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 February 12th, 2025.
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Today on the Show:
Honing Some Razors this Past Week
I was asked “Why do I Wet Shave”
Karve Shaving Currently Not Accepting US Orders (Temporarily)
Leaf Shaving Has A New Brush and Shaving Bowl
Received a new Synthetic Brush from AOS
Thoughts and Prayers for Rudy from Rudy Vey
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Why Do I Wet Shave?
Last week I was asked by a friend “Why do I Wet Shave”
Well…… it’s a long story. I’ll tell you my response.
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Karve Shaving Not Taking US Orders (Temporarily)
Karve has announced they will not be taking new US orders due to the recent tariff situation. All existing orders will be fulfilled.
As of now, no other vendor from Canada has announced any changes.
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Leaf Shaving New Brush and Shaving Bowl
I love the design of this new brush and bowl from Leaf. I’ll tell you my thoughts.
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Received New Brush from AOS
I received the new AOS Synthetic brush in a shaving kit for Christmas. I was very disappointed. As a fan of AOS products for over 10 years, I feel their product selection and quality has changed significantly. I’ll tell you my thoughts.
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Thought and Prayers for Rudy of RudyVey
Rudy from RudyVey Shaving and Pens, had a minor stroke over the holiday season. As one of the first custom shave brush makers in modern wet shaving, Rudy has been making brushes for over 13 years.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family!
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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: 2/24/25
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 February 12th, 2025. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I do apologize for being a couple days late. The Super Bowl actually put a little bit of a toll on me at work and kind of delayed everything, ended up having to work on an extra day so it kind of threw my whole schedule off so I apologize for that. And even worse, the Super Bowl wasn’t really that very entertaining.
I think it was kind of 1 of those blowout games to where it’s just like, you know what, if I watch it, I watch it. If not, I mean, really, it’s just because it was a Super Bowl. So I hope you all enjoyed that. For those of you listening outside the United States the Super Bowl is usually a pretty big event for us here it’s kind of like a national holiday including the Monday after which happens to be the number 1 call-out date in the United States most people believe it or not more people call out that Monday than any other day of the year.
Go figure I guess. Well let’s get into some wet shaving because that’s what we’re all here for anyway and that’s really what we I think we’d all rather talk about than that game. So today on the show I was honing some razors the last couple weeks and just getting back into the groove of straight razor shaving again. You know, 1 of my New Year’s resolutions was to be able to get back in the game. Usually for myself, During the holiday season, I kind of stop with the straight razor and I kind of go to more of a safety razor or like something along the lines of that, usually 1 blade or safety razor, just because of convenience and for time because I’m usually rushing a little bit more than usual during that time.
And then I like to get right back into straight razor shaving again so doing that so I had to hone up some of my razors touched them up had some fun with that a friend asked me why do I wet shave And it’s a question that I haven’t gotten in a while, and I’d like to answer it here on the show, and see if you guys have any other thoughts as well. So feel free to email me if you do. Carve shaving, currently not accepting US orders. So if you are looking for a carve razor and wanted to purchase 1 recently, you would have to hold off on it for right now.
There is a backlog of about 6 to 8 weeks to get an order anyway, but right now they’re not accepting orders from the United States. I’ll tell you why. Leaf shaving is a brand new brush and really interesting shaving bowl, which I thought was really cool. I love the design of it. I think it probably will enhance your shave, if not really work well, because of the way it was designed with the ridges inside. I’ll tell you a little bit about that and why I think it would work. So I received a new synthetic shaving brush from The Art of Shaving, and I’ll tell you my thoughts on that.
I’ll give you a little bit of a, I guess a spoiler, not too impressed. And thoughts and prayers for Rudy from Rudy Vey. If you’re familiar with the brush maker, long time brush maker, had a little health problem, but we’ll talk about that and give him our salute from the podcast as well. So Without further ado guys, let’s get on with the show. So over the week, last 2 weeks, I’ve been really getting back into my old routine of just wet shaving and having some fun with it. You know, after the holidays, again, I’ve mentioned this many times before over the years, being a retail manager, which I have been for the last, actually, believe it or not, this is my 20th year of being a manager in retail, which is something I really couldn’t believe.
