haven’t learned good maintenance techniques.

My frugal friend uses a $50 10k Naniwa, 10mm thick, and a pasted strop followed by a clean leather strop. i don’t know what he uses for the paste, but balsa, linen, or denim are popular. So essentially he has $50 in more than 5 years of maintenance. But one could do without the stone and use only paste as many people do in Europe where pasted strops are more popular than finishing stones. This would involve having the razor professionally honed once then maintaining it on a pasted strop. There’s a post on B&B about Werner Breidenbach, the master grinder, who has maintained his razor for 40 years using a strop with black paste about every 7 days and has never honed it since the first time. It doesn’t get cheaper, a piece of leather and black paste. I assume that he uses a clean leather strop pre/post shaving. If you make your own pasted strop, I’d think $5-10 for many years of maintenance. Make two, one for the paste and a clean one for daily use.

If you go with a stone, you can maintain the flatness with sandpaper and a flat surface cheaply, I did so for years.

 

[Steve56]

Post #14 here:

Interesting correspondence from Revisor

I just received a package from Revisor, and Sabine was kind enough to include a copy of a local newspaper article. I think this will be of interest to the group..

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[geneaut]

I’m one of the lucky guys who can get 10 shaves from most DE blades, which is roughly two weeks of shaving for me. So I can use around 25-30 blades a year. A 100 pack of blades last me a long long time. When Amazon had 200 packs of SuperMax Stainless for $10 I grabbed a few. They shave fine in my old eBay Techs, and I will more than likely be buried before I finish the 600 of those blades alone, and they aren’t even the cheapest DE blades I have ever liked and used.

I have a $5 Gold Dollar SR I plan on trying to learn to hone, but it’s more from curiosity than from frugalness.

I think the spirit of things is to find what works for you. If you like shaving with SRs and you have the know-how and equipment to do that the roll with that. I you like DEs or SEs find an inexpensive way to use them.

 

[Steve56]

I think the spirit of things is to find what works for you. If you like shaving with SRs and you have the know-how and equipment to do that the roll with that. I you like DEs or SEs find an inexpensive way to use them.

Absolutely. I think what most people want in the ‘cheap’ option is ‘the cheapest option that appeals to them’, which is not necessarily the same thing as ‘the cheapest option’. But once you qualify ‘the cheapest option’ with ‘that appeals to you’, the door’s wide open. Could be that the cheapest option that I’m satisfied with is a Wolfman, Wald Brush, and Acqua di Parma. I know people like this too. It is fun to see just how cheaply you can do something over time though.

 

[geneaut]

Absolutely. I think what most people want in the ‘cheap’ option is ‘the cheapest option that appeals to them’, which is not necessarily the same thing as ‘the cheapest option’. But once you qualify ‘the cheapest option’ with ‘that appeals to you’, the door’s wide open. Could be that the cheapest option that I’m satisfied with is a Wolfman, Wald Brush, and Acqua di Parma. I know people like this too. It is fun to see just how cheaply you can do something over time though.

Agreed.

I started wetshaving in 2010 when the Mach 3 carts started getting ridiculous in cost. I was shaving with them until they rusted. I picked up some inexpensive wetshaving gear and never went back to the fancy Gillette cartridge systems.

Today, I treat shaving a little differently and cost is not my only concern, but my penny pinching nature often still comes into play. I’m willing to indulge selectively, and even then it’s usually soap related.

 

[profusion]

I have a funny attitude about cheap shaves. I spend a lot on cheaper things.

I now have a ridiculous collection of vintage DE razors, but I thought them all in "user grade" condition and didn't pay excessively for any single one of them.

Blades are where I get weird. I have enough blades now to probably last the rest of my life--I buy them them in bulk and shop carefully. Paying any more than $10 per 100 for current production blades seems like a travesty. However, I'll pay a lot more for vintage blades.

It's a hobby now, so I don't feel guilty about spending some money, but I'm still cost-conscious.

 

[geneaut]

I have a funny attitude about cheap shaves. I spend a lot on cheaper things.

I now have a ridiculous collection of vintage DE razors, but I thought them all in "user grade" condition and didn't pay excessively for any single one of them.

Blades are where I get weird. I have enough blades now to probably last the rest of my life--I buy them them in bulk and shop carefully. Paying any more than $10 per 100 for current production blades seems like a travesty. However, I'll pay a lot more for vintage blades.

It's a hobby now, so I don't feel guilty about spending some money, but I'm still cost-conscious.

I think you and I are fairly similar. I have a lot of razors, but half of them are eBay finds in the $10 range. I also have family members who shop for me in yard sales and junk stores. One of my favorite razors is an Ever Ready 1912 that came with a GEM Shovelhead that my sister found for $2 for both.

A toothbrush and hot, soapy water get many back into working condition.

One day, I'll probably get one or two of my collection replated just for vanity, but until then, these user-grade razors are plenty fine.