A lot of guys ask me, what sort of products should I buy to start out?

Based on my personal observations, once someone starts down the road of traditional wet shaving, I have found that they rarely turn back — so, in my opinion, buying a nice set of mid-budget gear is a really, really good idea. When people buy a cheap brush or razor, many times within a couple months they end up ordering something better.

So, why not treat yourself with a BETTER starter set? You’ll actually save yourself some upgrade costs later!

Here are some suggested items:
The Edwin Jagger DE89BL This is an excellent starter DE, but also a DE that is used by guys who have been wet shaving for years. A phenomenal investment!
The Simpson Special S1 Best Badger Shaving Brush
Simpson’s quality is outstanding, and this little “Best” badger brush is an outstanding value.

35 Blade Sampler pack
This is a great way to “find your blade!” This package will probably last you a good 6 months of daily shaving.

Taylor of Old Bond Street Avocado Shave Cream
Start with the best! TOBS is one of the most widely reviewed and loved shaving creams. This 75ml tube will get you started!

At $98.50, and free shipping, these 4 products will get you going, and boy howdy, their quality is outstanding. Treat yourself!!

Hows this for a business model:  Don’t send me your straight razors for restoration.  Confused yet?  Good.  Lets explain.

The Common Scenario

Lets say…you’re new to wet shaving, and you just picked up your first rusty, stained straight razor from an antique shop or E-bay.  Eager and excited, you post a picture in a popular shaving forum, with a title like “Antique shop find” or “My ebay score!”     The forum members reply with things like “Nice score!” and “That should clean up great!”   You feel all happy and in love with your new found treasure, and quickly move to the Restoration and Workshop forums out there, and find that this is a bit more involved than you’re willing.  Your next step:  Find a Restoration guy, right?  Maybe thats why you’re reading this right now…  You found my page….

The perfect candidate razor….  For NOT having professionally restored

Disclaimer:  There are exceptions to my recommendations throughout this article — please understand that if a razor has sentimental value, is a family heirloom, or holds special meaning to you that its not always subject to the same analysis as the average e-bay find.  I totally understand this, sometimes a razor is worth restoring no matter what the cost or condition, if it’s something you feel is worth it to you.  On with the article….

There are a few guidelines I like to follow, when recommending to my clients whether or not a razor is worth restoring or rescaling.  They are as follows:

* The blade should be 6/8 or larger
* The blade should not have major chips or cracks
* If the blade is a full hollow razor:  The blade should not have significant hone wear, uneven hone wear, or a combination of the two.
* If the blade is a full hollow razor:  The blade should not have significant rust on the hollow portion of the blade
* The resulting restored razor should have a value higher than the price I charge for my services ***

They may seem like odd requirements..  What does blade width have to do with anything?  Well, mostly, it is because of the last item there –  It is quite simple really, a 4/8 or 5/8 razor will rarely be worth more than $100, EVER — so why invest $100 for a new set of scales?  It is not a wise decision.  Especially, when you can find prime examples of 4/8 and 5/8 razors out there, practically new in the boxes, for less than a new set of scales will cost you.

Examples

Here is an example of a razor that should not be sent out for restore.  At the time of this writing, this razor is on E-bay, and is currently selling for $15.00.

Why it doesn’t qualify:

-  The razor has uneven hone wear, and heavy rust
-  In order to restore, the razor would have to be unpinned, jeopardizing the pivot end bolsters.
-  The razor’s rust around the stabilizer area would force you to use heavy sanding or extensive greaseless compound buffing, causing the lines to soften on the stabilizer and shoulder, lessening overall visual appeal.  The tail of the razor would have to have a decent amount of metal removed as well, and from past experience the top of the spine near the point end likely has VERY deep pitting, requiring a large amount of metal to be removed.  In order to remove the rust and pitting, the etch on the face of the blade would have to be removed.
-  I would likely charge around $85.00 for a full restoration and honing — The resulting razor would have a value of around $55-70.00, mostly due to its size and what will almost certainly be soft lines and obvious alterations to its original geometry.