Actually, I think it’s been longer than 20 years. But yeah, it’s been 22 years of being a manager in retail and then also being in retail, it’s been almost, we’re coming close to the 27, 28 mark. So, the holiday season tends to be the busiest time of the year for me. It tends to be a lot of routine changes and stuff like that. For example, I love shaving with a straight razor. It does take a little bit more time, but more importantly than that, it takes maintenance. For me to take the extra 15 to 20 minutes a day to do it.
It’s kind of hard because usually I’m running in and out. Also during this time of the year, during the holidays, I usually don’t go into the, you know, do a lot of exercise and stuff like that. I’m more along the lines of just work. My dedication to my work starts from November and ends at really January 1st, so for me. I got to get back into honing some razors that I usually use, had some fun with them, I had my hard steel, I touched a couple of them up, and I re-honed my Dovo, the 1 I’ve had for over 10 years now.
It’s about, actually 14 years I’ve had this razor. And still is my daily driver for the most parts of the razor. Out of all my razors I’ve ever owned that I’ve used the most, Touched it up, got it really nice and shaved up well. So I’ve been having a great week with that. I actually was able to get in contact with Lynn Abrams. I haven’t spoken to him in a few years. I just sent him a message to see how he’s doing and talk about a couple razors and stuff. It was really good, he responded right away.
And we had a good little conversation so I’m glad that I’m getting back into the game and that. I checked out the forum Straight Razor place and all that just to look at the Straight Razor world and as usual really not much has changed because the designs haven’t really changed since the, to be honest, since probably the 1930s. I think the razors have been at their best and they just continue to, most producers continue to pump out some really good ones. So, been shaving with the Dovo, with the Hart steel, been really having a good time.
And I also been using my custom, the gold dollar, the 1 that I used in, for a Badger and Bait contest about 10 years ago when they did the gold dollar contest. I grabbed 1, I got it really sharp, I grinded it out and everything, entered it, didn’t win but I do have the peace and still love using it on a daily basis when I get to, I put it in my rotation. So had a great time honing some razors, again I used some paste on it as well, used a little bit of a diamond paste on it to get them sharpened and that guys that works great.
So this is not really like a segment of the podcast, just to tell you what I’ve been doing and wet shaving for the last week and I’ve been having a good time with that. But here’s a question that I’m sure you guys have heard in your lifetime if you’re a wet shaver for a while. Why do I wet shave? So I was talking to a friend and they’re like, hey, so I know you’re into these old razors and stuff and you’re into like straight razors and stuff but why? Why do it when there’s modern technology that works very well?
Example, you know, do you use a computer from the 1980s or do you drive a car from the 1990s? In fact, well I kind of do, I do have a 1990s car. It’s not my daily driving car but it is a hobby of mine but You know that my friend had a point is like look we like technology and technology is I guess It’s advancement. It’s it’s making our lives easier and a lot of the things we do, for example, if you had a, the internet has made information so much easier to do. If I was really set in the old-fashioned way, I would just be sending a letter to you all, right?
Or doing a radio station or something like that. So I understand where that point came, but my response was I’m into wet shaving not because of, I guess, because I’m not into technology or I’m resisting the change. I’m into it because I like the nostalgia of it, and it’s also a hobby of mine. You know, it’s kind of like driving a muscle car in today’s world. You know, it’s not really like your daily driver, but, or the car you can drive to work every day or something you take on trips, but it’s something that you use because you like it.
And that’s where I guess it comes to be like a hobby. So what I explained to him is, he said, why do I wet shave? I said, 1, I do get better shaves. It is true. All right, we do get better shaves and the reason being is it’s 1 blade, it’s not going underneath the skin, and I explained that to this friend as well, and it also doesn’t leave me irritation. It doesn’t shave as close or underneath the skin to the point where it’s going to cause ingrown hair. So I enjoy the wet shaving aspect because it’s better for my skin, my personal situation.
