You’re listening to Wet Shaving Talk powered by Sharpologist.com where we’re dedicated to preserving the art and skill of classic shaving. I’m your host Joe Borrelli and today is March 10th, 2025.
____________________________________________________________________________
Today on the Show:
Ordered a Gold Dollar 66 for the 2025 Gold Dollar Mod Contest at Badger and Blade
Razor Emporium acquires Yates Razors
Williams Shave Soap for $50… Is it Worth It?
Update on Tariffs for Canada and How it Will Affect Your Shave
____________________________________________________________________________
Gold Dollar Razor for the Contest
I’m going to enter the annual Badger and Blade Gold Dollar Mod Contest for 2025.
You may have heard in previous episodes that I created a custom Gold Dollar back in 2014. I never entered but I did enjoy making one.
I just purchased a Gold Dollar 66 and will begin to modify it when the contest starts in May. Watch my progress on my blog. www.shavestraightandsafe.com
____________________________________________________________________________
Razor Emporium Acquires Yates Shaving
Announced at the Annual Meet Up at RE will acquire Yates Razors and produce them onsite. A very exciting announcement to say the least. RE started as a small razor repair service and is now covering all aspects of wet shaving. Good luck Matt and Team!
____________________________________________________________________________
Williams Soap for $50? Is it worth it??
The now discontinued Williams Shave Mug Soap is fetching a pretty penny. Is it worth $50? If wet shaving is now more popular that it has been then why are we seeing vendors close? I’ll tell you my thoughts.
____________________________________________________________________________
Updates on Tariffs from Canada
As of this writing it looks like items under $800 will not be affected by the tariffs.
That means most wet shaving products will not be affected.
____________________________________________________________________________
Our show is powered by Sharpologist.com, “What Your Father Didn’t Teach You about Shaving”
Special Thanks to:
Mark aka Mantic 59
Most of All……….YOU!!!!
Don’t forget to check out my blog site www.shavestraightandsafe.com for the tips and interesting wet shaving stories!
Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Subscribe to my You Tube Chanel for videos regarding some interesting wet shaving content.
Don’t forget to check out my book “The Modern Guide to Straight Razor Shaving” available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and at Pasteur’s Pharmacy in NYC.
If you’re a vendor and would like to be featured on the show please contact me!!
Next Show: 3/24/25
Transcript (Machine-Generated)
You’re listening to Wet Shaving Talk powered by sharpologist.com where we’re dedicated preserving the art and skill of classic shaving. I’m your host Joe Borrelli and today is March 10th, 2025. Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast guys. First off, wanted to say a big apology. We missed the last show. We had to skip it. Unfortunately, I had some last minute stuff going on at work and Mark had some stuff going on too. So doing a late show is just a little hard for that week. So I decided to just, you know, move right along and go back on the schedule.
So again, apologies. We did miss the show. Wasn’t intentional. I wasn’t planned, so that was kind of like a last minute thing. You know, being in a very unpredictable business as myself sometimes when I’m working, some things can come up. One week, everything’s normal. Next week, everything’s changed. So it’s kind of like one of those situations. But we are back on the schedule, back to normal, and hopefully that won’t happen too many times this year, but it may. I guess could tell you, A lot has been changing in the industry with the tariffs and stuff, especially in the alcohol business.
So if you wanted to know a little bit of inside or a little first-hand information, just letting you know, not much is going to change as of right now in that business. But for a consumer point, a lot of people are panic buying and kind of overbuying and stuff. may create a few shortages in stores if you go in there, if you’re looking for certain items from Mexico or Canada, and you might actually see some of your favorite items out of stock, but it shouldn’t be too long, and it’s definitely not a supplier issue. There’s plenty of it out there.
It’s just higher than usual demand recently. So that’s for that, for a little bit of a deviation from wet shaving, but I know a lot of people, I do actually get some emails here and there about that, about alcohol and wine and stuff like that. And you know what guys, if you have those questions, always feel free to email me. I don’t mind answering them. I’ve been doing it for a very long time, and I usually can just shoot right from the hip from that, and I know right from the top of my head most of the answers a lot of people have.
If not, I can easily find the answer. Well, today on the show, we’ve got several things going on the wet shaving world that I thought were very interesting to discuss. And I really did a lot of thinking about some different type of subject or different type of content for the podcast. So I want to start off with, I ordered a gold dollar razor. which is a straight razor and I’m entering the mod contest over at Badger and Blade for 2025. Now I’ll get a little bit more detail with that when we get into the show and what my plans are and how I’m going to blog it.