Would I buy it for $15.00?  Nope.  Should you?  Only if you’re willing to work on the blade yourself.

Example #2

Here is another razor, currently on E-bay.  You might say “Well what the heck is wrong with that one?”  My answer:  not a lot.  However, tell me this — is it worth it to invest $50-80.00 for professional restoration on a run-of the mill 5/8, black plastic scale razor?  Is it?  The etch might be lost too — basically removing the only thing that makes this razor stand out.  Why bother?  You can purchase a brand new, professionally honed Dovo razor for less than it would cost to bring this one back.

Example #3

This is another razor currently on e-bay.  This is very similar to something that I would get a request to restore.  Here are my concerns:

- The razor’s scales are basically junk.  They are warped and ugly (apparent from another picture).  In order to bring this blade up to something worth looking at, it will need a new set.   $$$$$
- The blade doesn’t look so bad at first glance…  But..  looking closer there is some serious rust on the tang and stabilizer.  This razor is never going to have that brand-new look to it, no matter how careful the restorer is — and the etch, yet again, is not something that will be guaranteed to survive.
- It doesnt matter how you slice it – this is a 5/8 razor, that even with new custom scales will be lucky to fetch $100.00, in shave ready and perfectly restored condition.  What makes it so important to you that you’d be willing to invest $130+ to make that happen?  Have you seen some of the razors out there available for $130.00, that will have none of the aesthetic issues this one will end up having when its completed?

Is it a neat razor? Sure.  Should you buy it?  Maybe!  Should you have it professionally restored?  Nope.

The ideal candidates for Restoration & Re-scaling

- Large full hollow blades over 6/8 that need new scales, but minimal blade work.
- Any wedge over 6/8 in size, regardless of amount of rust
- Unique or valuable razors
- Razors that have excellent quality steel, but lousy scales – example:  Filarmonica, Henckels Friodur, etc.
- Any razor with sentimental value or family heirlooms

Conclusion

Not every razor is worth being professionally restored.  I really wish people would stop recommending it to every newbie that posts a picture of their latest acquisition.  Razors like the 3 examples above are all too common in the antique shops, flea markets, and E-bay.  People buy them up at $15-30 each — and in my opinion they just aren’t worth it.  Regardless of whether you hire someone to fix one of them up, or invest 3, 5, 10, or 15 hours of your own time sanding and polishing, in the end, you are in the red on that razor.  Everyone should assign a monetary value to their time — the challenge is not to forget yours, and to realize just how much it REALLY costs you for a run-of the mill 5/8 razor.

I’m sure a lot of people think I’m nuts because I use a straight razor.  I can definitely understand why they might think that.  It’s not like I just woke up one day and started using one though.  Let me explain what exactly happened.  Maybe my story will sway you to join me.

I didn’t enjoy my shaves.
Prior to December, 2008, shaving was not only a chore, but I flat out hated doing it.  I used to use some “Edge” canned chemical goo, and a Gillette Mach 3 razor.  On the days I shaved at the sink, I would take a few swipes on my face, and then have to bang the head of the razor on the sink in order to get all the little bits of hair out of the cartridge.  Rinse, and repeat.  Eventually, I started shaving IN the shower, because it was faster, and I could let the shower head water pressure clean out the cartridge a bit easier than having to bang it on the sink.  I don’t think I ever enjoyed shaving with my Mach3.  Ever.

I was annoyed with rising prices
At the time, Mach3 blades were about $23.00 for 8 cartridges, or approximately $3.00 per cartridge.  I was such a cheap ass, I would use one cartridge for 30+ shaves, even though after about 10-12, they started to become even more unpleasant than usual.  I was still throwing $3/month away for chemical canned goo.  I can confidently say, I was spending about $5.00/month to shave – and thats being a complete cheap skate!!!  If I were to replace my cartridges at more appropriate times, I could have easily spent $8-9/month.

