A Shaving Light Bulb Moment

Ranger Daddy and I had a mutual light bulb moment yesterday.  Over the course of the next month or so (during which our current stockpile of safety razors will run out) we are going to invest in the equipment necessary for each of us to have, and know how to use, straight razor.  Making the decision was easy.  It's fairly obvious that safety razors toss an awful lot of garbage into the trash, even if two adults each use just one per week.

Finding reasonably priced straight razors was a bit of a challenge though.  It took us about ninety minutes with Google last night to find anything decently priced.  It seems that shaving with a straight blade has become something reserved for the upper reaches of wealth and comfort.  For the first hour of our search, the cheapest blade we could find was about $100!  Then we happened upon the brands Krieger and Zeepak.  Both of these companies feature perfectly competent blades running between $13 and $30 dollars.  FYI, the fancy shaving sites such as Classic Shave have nothing but scorn for these cheap blades in their discussion forums.  The derogatory comments smacked of elitism when I saw them last night.  Keep in mind that a razor blade, like a good watch, can only be perfected so far.  At a certain point, you're paying for the finish and detailing, not the blade itself.  One how-to page we read said you shouldn't pay more than $30 for your first blade.  Once you master the learning curve, you can upgrade if you like but start cheap.  

Zeepak also has a complete starter kit (two blades, strop, stone, mug, soap, and brush) for $100.  We're going to get the kit.  We need two blades, minimum, and of course don't have any of the sharpening tools.  We do have a mug and brush (Ranger Daddy has been using soap and brush for going on three years now) but our brush, courtesy of Urban Cowboy, is cheap and falling apart.

So there you have it; yet another way to save big bucks in a small way.  Switch from safety razors to either an electric (Ranger Daddy likes electrics but I hate them with a passion and we need something both of us will like) or a good old fashioned straight blade.