Can I get good shaves out of a Fusion or out of a Mach3? Yeah, I can, but that’s because I know how to lather and prep, I think. That has a lot to do with it as well. And I told them it’s more like a hobby and way of life I guess now because now I have not gone back I don’t use Electric razor or anything like that. I primarily use you know our stuff our single-edge razors D-razors and straight razors primarily so The answer to you all why do I wet shave is because I think it’s fun I think it’s a great hobby to get into.
I think it’s a relatively inexpensive hobby to get into. You know, For example, you can get great razors for under $50. You can get a razor that’s gonna shave well for under $20. And really, the most expensive, hard to find pieces are around, just around the $1, 000 mark. There’s nothing really in the tens of thousands of dollars or anything like that. So if you’re into sports cars or watches, you are going to save yourself lots of money by wet shaving. You can get the best of the best for a fraction of the average Rolex watch or the average Porsche 911, which are the 2 biggest collectibles out there, believe it or not, luxury collectibles out there, right?
Believe it or not, I’ve read about that. So, that’s why I wet shave. It’s fun, it’s great, and you can really get into it for not a lot of money, but it will not save you money. So if you say to somebody, hey, I got into wet shaving because it’s gonna save me money, yeah, no way that’s saving you money if you’re in a hobby because I am not saving money from wet shaving. At least the first few years I wasn’t. Now lately I don’t purchase as much, but I have a lot of stuff that I’ve purchased and I just can’t believe the amount of soaps I have.
I have not, I’ve only bought maybe 3 to 5 soaps in the last year and I am nowhere near finishing my collection. I’m like actually getting worried about it. And it gives me anxiety from having so much stuff. Even, you know, it’s not expensive stuff, it’s just over the years, wet shaving for what, 10, 11, 12 years, you buy 3 to 5 soaps a year and you don’t use them up, it adds up, right? And you have 50 or 60 soaps by that time. So, yeah, yeah, it’s a hobby, it’s a way of life, but it’s really fun and it’s something that I just always enjoy doing and hence why I do a podcast, write articles and continue to collect.
So Carveshaving recently announced that they are not going to take US orders for temporary reasons because of the tariffs imposed from us to them. So they are holding off on orders for right now, but I believe that will probably change because I’m not sure what’s going on with those tariffs, but as of right now, they’re not taking US orders. Now, if you did place an order prior to that, to the announcement of February 5th or 2nd or whatever it was, then your order will be fulfilled and shipped, right, he’ll do that. But prior to that, after that, they’re not gonna take an order, at least for the time being.
I guess, you know, 1 thing you gotta remember, it’s smaller businesses, they get worried about that kind of stuff. Now there are ways to get around it, and you guys know it, you know, there are a lot of places that have, that you can get somebody from Canada to ship it to you. You can take your chances with that. You can use a different address or use a shipping hub and stuff. That’s what a lot of people do from other countries in the United States. Example, I did a raffle 1 time on a website and somebody from out of the country purchased it.
So I said, well I don’t ship out of the country, so that’s on you on how you want to do it. So they provided me an American address to ship it to, which would then cross-stock it and ship it to them. So for me, I lose all the risk, right? I just ship it, it’s a domestic package for me. They assume the risk on their side. It goes there, it says, deliver it, I’m done, right? If they don’t get it from there, it’s on them. So I’m sure there’s ways to get around it as well.
But as of right now, temporarily, they’re not gonna take US orders, which is understandable, I guess. And I guess we’ll be seeing that soon. Hopefully they will change that policy because I don’t know if much is going on with that as of yet. So not sure if we’re gonna see any other companies do that. I did check Razor Rock and Wolfman Razors. They are also Canadian based and they have not announced anything or said anything. In fact, Wolfman said it’s business as usual. They have no changes, no plans of changing anything as of right now.