So, as if  $3/cartridge wasn’t enough, Gillette decides to go and do this:

Yes, thats right.  $33.00 for 8 blades.  If you replaced your cartridge every 12 shaves, and shaved 260 times a year (5 times a week), that would be a grand total of $90.00 a year.  Add some Gillette canned gel, and your annual shaving bill is closer to $125.00 / year.  Add in a second shaver in the house (Ladies?), and the annual shaving expense doubles to $250.

I didn’t feel like I was getting good shaves
Along with the chore of shaving, I felt like, even with new cartridges, my shaves weren’t great.  They were just OK.  Plus, if I shaved daily, I would get some pretty bad irritation.  I thought…there must be a better way….

A desire for something different
I had always heard that a straight razor was supposed to give the best shave.  I never really expected to get into them.  I did, however, put a bug in my wifes ear a couple times that I wanted to try a straight razor shave some day.  Another spark in my interested happened while surfing the Internet.  A digg.com link sent me to a blog post about “Shaving like your grandpa.”  It was quite an interesting blog article, introducing me to the Double Edge Safety Razor.  The blog recommended a new Merkur DE razor, but mentioned vintage ones as well.   I was quite interested in the entire article, but, at the time, put it on a back burner.

For christmas 2008, my wife gave me a badger brush, a soap puck, and what is commonly referred to as a “Shavette” – a straight razor with replaceable blades.  What an amazing gift.  That’s what got me started – she has only her self to blame for my hobby now!

The Double Edge Safety Razor
Soon after trying a few shaves with my new shavette, I joined some online forums, and I decided to purchase a DE razor.  I found a few in some local antique shops, and cleaned them up.  Lets run down some facts that make DE razors superior to a Gillette Fusion:

- A DE Razor costs between $5 and 50, will last you your whole life, and is a one-time expense
- Blades for a DE Razor cost approximately $0.15-0.25 each, depending on brand, and last from 5-10 shaves
- DE Razors do not clog up like cartridge razors do
- Shaves are just as close, and less irritating

Here is a perfect example -  a Gillette Fat Handle Tech from the 1930s/1940s:

These razors are available on E-bay for $5-15, and antique shops for as little as $2, if you’re lucky enough to find them.

and then pick up some of these:

Which are available at Wal-Mart for about $1.75

Add some VDH Shaving Soap, also available at Wal-mart for $1.50:

And then all you’re left needing is a brush.  There are SEVERAL available cheap brushes out there, that work fantastic.  One is the Tweezerman Badger brush, available for about $10.00:

Or the VDH Badger Brush, available for around $20.00:

With these items, and a little bit of reading, maybe a little bit of youtubing, you can begin your adventure in hobby shaving.

Reasons for making the change

Cost – Each shave with a Fusion razor costs you around 48 cents.  Each shave with a DE (not including the original investment) costs you around 2 cents.  Over the course of a year, the Fusion with shave gel will cost you around $125, and the DE with soap pucks will cost you around $9.00.  Of course, if you turn it into a full blown hobby and start collecting razors, this cost gap will close

Environmental – The packaging from constant throw-away products like canned gel can add up.  With DEs and soap pucks, there is considerably less waste.  Straight razors generate zero waste, only soap puck packaging.

The Challenge – Shaving with a DE razor can be a challenge.  You might finish your shave the first week with your old Fusion — but, soon enough (over a couple months), you will master the DE.  A sense of accomplishment can come from this feat.  Although at first, it may take you 4-5 times longer to achieve a shave because of the learning curve, I got to the point where I was SAVING time with the DE – because it clogs less often and needs to be rinsed out less often than a cartridge razor.

The Shave - Shaving with a DE is not only rewarding, but your shaves will be as-smooth-if-not-smoother than your old Fusion.  You also have more control, since the blades are not forced at a particular angle for the entire shave like a cartridge razor.  This can be good for trouble spots, to increase or decrease cutting angle at-will.