If you guys wanted to show support or, or have any questions or have any, any, I guess suggestions, definitely feel free to contact me on that one. Razer Emporium announces on their last meetup, that they acquired Yates razors, Yates manufacturing. So that’s really big news. A very interesting story on that and didn’t see that one coming. And then we’ll talk a little bit about that as well. And Williams shave soap, Williams mug shave soap for $50. Is it worth it? And then a little bit on the update on tariffs for Canada and how it will affect your shave.
So without further ado guys, let’s get on with the show. So I just mentioned in the beginning of the podcast, gold dollar razors. These are very inexpensive, straight razors that come from China, right? And they’re actually something that are made with decent steel and you can actually shave with these. razors, if they’re modified, okay, I’ve modified about three or four of them in my my time of being a straight razor shaver. And I found that every single one of them that I used, I was able to get shave worthy, and I still have one left that I still own, which is in the show notes, the picture.
And it shaves beautifully. I mean, it is sharp. It gets sharp. They use a double tempered or, excuse me, it’s like ultra hollow ground. Like it is hollow ground, like full hollow, but it’s extreme. If you like grind the shoulders off on a little bit even it out these things can be shave worthy I’m telling you the seal is good enough to be shave worthy Sometimes you’ll have to remove the edge on it and then redo your own edge call it like so basically take it on a stone and actually grind it’s called butter knifing and Take off the entire Bevel and everything and start new and basically regrind this which I did with a couple of them and they will shave well So every year for the last 10 years or so, badger blade has had a gold dollar mod contest and the winner gets a prize.
It’s not anything big. I think last year they got a strop a year before that they got like a brush or something like that, but you get bragging rights, which I think is probably cooler. And in previous years, I’ve purchased one, and I still have one of mine left that I’ve etched and done all that. But I never really entered the contest. I’ve done it on my own. I’ve been inspired by the contest, but I never entered it. I’ve decided to enter the contest and I’m going to submit something special this year and I have a few plans of what I’m going to do.
Nothing too crazy, nothing that is not traditional. I mean, I’m not going to do anything. I’m not that skilled, but I’m going to try my best to enter the contest and I will document the journey on my blog. So I plan on doing that. If you guys want to see support, it’s at ShaveStraightAndSafe.com. I’m going to document it. I will do weekly updates starting in May. I do want to stick strict to the actual time strains they have. So it’s from May till I think July. And they give you that amount of time to do it before you submit your razor.
And then you can do multiple submissions as well. So I’m going to do one. I bought the razor already. I have it. and I plan on doing one, and then if I have enough time, maybe I’ll get another one. Now these razors are, again, to get a gold dollar razor, some people get them online, they get them for like four or five dollars. I got it on Amazon for like 10 bucks, just because I didn’t want to wait for it to come from China and all that stuff with everything going on. So I got it, so I have it here, it’s ready to go, I’m gonna buy some scale material to go with it, I’m gonna try and make the scales myself too.
Wish me luck, and if you’re interested in following the progress on this, it’ll start in May, and I will definitely have it on the show as well, so you’ll be able to see it and see the actual updates and all that stuff, the progression of this razor. It takes a while. And I will use a little bit of my free time here and there to do it, so it will take me probably a month or two, but I promise you I will definitely do a good job. And if you have any support, any good words of wisdom for me, any advice, please go ahead and send it to me in email.
So a big announcement at the Razer Emporium meetup last month was that they acquired Yates Shaving or Yates Manufacturing, Yates Precision Manufacturing, which is a CNC machine based razor maker, razor producer. And they’ve been making razors for several years now, I think. I actually never purchased the Yates. I was meaning to, and I remember seeing it, because they used to, a couple of their concepts are really good. I think they linked, they had a razor with carbon fiber and stainless steel, which I thought was really cool. This was a while ago, but. They had that now, I don’t think they produce that one anymore, but they have several razors and they do that.
And Razor Emporium basically has inquired their company and their CNC machines. So they are going to do CNC machine razors from their own. Facility which is great because you know razor Emporium. They’ve been around for a while now You know Matt Matt started his company outside of his I think his garage at his house fixing Gillette Adjustable razors, you know, that was his hobby. That was his passion and then he just kind of moved on from that They started razor Emporium. They started Rex and Rex razors or Rex Emporium, which is the company that makes razor So he’s gonna make his own razors now What really helps out with this is that with the CNC machines, he’ll be able to make more parts for vintage razors that otherwise were never going to happen.
