Vintage Barber shaving mugA great flea market find. A silver coated metal barber shaving mug, another good reason to get rid of the beard and celebrate a good straight razor shave.
New York Barbershop Rotterdam:
What a great place to get a straight razor shave or a haircut and for sure to hang around for a bit. Watch the video of a straight razor shave by New York Barbershop Rotterdam.
(image (c) by New York Barbershop Rotterdam)
Restoring 6 rusty old straight razor blades:
Visiting the flea market on the Main in Frankfurt I bought this nice leather roll bag filled with 6 old rusty straight razors. The price was so low that even just for the leather bag it would be a find. Coming home I first cleaned and oiled the bag and after that I cleaned and removed the rust of the razors. Two of them have no hallmarks and are also quite small like a 2/8 but the others (Bockla, two Peaso, Kobar) I will resharpen and use over the time. A bit of a progress is viewable right now of the images above more will show up soon.
To check the sharpness of your straight razor simply grab the hair with the hair root facing the palm/floor and the thinner end towards the sky. If you have no decent long hair for this test – have a look at the other half of your bed you should be able to find some from a/your lady. Gently move down the hair to the razor blade and you should hear the “pling”. If not grap the hair either a bit more to the end and give it more weight for the blade or turn it around. If still not successful give it to an expert for a resharpening and let him teach you of how to keep it sharp with the leather stromp. I read the blade should last for about 1000 shaves before a resharpening is needed again. So give it a try for the full joy of a clean shave rather than a “ripping of the hair feeling”.
The Barber Shop Club:
Great place to be in Los Angeles, The Barber Shop Club founded by Woody Lavelle.
Straight Razor – my first strop!
About 2 years ago I bought my first strop to hone/sharpen my straight razors. There are some fancy 100 Euro + models out there and my first thoughts were, you got it for decades so – spent the money. On the other side I wasn´t sure If straight razors would be my thing.
Luckily I went for a relatively cheap one. It´s not that I stoped to straight razor shave, but as a beginner you cut the leather so easily. In most tutorials or movies they strp very fast, which makes absolutely no sense esp. if you are not a “master” in it. Just go about 20 times slowly with hardly any pressure over the leather, thats it.
And at the beginning you are a bit nervous or let me say not so focused. So making a false movement with the blade is done so quickly. So my advice is, save the money and buy a nice one after you ruined the first one.
I guess in about a year, I´m ready to buy something more appropriate for my razors. But in ne meantime, this one serves me well.
Just had a straight razor shave, I hardly use the single bladed Gilettes be-cause
anymore. I love practice on my skill, use the straight razor and probably also the trill of the shave.
I made jokes a while ago when about three bladed razors and how they will go up until 10-20 so you can shave your face with one stroke, we have reached the 5 blade nonsense not too far away anymore.
Watch this barber and see how easy it is!
Hawleywood’s Barbershop:
I guess if we had a Barbershop like this one, I would start growing my hair again. But most Barbers are like taxi drivers on speed, who ruin your Saturday morning by talking bullshit and asking questions which has been asked by them before. I rather prefer a max. of 3 mm hair and safe the money – be-cause.
Wait! I guess there is a barber around. Eric from Life Time Gear has a friend Olli Wegerich, I guess he would be the guy around Darmstadt to get a haircut.
Very stylish surrounding and absolute efficient master straight razor shave demonstration.
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