Less Irritation – passing 5 blades across your face 3-4 times (like what happens with a Fusion) can create some serious irritation, especially if you have sensitive skin.  Cutting down the amount of times a razor’s edge passes across any given spot on your face can leave you with less irritation.  As your technique and angles improve, the shave will be that much better.

Nostalgia – Many DE and straight razor shavers reminisce about being a child watching their father shave with a DE or Straight – and starting to shave with one sometimes makes us feel connected to those moments, and connected to their relative in some way.  Some people are lucky enough to have a razor passed down from a relative.  I myself have a DE razor that was my grandfather’s.  He passed away in 2010, and I remember him every time I  pull out that razor and shave with it.  Some DE and straight shavers also just like to feel connected to the past — to know that you’re following the same ritual that men have been doing for the last 200 years.  Pulling out a 50, 100 or 200 year old razor makes you think about who used it, and how many lives it has been a part of.

That feeling that you get – there is an odd, satisfying feeling of holding a nice, hefty piece of metal in your hand while you shave, as opposed to a cheap piece of plastic.  It just feels right.

From chore to hobby – combine the things above, and you turn what was once a chore into something you look forward to every day.  Maybe, you decide to pick up a second or 3rd razor, and you get to rotate them.  Maybe you try a different scent of shaving soap / cream.  Many times, when a coworker or family member finds out you are into vintage shaving stuff, they give you “some stuff they found in the basement”  Its happened to me a few times!  Heck, my dad has even been buying stuff at garage sales for me!  Haha!  Going hunting for stuff at flea markets and antique shops is a lot of fun as well.  It doesn’t always have to cost you money, either –  Sometimes you can pick up a few cheap items at a flea market, try them out for a bit and decide what you like, and offload the ones that you didn’t like as much on e-bay.  Probably make a few bucks in the process!

Limitless possibilities – depending on how deep you get, there is always something new to try in the wet shaving world.  Custom razors, fancy brushes, exotic sharpening stones and manly scents by the dozens keep you coming back, and can always keep the hobby fresh.  Like any hobby, you can spend as much as you want to.  Sure, you can go buy a $1,000 custom straight razor.  Guess what, I bet you can also find a $1,000 golf club, or $1,000 bicycle frame, or $1,000 radio controlled car, or $1,000 snow board.  Yep, they are out there.  That doesn’t mean you have to get one to enjoy something that the Gillette marketing team has been working harder and harder to make you totally unaware of.

Conclusion

Before you are spoon-fed the next battery-powered ionized-moisture stripping 6-bladed Gillette cartridge razor product that costs $39.99 for 8 blades, I strongly urge you to re-examine what shaving is all about.  Its about some sharp metal getting scraped across your face.   If you have any hint of interest in this post — or you’ve actually made it this far and haven’t clicked the “Back” button, you’re a perfect candidate.  For me, money savings was the lure into what became a rewarding daily ritual.  For you, maybe it will be the better shave, or the connections to the past – or maybe you just think it looks interesting.  Whatever the reason — Give it a shot!  I doubt you will be disappointed.

I will be accepting Razor Restoration and Rescales beginning May 1.  If you’re interested in sending me something, please fill out a Quote.  I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  If you have filled out a quote over the last 3 months and I didn’t get back to you, please re-fill it out.  I’m going to start with a clean slate here.  One of the main reasons, is the drastic change in prices.  Please note — I will only be offering rescales in the following materials:

G-10 (many colors available)
Paper Micarta (Ivory, Antique, Black)
Carbon Fiber
Black Horn
Translucent Horn

Prices for all scales regardless of materials will be the same –  $99.00 — metal lined wedges will add 9 bucks to the price.  If you are looking for wood scales or acrylic scales, please look elsewhere.

As for blade work, I’ll only be accepting razors that meet my requirements.  I’ll be rejecting work if the razor falls into one of these categories:

* is less than 5/8 width
* is a full hollow grind with heavy pitting or rust
* has significant hone wear
* is a razor that I feel is not worth your investment in restoring or rescaling

In addition to these changes, I’ll be adding a new offering –  full re-grinds of near-wedge razors.  The cost for this service will be $90.00.  Inquire for more details.