Leaf Shaving has a new brush and shaving bowl that came out and I love it. I think the design is awesome. I think that if you look at the show notes, I put a picture of it in there. It’s got ridges on it like a stainless steel bowl with a plastic rubber outer bowl. So this is actually genius and I’ve never seen this before. And if I haven’t, if I’m missing a lot of stuff, then hey, I’m sorry. But with the rubber, not only does it insulate the metal, because metal does retain the heat pretty well, but also dissipates it pretty fast in addition to that.
But it keeps it from slipping and from sliding and from getting out of your hands and from like sliding off the countertop. You know, many of us have bathrooms or restrooms, whatever you want to call it, that have a marble or some sort of stone countertop, which gets slippery when wet and, you know, some of those scuttles and stuff that we have bowls can slide The rubber prevents that 100% I also really like the design of the brush with the ridges on that as well for some good grip So I think they they nailed it right right out of the park on this 1.
I think it’s a great item. I think it’s gonna be a good seller. And honestly, it’s gonna perform well too because of the way it’s designed. So, Leaf Shaving, new brush and shaving bowl. Good luck with you guys. I’m looking forward to seeing some reviews on that in the near future. So here’s the elephant in the room. Art of shaving, yes, they have changed their designs, they’ve changed a lot of stuff in the last few years. They’ve gone from being primarily like a brick and mortar shop to where they really didn’t do much online to now being fully online shop with a very limited stock of inventory, right?
Limited items. I can tell you that I loved Art of Shaving as a store brick and mortar. You used to be able to go in the store, they’d have straight razors, safety razors. They would have custom Gillette razors as well, Mach 3, whatever, Fusion, the heated razor, all this stuff in stock. They had tons of different brushes from different prices and then the software as well, the soap, cream and aftershave. But as of recently they have eliminated most of that since they’ve switched over to the online shop and now they’ve also gone vegan with the brushes so they no longer produce badger brushes.
That’s been a few years now. So for Christmas I received, I always receive, somebody gets me something from Art of Shaving. Now, 1 thing I wanna mention is I’m a huge fan of Art of Shaving software. I think their stuff is great. I think it’s been great. But I do think it’s changed over the years and it’s not as good as it used to be. When Procter & Gamble’s been holding on to it they’ve done a good job with it. The company that owned it prior to that was very small. I think when they initially launched and were doing brick-and-mortar stores it was much different software but I still think the cream, the aftershave and stuff, the base stuff is still pretty good, right?
But this brush I have to tell you I’ve had synthetic brushes that shave well that use that work Extremely well this 1 is a total total total waste of time and money It was really not an enjoyable experience. The brush has, 1, is very cheaply made. 2, it had no backbone and it was very little, really little backbone at all, if any, and it was very hard to lather even with the cream. So, I mean, it would have been, the brush is about, I’d say, 18 millimeter in diameter, and I didn’t measure it, but it was very small.
And I think for the money that you pay for the kit, I think, you know, some of them they come out with are better than the others, but this was like the middle grade kit that I got for Christmas, and I just was, I can’t use the brush. It’s just no good. So I gave it to my son to go play with it. And I guess he’s like, you know, painting stuff with it. Well, I don’t know what he’s doing with it now, but it’s like a toy. And I thought it was just like, you know, this is worth mentioning, like, Art of Shaving is such a great company and they’ve started to let this kind of stuff slide, go through.
Not really the way to go, guys. I would say if you’re going to do this shaving set like you do, the pre-shave, the shaving cream and the aftershave as well Just you put a better brush in there even for the cheaper kit because it’s still the same price But you’re getting a cheaper brush and before you used to get those small little badger brushes Those were great compared to this thing. So I just wasn’t very impressed. I think they should probably use a different supplier. And I thought the older brushes, like I still have a couple of Badger brushes from Art of Shaving from back when they were making them.