So example, Matt came out with the spring that goes into the click spring that you see in the middle of an adjustable Gillette razor. Prior to him being able to make that part, you lose it, that’s it, you lost it. You are in trouble. You have to find a donor razor to try to find some extra parts. Not that there’s not a surplus of razors out there, but we’ve got to remember guys, these things haven’t been made in almost 60 years. The Gillette Fatboy was starting in 1959 and ended in the mid-60s. That’s not that long amount of time, and that’s a long time ago.
So eventually, every year we’re losing some of these permanently. Somebody loses it, they break it, they throw it away in the garbage, it’s not around anymore. So every year we lose a few, if not more, Fatboys and all those, just using that as an example. He’s got the ability now to make parts for those razors if you break them So if you break the spring you can actually purchase a spring now with these I think this he’ll make his own razors, but also he’ll be able to say hey if Something is needed. I think with a 3d printing and and and that technology and now with CNC machining They’ll have the ability to fix it.
So maybe they can even make a replica razor with that machine who knows and and we will be able to preserve our Gillette’s vintage razors and have new razors forever and ever. I mean, that’d be awesome. So really excited to see what they do with this. I know they started with a few things, a few razors. They did a nice, like a, like a, Present a presentation of building a razor at that show and did like a mock razor and showed everybody how they do it So very excited to see how much this what this brings in the future for For razor Emporium and for what they are going to do with the wet shaving world So it’s very exciting to see that they’re still innovating and still building their business so congrats to razor Emporium for acquiring Yates and Yates congrats for not just shutting down and actually selling your business and keeping it and preserved for future generations to come.
Williams soap, $50, is it worth it? So, we all know that Williams mug soap, around since 1840, went out of business in about 2023, I think, or 2022, right? It’s gone, they don’t make it anymore. It was a lot of rumors going back and forth that it was. I personally bought 10 pucks, about five years ago when I heard it, kept on seeing it made. So I went and gave them away. I have like one left and then realized that, Hey, they’re gone now. And now they’re selling for around 50 bucks on Amazon, eBay, et cetera.
Is it worth $50 to get this soap as a wet shaver? And why do we see so many vendors closing in this year when wet shaving is probably got the most hobbyist members of all time? Like why would we see Williams Shave Soap leave the industry? when we have the most ever. And then in the 90s and the 80s, there was hardly anybody even talking about wet shaving. It was in this probably its lowest and they were in business up until then. So this is a question that I asked myself. I really was thinking about it and it’s going to take the bulk of You know, it took the bulk of my time for the last few days thinking about, you know, how can these companies shut down when we have so many people purchasing and so easy to purchase?
Back in the day, William’s Shave Soap was only purchased really at a drugstore or grocery store, right? It was at every drugstore, every grocery store. You can find it easily. And it was usually for around a dollar. How does that go? How does that not happen anymore? Like how do we just not go out of business like that now with Amazon stuff? You can buy it online easily and really broadening the audience. And with what shavers being, you know, really in record numbers, right? Badger and Blade has record numbers, record people talking, there’s record artisans out there.
You know, think about it, if you’ve been around for wet shaving for 10 or 15 years, what has changed in the last 10, 15 years? I’ve been wet shaving since 2010, I believe, and I can tell you there was only like three vendors back then, like artisans. Everything else was William’s Soap or Vanderhagen, which also the regular Vanderhagen’s no longer made, you know, all these other items. Those are the only things you can get if you wanted to go to the store and actually pick it up. Now, there’s really nothing and it’s weird that we’re doing so much in wet shaving, but it’s just not enough to keep some of these companies going.
So really, the answer I think to this question is, and my thoughts on it are, it’s cost. Cost of production has gone up tremendously. The last few years, it’s been challenging, right? There’s been a lot of inflation, all this stuff going back and forth, political things, everything. The market makes it difficult to make money. So to make a William Shave soap maybe a dollar five years ago, maybe it’s $3 now, which is still very affordable in the wet shaving world, and I wouldn’t mind paying $3 for something like that. right? Uh, also it lost national distribution in stores.
Like I remember grocery stores, Walgreens and stuff. They started dropping items. They stayed. I first one I noticed was Vander Hagen. I could tell you that when I first started wet shaving, I was able to buy Vander Hagen brushes and soap at the grocery store, right? Publix grocery stores here are very big in Florida. They had them. Walgreens had them. CVS had them. All those places had them. and they had them regularly, and they were on the shelf, and they probably didn’t move much, but they were still there, part of planograms, and the managers could order it and get it in.
I saw that stop. So the national distribution stopped, and that’s probably where they did bulk of their business, because think about it. If they sell one case every two months to 3,000 or 4,000 stores, how much business does that do? How many cases? That’s 4,000 cases, right? If you look at a company chain like Albertsons that was all over, I worked for Albertsons for 10 years, so I know. We had this in our set, and it was every store in the country had it in their set, and there’s 2,500 stores, and say they sell, each store sells two cases a year at minimum, right?