Thank you!

Restoring straight razors and making custom scales has been a relaxing, rewarding, and sustaining hobby for me for nearly 2 years now. I’ve been able to pay for my workshop, grinder, a couple razors for myself, my hones…and even taken my wife out for an evening here and there with the small profits I’ve made.  It also helped pay for my son’s habit of being an awesome hockey player, which is quite an expensive habit to have!  I am grateful for my customers and the business they have given me.  I always felt really good about offering my customers fair prices, for a good quality job.

What I didn’t expect was that in doing so, I became so swamped that I could not keep up with demand.  At one point in 2010, I had 40 razors that weren’t mine sitting in a box waiting for work to be done to them.  And I was averaging at the most 3 razors per week.  Eventually I realized that I just didn’t feel comfortable with that much work, sitting there looming over me.  I tried to keep cool though, and put everything I had into each razor I completed.  It can be overwhelming though!  Keeping track of who wanted what done…addresses, etc.  I almost needed a secretary (my wife passed on the job….).   In late 2010, I decided to start saying “No” to new work.  That is a really frustrating thing to do, because, I know it had to hurt my reputation.  But, I had to get out of the hole I dug!  14 weeks later, I had finally finished my queue.  Since then, I had started pulling out a few razors I had acquired and needed some work.  Things were good and it was nice to work on razors that were my own.  But.. it didn’t take long before I was doing some work for a friend…  and then soon thereafter, a customer sends a razor to me without inquiring first if I’m accepting work…and so on and so forth, and I find myself swamped again — well, not quite like before, but, you get the idea!!!!

Some very obvious realizations have come to light for me, that I think I always knew, but, was underestimating…

1.  Demand for Straight Razor Restoration is out of control.

Hundreds of straight razors are sold EVERY WEEK on E-bay, and almost all of them need work.  Most of the time, not just a little work.  They need a LOT of work.  Who are buying these razors?  Mostly people who want to use them – and mostly people who don’t know what to do with it when it shows up on their doorstep.  Very few people are willing to put for the effort to clean up a razor, and very few know how to hone.  So, why are they buying them?  Because they constantly read about people buyng vintage and having them restored, see the pictures, and hear about how amazing XXXXX brand is – it seems like a good alternative to buying current production razors.  The fact of the matter is, however, there are not enough people offering Razor Restorations out there that offer a QUALITY service to work on these razors.

Any time that a market has this much demand, there are going to be people that will take advantage of it.  The charlatans.  Go to E-bay, do a search for “straight razor.”  Choose Buy-it-now, and price highest.  I can guarantee you, you will see a few razors in the $150-350 range for sale – some common names like Wade & Butcher or Wostenholm, put in “custom” scales.  Click one of them.  Notice how the scales usually don’t seem to fit right.  Sometimes they are too wide near the tang.  Imagine stropping that.  Notice how the wedges aren’t tapered.  Notice how the scales are too thick, and they aren’t rounded very much along the edges.  These are all signs that these guys are new at scale making – yet they are demanding prices that would suggest they are masters.  This is troubling to me.  That is NOT the right way to start off as someone who wants to become a well respected and reputable restoration person.  If you’re charging people $100-300 (the premium over the bare blade value of $50 maybe) for a set of scales they aren’t blown away by, they won’t be buying from you again.  However, if they are charged $40.00 for a set of custom scales, then, they will likely be willing to overlook a few problems with the scales.  THIS is how you should approach being a new scalemaker –  start with low prices, build a client base, and, for crying out loud, MAKE SCALES.  Make LOTS of scales.  The more you do, the better you will be at it.

Demand for these services is THROUGH THE ROOF, and although the numbers of users continues to grow, the only thing I see popping up all over the Internet are new places to buy DOVO’s…and Gold Dollars… and brushes… anything that doesn’t require any work and can almost be drop-shipped to the customer. I guess there is a place for those vendors, but, I guess I am just sad that there are not more people out there willing to put in some time to learn how to restore razors properly. Its not like it is THAT difficult… Especially when there are so many resources available. Heck, I have basically given away every secret I have in my Straight Razor Restoration Video Series on YouTube.