That works very good. They’re still great. I still really enjoy it. And I also, my straight razor that I was telling you about in the beginning of the show is also Art of Shaving, Dovo. It’s etched with Art of Shaving, so I do like keeping that around too. It’s cool nostalgia. But yeah guys, you gotta up your game on the brush. It’s just a little bit of a disappointment and something that I usually never do a negative review and I don’t think this is really a negative review because the software is still on point. It’s just the brush was a little bit less than, had left a lot to be desired.
So I wasn’t really too happy with that. But again, that’s why you have better brushes and it could be just the snobby wet shaver in me that’s saying that, but I think you guys could probably see too. So if you do get the software, make sure you use your own brush. Software’s still great. Still love their aftershave creams to as well. It’s just the bombs are great. I love them And Then finally guys Rudy from Rudy Vae shaving and pens He had a minor stroke over the holiday season and he was 1 of the first custom brush makers that I’ve ever encountered.
I think 1 of the first in the industry. He’s been on Badger and Blade since they’ve started, I think, so he’s been there for well over 15, 16 years. I think they’re getting close to 20 years now. And well, he’s still in business, but he’s having a hard time. He just recently posted on Badger and Blade that he is you know having a trouble of trouble typing so responding to emails and stuff so it might take a little while might look weird or might take longer than usual to get a response from him, but he’s still in there making brushes and pens.
So guys, if you’ve dealt with Rudy in the past, he’s a great guy. He’s done so much for the wet shaving community. He’s opened the door for so many other brush makers to experiment and come out and really start making those really nice brushes and stuff. And I remember when I first started wet shaving, he was 1 of the only guys out there. He was like 1 of the only custom brush makers out there and also very responsive to emails and to posts online and just all about the industry. So he’s just overall a great guy.
I’ve dealt with him a few times over the years and bought a few brushes. And his brushes are nothing crazy. They’re nothing, you know, the designs and stuff like that are nice and good. The shapes are original, everything he does is good. And they’re not overly priced, they’re not crazy priced, that’s what I meant to say, I guess. So they’re affordable brushes, and he’s also, he’ll work with you too, he’s a great guy. So Rudy, we hope our prayers are with you. Only good thoughts and prayers for you, and hopefully you get a nice speedy recovery and get back to normal as soon as possible so you can get back to being your old self again.
So we salute you Rudy and our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family. All right, everyone. So that kind of concludes the podcast for this week. You know, a few things going on in the cast in the near future here. I am currently working on the Instagram page. I do have it, it is live, it’s What’s Saving Talk. It will, I haven’t posted on it yet because I’m trying to work with Getting it set up correctly, and I just you know I just haven’t had a lot of time So I’m gonna be doing that this week so be on the lookout for that the next show I will post the link to get to that page, and what I’ll do is I’ll just post some stuff during the week, and I’ll post the shows as well on there and stuff just to give you guys a little place to go to see some things, and of course I’ll keep it open for comments, and it’ll be a public page so you can definitely go on there whenever you want.
You don’t even have to sign up or whatever, or follow the account either if you don’t want to. I’m not really the keenest on social media, but I am learning. I do have some contacts that will help with social media and stuff like that, so I’m going to learn a little bit more about it and see if I can manage that site as well. And that’s really about it. I got some stuff working on for the wet shaving world here. I’m working on also a sales page, so I’m gonna sell some used stuff, some pre-owned wet shaving stuff in the near future, some of the stuff that I don’t use anymore or that I’ve used and reviewed, and I just wanna let go for a really good price.
You’ll be seeing that too, so I’ll be doing a link like a little bit to my eBay page here in the near future. So a lot of good stuff coming up. Remember still we’re celebrating the 10th year anniversary of the cast. That’ll be in November. So looking forward to doing a special edition show for that as well. I remember our show is powered by sharpologist.com. What your father didn’t teach you about shaving? Special thanks to Mark, aka Mantic59 for everything that he does for the wet shaving community and most of all, you guys the listeners.
Don’t forget to check out the blog site, ShaveStraightAndSafe.com and always feel free to email me at joe.wetshavingnews at gmail.com. Alright guys, until next time, until the 24th of this month, shave straight and shave safe. Bye bye now.
