Posted: 3/12/2010 9:16:33 PM EDT
| Just bought my first DE razor, a Merkur futur. what can I expect. any tips. I've been using cartridge razors and I'm tired off all the ingrown's I get.. |
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Neutrogena Skin Clearing Shave Cream for Men. And change your blades when they start dragging.
One of our members has his own brand of shaving soaps. Might want to try it. Kell's |
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The Neutrogena aftershave is a good thing.
I use Proraso (C.O.Bigelow) cream in a Georgetown Pottery scuttle with a brush I got from Crabtree & Evelyn, and load my Gillette Super Adjustable with Dorco razors. I bought them from West Coast Shaving. I only shave once or twice a week, so one blade lasts me a week... 100 blades should last me almost two years. |
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Badger and Blade is to DE shaving what Arfcom is to the black rifle
I've seen firearm threads there, and thought wow, you dummies have an internet connection, and you're asking for gun advice on a shaving forum. FWIW, I'm at the end of my second week of DE shaving. |
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Just bought my first DE razor, a Merkur futur. what can I expect. any tips. I've been using cartridge razors and I'm tired off all the ingrown's I get.. Remember these tips: 1) PREP. No, really. Very important. 2) No fucking pressure. NONE. 3) Watch that angle. 4) Find a blade you like. Sharks are nice, as are Wilkinson. 5) (eventually) Lose the Merkur and find a vintage Gillette you like. |
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Oh, and get a sampler pack of blades from West Coast Shaving. You may like different blades than other people. I didn't like Feather, but the Dorco (I think 300) are great for me. Dorcos? Ick. I hate Feathers, and Merkurs are almost as bad, but Dorco blades are not that great. Red pack or white Personnas are better, and Sharks are the best cheap blade I have found. 301s are better than 300s. |
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Oh, and get a sampler pack of blades from West Coast Shaving. You may like different blades than other people. I didn't like Feather, but the Dorco (I think 300) are great for me. Dorcos? Ick. I hate Feathers, and Merkurs are almost as bad, but Dorco blades are not that great. Red pack or white Personnas are better, and Sharks are the best cheap blade I have found. 301s are better than 300s. I like Feathers and Derbys, but I have very tough hair. |
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Just bought my first DE razor, a Merkur futur. what can I expect. any tips. I've been using cartridge razors and I'm tired off all the ingrown's I get.. Remember these tips: 1) PREP. No, really. Very important. 2) No fucking pressure. NONE. 3) Watch that angle. 4) Find a blade you like. Sharks are nice, as are Wilkinson. 5) (eventually) Lose the Merkur and find a vintage Gillette you like. I heard that you just let the weight of the razor do the job... my grand father has a Gillette from 1910 I'm not sure where he would have it and he wont be able to tell me July1999 |
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Just bought my first DE razor, a Merkur futur. what can I expect. any tips. I've been using cartridge razors and I'm tired off all the ingrown's I get.. Remember these tips: 1) PREP. No, really. Very important. 2) No fucking pressure. NONE. 3) Watch that angle. 4) Find a blade you like. Sharks are nice, as are Wilkinson. 5) (eventually) Lose the Merkur and find a vintage Gillette you like. I heard that you just let the weight of the razor do the job... my grand father has a Gillette from 1910 I'm not sure where he would have it and he wont be able to tell me July1999 1910 would be an Old. Not good. Find a NEW or a Tech. Sorry about your grandfather. |
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You can expect more bleeding, which, in older times was considered good. 
I don't have time for a "comfortable" shave, and don't want to spend the time. Let's just get it over with. I have not bled once in the past 4 months of using my 1917 Gillette 3 piece. I got nothing but time though. 
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I haven't found much difference in the various shave soaps and creams, Colonel Conk's and Proraso are good value.
I found the super cheapie Derby blades on Ebay work as well for me as the Feathers or other more expensive blades. As stated before, use minimal pressure. I lather up, then shave with a downstroke, another quick lather and shave with a upstroke, doing it twice with minimal pressure results in a close shave with minimal to zero nicks. Trying to hack it all off in one pass hasn't worked as well for me. Made the switch to DE about 3 years ago. |
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I don't get it...
Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? |
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Quoted: I don't get it... Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? and that's great .... but I use a mach 3,4,5,9 and I get razor bumps for 3 days. 2 years of DE Shaving ... not one razor bump and my shave is nice and close. BTW ... I only bled once in 2 yrs and that's nothing a little aluminum can't fix |
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Quoted: I don't get it... Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? Easy, If I do what you do, I get the pleasure of picking ingrown hairs out of my face for the next 3 weeks while the massive smallpox-esque razor burn heals. It took me 2 weeks to find that feather blades were great for me and about a week to find out that "The Art of Shaving" Sensitive skin cream did a fantastic job. On a whim I tried the CO Bigelo (proaso) from bath and body works and it works even better. The nice thing is, even during the learning curve, I didnt have to play, "lets pick the hairs out of my face" cartridge blades are good for about 95% of the population. Unfortunately my face is sensitive and has whiskers shaped like ribbons which means I cant use what 95% of guys can. I've also run the math, switching has paid for itself 4x over in the 3 years I have been using DE Merkur Long w/ feather blades for me. |
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I don't get it... Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? The Zen of shaving. |
| I have used a straight razor which belonged to my grandfather for years, use nothing else. Interesting though, at the onset of WW1 the goverment took away the new soldiers straight razors in fears of them getting drunk or mad and slicing one another. That is where the first so called safety razor came into being. They sucked to put it politely and the straight razors were again authorized for the soldiers. I used a double edge while in the navy (RVN days) and it was a bitch trying to shave on a Destroyer escort bouncing around in the waves. Saw lots of lads with toilet paper plastered to their faces, kinda funny. |
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I don't get it... Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? You know how to shave with a Quattro so of course it is easy for you. You do not know how to shave with a DE so it seems complicated. You want to know what you gain? You get a better shave (may not be important for you) and it saves you money (also may not be important for you.) What do you lose? It takes a little bit longer. It probably takes me 5 minutes to shave, start to finish. It probably would take me the same 3 minutes it takes you in the shower. I started shaving with a DE because I got to thinking about how money Gillette makes every time I threw away a Mach 3 blade. Once I started shaving with a DE, I realized how crazy the 3, 4 and 5 blade catridges are. One blade is better. Shave with whatever works for you. If you're interested in a DE, I'd recommend a 1940s Gillette SuperSpeed razor (about $15), Derby blades (literally cents per blade), a Crabtree and Evelyn Best Badger brush (about $40), and whatever shaving soap or shaving cream (in a tube not a can) that you like ($5-$10). |
| I prefer either a Gillette blue tip or a Schick Krona for my razor, I like Wilkinson Sword blades. For soap I use this, http://www.kellsoriginal.com Hes an Arfcommer and makes great stuff. |
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Quoted: I don't get it... Everybody praises the old double edge razors, then I hear about how you have to prep properly, and buy the right shaving soap, and use the proper technique, and you WILL bleed for awhile, and you have to buy the right blades, and you have to shave at the perfect angle, and... and... and... and... and Fuck it. I can use a Schick Quattro in the shower, get a close enough shave in 3 minutes, and go about my day without the blood and hassle. What, exactly, are you gaining by using an outdated razor? You get a superior shave and no longer have to put up with paying $3 to $4 for the 15¢ worth of plastic and steel in a cartridge. If you buy in bulk you can get blades down to as low as 15¢ a piece. No more ingrown hairs, lots less irritation with the right soap or cream (something you still have to do with a cartridge or anything else for that matter) and you save money and resources over the long run. |
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I made the switch about 3 weeks ago and never looked back. The first couple times I got bad razor burn, but no cuts. It was because I was pressing like I did with the disposables I used to use. After I learned to control myself and not press down I have never had a cut or razor burn.
I'll do a pass with the grain, across the grain, then against the grain. |
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I have used a straight razor which belonged to my grandfather for years, use nothing else. Interesting though, at the onset of WW1 the goverment took away the new soldiers straight razors in fears of them getting drunk or mad and slicing one another. That is where the first so called safety razor came into being. Nope. The Gillette Old came out in 1902. In 1902, Gillette manufactured its first razor and began its climb with total sales of 51 razors and 168 blades. In 1904, sales skyrocketed with total sales for the new safety razor reaching 90,000 razors and 123,000 blades. There were likely a million Gillettes alone by the time we got into WWI, not mentioning the Rolls, Gems, Wade&Butchers, et al. |