That’s still 4,000 cases. You’re talking 12, whatever, thousands of soaps. When you lose those contracts and those stores don’t go and carry it, that’s the bulk of their business, even if it’s not selling like hotcakes, as they say, right? So I think that’s one of the reasons, just distribution stopped. Also, I think, There’s so many options out there for wet shavers. We’re not really going for William’s Soap anymore. When was the last time I bought William’s Soap? I bought it when I first started and I couldn’t really find anything. I bought that in Vanderhagen. I sold it from the grocery store and used it.
Then when the artisans started coming back up, I started buying mostly from them. And I could tell you I never really bought a William Shave soap again. I probably bought, I bought 10 pucks when I saw that they were going out of business and I started like just giving them away because I didn’t want them to go bad. So I kept one or two left and that’s kind of the extent of it. So I think that’s one of the reasons as well. But I’d say the main reason is just getting expensive to make, and for the companies doing it to distribute it without those national accounts, there’s really no point in probably doing it anymore if it’s just selling from Amazon.
I can’t see them selling that many of it. I can’t see it selling that crazy. So correct me if I’m wrong, if you guys know any more about the industry or have any insight on that. I’m definitely open to some more comments on it. It looks like William’s Shave Soap is gone. If you want one, it’s gonna be in the $30 to $50 range. And to tell you, and to answer the original question, is it worth $50? Well, no, the quality of the soap is definitely not worth $50. We’ll be honest here with that. William’s Shave Soap has also got a lot of controversy in the forums.
If you go and Google William’s Shave Soap and you go into a wet shaving forum such as Badger & Blade or Straight Razor Place or the Shave Den or something like that. You’ll see every single post of people saying, oh, I can’t get Williams to do this. Oh, I did this to Williams to get it to do that. Overall, Williams was a decent soap. It does work. It’s not worth $50, but for the nostalgia and the ability to own one today, if you’re just starting and you wanted something for your collection, and you have a little disposable income, then yeah, sure, it’s worth as much as it is to you, which makes you happy and will make your shaves great, but it won’t do anything special for you for $50.
That’s my take on it. If you got any thoughts or questions, or if you have any comments you would like to add to it, just email me at joe.wetshavingnews at gmail.com. And we have an update to the tariffs coming out of Canada and how it will affect your shave if you like Canadian products. So as of right now, guys, the tariff will not affect goods being purchased directly from Canada under $800 in value. So if you’re gonna buy a razor from Canada, a local razor company that you’ve been looking at over there, unless you’re gonna get a really expensive like Wolfman razor, which is coming from Canada, it really will not affect you.
So if it’s under 800 bucks in worth and value and cost, you will not be affected by the tariff, nothing else will change. So we saw a couple companies that said they were not going to produce and take American orders, have now rescinded that and they are taking American orders, so no worries in there about demand. our Canadian products will be available and it should be same business as usual as of right now for us as well. So exciting to see that, really happy to be able to help our Canadian friends to the north and know that we could still purchase from them and they could still sell to us without any further increases in cost or anything like that.
Well guys, that concludes the show for this week. Again, I apologize for skipping a show. I don’t, I hate, I always hate doing that and it just makes it so I just puts me behind and I feel like I sometimes disappoint you guys, but fortunately things happen. So hopefully it won’t happen too much. I am working on the Instagram page. It is actually live if you want to take a look at it. I did not post it this week because I don’t have it set up the way I want to yet, but it’s going to be the Wetshaving News, excuse me, Wetshaving Talk podcast account.
So it is live now, but it will be, I guess I’ll perfect it and get it all ready and be able to post regularly on it in the next few weeks. So that’s my next goal. So when I have that set and ready to go, that’ll be the area for news. So if something’s happening, if I’m delayed or anything like that, I’ll post it there on an Instagram account. So you guys can easily get it and be able to get the news quickly. And I also post like little things during the week. If I see stuff or stuff or a little like, I guess, some teasers for the show coming up.
At least that’s my plan as of right now, so hopefully that will work out as well, too. Remember, our show is powered by sharpologist.com, what your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Special thanks to MarkMantic59 for everything that he does for the shaving community, and most of all, you guys, the listeners, because without you, there’d be no podcast. Don’t forget to check out my blog at ShaveStraightAndSafe.com for interesting wet shaving stories and content. And also feel free to email me at anytime at joe.wetshavingnews at gmail.com. All right guys, until the 24th of this month, March, shave straight and shave safe.
Bye bye now.
