All of the disposable razors that end up in the land fill and unnecessary use of electricity harms the environment. Buying disposable razors keeps companies like BIC in business to make other wasteful products like disposable pens. Then there is the metals used to manufacture the blades and treat the edges, they cant be good for the earth. Plastics deplete our precious natural resources. Most of the strait razors are already made and can be purchased on ebay. Most straight shavers use shaving soap not canned mass produced shaving cream that also ends up in the land fill.

 

Shaving soap? I didn't even know this stuff existed. Sweet! I'll try it.

 

Most drug stores have Williams which is OK, do a search on shaving soap and a whole world will appear. There is even some handmade goats milk soap that is supposed to be real good, haven't tried it yet though.

 

Straight razors require care when shaving and maintenance. Also, it is not a question of if you will cut yourself, but rather - when.

I disagree with the premise of this thread. In the military I learned to use a saftey razor and also how to hone the stainless steel blades as a normal part of maintaing the razor. Although not as easy to use as a disposable blade, a saftey razor requires less attention that a straight razor when shaving, is safer with kids or other distractons present and takes much less time.

With a high quality razor (Merkur or equivalent), a marble hone, and several bades so that you can swap them out, you can use a pair of saftey blades for several years before they require replacement. The tricks are to always properly prepare your face and give the soap time to soften your beard, and also to hone the blades weekly as a maintenance activity before they are completely dull. A dull stainless steel blade is difficult to hone and will require a lot of excess "grind down" compared to keeping the edge up with normal mainenance honing.

 

I totally forgot about safety razors I shave with a straight and have been for about 2 years now. I have a nice collection of about 20 razors with about 14 in SHARP shaving shape. The rest are invarious states of sharpenning.

 

When I got out of the Marines, I threw my razor and shaving foam in the trash can and never looked back. But after six months, my red, curly, Scottish heritage beard frightened not only pedestrians but their small dogs who cowered as I approached. It was time for a change.

I bought a Norelco, electric shaver and have never looked back. About a year later, my wife kotched me. I'd be a happy bachelor but for Norelco.

Bob Wilson

 

EnviroMENTAList... With the emphasis on MENTAL!

You should just go ZZ Top and stop wasting our earths resources on your straight razor collection that only shaves one person instead of the 20 it would serve if you were so concerned about waste and overuse of resources.

 

but you have to have a few to allow the metal to rest between shaves, plus each one shaves differently. Some days I feel like a good english cast steel blade(Wade and Butcher), others I like the challenge of not slicing myself using a VERY sharp german stainless ice tempered razor(Henkels) or sometimes a good old american made razor (Genco fluid steel) just feels so good.

 

I'm sticking to my replaced once every 5 years Norelco

 

WHAT!!! They wear out???

I replace the blades when they break, ~10-15 years. The one I bought in the early 80s is still going strong with the original batteries. The most recent one was just to get the improved head and 'water proof' (never used) capability.

Bob Wilson

ps. My dog thinks whisker dust is delicious.