Time for another realization…

2.  People have, and will take advantage of me if I keep my prices low.

I LOVE making scales for people, seeing their reactions, telling me how they will cherish their newly restored razor, never sell, etc.  This is why I rescale for people, as opposed to just rescaling for re-sale, which is way more profitable.  This fuzzy feeling inside changes when I see my customer sell their rescales the week after they get them back.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out, I’m being taken advantage of.  You buy a nice old rusty wedge for $20.00.  You send it to me, I restore, rescale for $80-90.  You sell razor for $175.00.  You profit $75.00.  I get my money too, it really is a victimless crime.  However –  This creates more demand for my service — demand that I can’t handle – and it preys on my willingness to offer quality services at a fair price, expecting you to actually use the resulting razor….which leads to my next realization…

3.  If I re-open to new work, I have no choice but to increase my prices.

And not just a little bit.  I’m talking about a 68% increase in price.  From $59 to $99 sets of scales.  That is depressing to me — but — how else can I open my doors, be fair to my customers, and keep myself from getting swamped with work?  There is no other way!  Its either raise prices.. or have a lottery?  Ha. thats the only other thing i can think of.  What if I take on 10 razors in a week at $99?  I will have no choice but to raise them further.  Turning people away because I’m overloaded doesn’t make sense – it just puts people off.  I also have to set my prices accordingly so that false demand is not created by people sending me razors for me to work on so that they can re-sell.

And finally, if any of you have actually read this far, I have one more realization that is inevitable

4.  Prices of good-quality and restored vintage Straight Razors will continue to rise with no end in sight.

Number of straight razor users and demand continues to go up, number of quality restorers remains unchanged, and the number of vintage razors out there is a finite number.  All of these things equal higher prices.  It is inevitable.  Get used to it.  Look at the bright side —  It makes PERFECT sense to buy lots of AMAZING razors.  It is an investment.  Its as good as putting money in the bank.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings

Brad

Been doing a lot of razor restoration work this month, since I have had every Thursday and Friday off my day job!

A couple months ago, Matthew from Razor Emporium (www.razoremporium.com) approached me about possibly setting up a storefront on their site for restores done by me. To be perfectly honest, I was not very interested, because I stay busy enough with peoples restorations along with an e-bay sale here or there. Long story short, he talked me into letting him send me a box of razors he had. Although the whole box was pretty rough, 6 of them ended up being worth saving. I did some restore work on them, and sent them back to him. He will be listing them for sale on his website soon. Although not the prettiest of the razors out there, since they were in pretty poor shape when I received them, I turned them all into EXCELLENT shavers. I know, because I had a shave with 3 of them yesterday and 3 of them today!

I’m not sure if I’ll be sending any more razors their way.

Meanwhile, I have been getting caught up on the rescales, and I’m hoping to put some time into finishing off my new knife grinder before Thanksgiving. I’ll be posting a long story regarding that project soon here on my site, if you haven’t already been following my thread at SRP.

I think customs are in my future…..

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT EVERYONE! This is a heck of a hobby!!!!

In order to keep my wait list under control, I’ve decided to increase my prices a bit. It may be temporary, it may be permanent, it all depends on how things go. I’ve come to realize that after I take away my supplies, there ain’t much left. And although this is a hobby… I gotta say with every razor I do, I get more comfortable and more confident that I’m producing a high quality product for one of the cheapest prices around. That might even still be true after the price increase!

For those of you who already have a razor in my queue, or were in the talk with me for a quote already, my quotes will be fulfilled 100%, no surprises from here. I just need things to cool off..as I’ve got 33+ razors from people in my queue right now!

Thanks for the support, everyone! I am hoping to burn through my waitlist..get caught up, and see if people are still willing to pay my 25% increase! lol