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 May 12th ,2022
Today on the Show
Sorry I’ve Been Away
Give-A-Way
Replica Toggles Shipping Now
JFK Shave Set from Global Shave
Shave Rescue Razor Cleaning Brush
Give-A-Way
Congrats to listener Joseph for winning the latest give-a-way!!!
Replica Toggles
The first replica Toggles are shipping now from Global Shave.
JFK Replica Set New Supply SE Razor
Supply has a new SE razor!!! The Shark Tank vendor has launched a new razor and we’re ready for it. Pre orders start on April 17th! Advertised with Nick Stop technology.
Shave Brushes from Badlands Shaving
Just searching around I found these really cool brushes from Badlands Shaving.
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!!!!
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Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for videos regarding some interesting wet shaving content.
Our next show will be 5/23/22 Until then….Shave straight and Shave Safe!
Transcript
You’re listening to wet shaving talk powered by sharpologist dot com where we’re dedicated to preserving the art and skill of classic shaving host Joe Borrelli. Today is May 12th, 2022. All right, everyone, welcome back to the podcast or should I say welcome me back to the podcast?
First off, I wanted to say I apologize for missing a show and I think I’m late on the second show. So it’s been about a month, a little bit over a month since I’ve been on the podcast. To be completely honest, I had a few health issues. I pulled my back out really bad a couple of weeks ago. If any of you that experienced back pain, you definitely can feel my pain on that one. And I feel yours. Because when that happens, you can’t do anything. You can’t even like look at your phone, let alone a computer screen. And yeah, that happened a couple weeks ago.
And then my son was sick from school and had a stomach bug and ended up giving it to me and my wife. Conveniently around his birthday. So it’s been a rough couple of weeks for me health wise, but I am feeling tons better and really happy to be back on the podcast to do this again. Really, I’ve been missing it and I had a couple of things done for the show and I had to change it up a little bit.
So I apologize, guys, for being out, but you know, things happen here and there. And remember, always remember, health is first your and your family and all that stuff always comes first. So always make sure you take care of yourself and try to stay healthy. Even though COVID is kind of dissipating in the world, it is still really important to make sure you’re still washing your hands and stuff like that. So yeah, it was a pretty well, pretty cruddy two weeks there for me. But you know what? Everything’s back to normal or getting back to normal, and I’m feeling good and really just happy to be talking shaving, to be honest with you.
This is a really a fun part of the week for me or every two weeks just to be able to talk shaving and be able to research and and read up and talk to some vendors here and there. It’s a lot of fun and it brings it back. You know, perspective is just being a great overall hobby and way of life. I think that’s what I like to call what shaving. I used to call it the sport of what shaving.
But I used to get so much like not hate but like comments online regarding Oh, what do you mean? It’s a sport, you know, it’s not a sport. You know, just people just, you know, I like to call them, like, keyboard bullies or something like that, just to say something like that and that in that area. But, you know, it is what it is, right?
So whatever, I guess you could say. So today on the show we want to talk about, we did have the giveaway. We had somebody win the giveaway. So I have a picture of it. And he received all this stuff. I’m glad he did. I have another giveaway that I’m giving out the second place winner too. We did get a good couple of good emails regarding their collections and stuff, so I was really happy to see that guys and I did get a few other emails regarding just life in general, a couple people asking if I’m okay, I’m just because I missed a show or two.
And I just want to say everybody, just to answer that, I’m perfectly fine. Nothing is wrong. I’m back to normal. Just, you know, a couple of things happened in, you know, one after another. So it was a very rough few weeks there for just health reasons. But, you know, nothing major, nothing going to, you know, lingering on or anything like that. Everything’s back to normal. So talking about the giveaway, then we have the replica toggles from global shave or shipping. Now I haven’t seen any pictures yet or anybody out with them, but they are starting to ship, so I’ve really wanted to focus on that a little bit this week.
Also, Global Shave came out with the JFK shave set from like a replica from the JFK, the famous JFK Gillette. I believe it was an old type or I forgot what it was. And that’s coming out as well. That’s out there, the shave rescue razor, cleaning brush. Now, I’ve seen a lot of that online. I’m not too sure, not too well versed with it, but I’ve been hearing a little bit about it. I did see the brush itself here and there, and I thought it was pretty cool. And honestly, I mean, I’ve been using just a regular brush, like a toothbrush, but this brush seems to be a little bit more in-depth, can hold in your palm and everything like that. So I’d like to talk a little bit about that.
And a new supply is razor. So the new razor from supplies is really coming out now. It’s a little bit bigger, has like a little open comb and advertised with the next stop technology. So pre-orders already started a couple of weeks ago, so it would have been on the last show and I haven’t seen anybody with them yet, but they should be shipping out, I believe, in the summer.
And shave brushes from Badlands shaving. You know, I’ve been really I’ve been looking for different brushes here and there, but I always use the same few brushes that I do own. And just to see this, I was really interested in some of the black and some of the actual handles they have and the and the knots and everything. Very interesting, like little hybrid knots, excuse me, hybrid handles. So just messing around, searching around. I found this this vendor, and they’re actually very reasonable. The brushes start around 70 bucks, so and we’ll talk a little bit about that as well. So without further ado, everyone, let’s get on with the show.
So just though, just to talk a little bit about the giveaway, you know, congratulations, Joseph. Listener A relatively new listener. New what? Shaver. We got them started with a nice setup, as you can see in the picture, in the show notes, I got him set up with a Crown King, set a little scuttle arts of shaving starter kit with a nice badger brush, some blades and a nice the actual double edged razor that comes from a Los Angeles shaving company, which is the inspiration for the BBS one, one of the inspiring pieces for it.
That was one of the razors that John sent that was sent to the Wolfman well before I’d even started to make the boobs one, which is my personal leaf, my favorite piece of what shaving equipment that I have. You know, that is definitely one of my favorite razors, and I know we’ll never be made again and there’s only a certain amount of them out there, but I use it quite often, probably more often than anything else.
And I do enjoy it. I mean, it is it is a great honestly, it’s a great razor. But so I was able to get him something. So that was great. I’m really happy about that and just being able to help out and be there for a fellow wet shaver. And you know, honestly, I’ve got so much stuff just sitting there in my my collection. It’s just it’s okay to let it go, you know? And that’s where I was talking about in the last couple of shows, just having so much stuff that you don’t really use anymore and wanting to bring in more, but just knowing that, hey, I’m out of space, so that’s why I’m going to do a few more giveaways here.
I’ve been giving away stuff too. I gave something to my neighbor the other day and everything like that because honestly, I want to start trying some of these new artisans, but I can’t when I got my whole cabinet full of soap. Right? So yeah, that’s where we stand with that giveaway. I’m glad you got it. And glad, Joseph, you know, thank you for the for the submission and, you know, telling me a little bit about your wet shaving story. You’re a relatively new wet shaver, only has a one razor, one brush.
And, you know, that’s that’s what it’s all about, guys. You know, it’s just it doesn’t matter if you have a huge collection with a lot of soap and every type of mug you can think of. It’s just matters that you are enjoying the wet shaving hobby and way of life and just, you know, building upon it, you know, keep going and keep having fun because it really is. It is a lot of fun.
So thank you, Joseph, again for the submission. And guys, please feel free to send me in submissions here. Anything about your wet shaving story? I will definitely be working on getting you something sent out in the mail. Like I said, I do have a few things left and I will definitely start doing some more giveaways in the future too as well.
So these replica toggles have started to ship from Global Shave. Now Global Shave is a company overseas that’s been I guess they’ve been producing razors I guess through CNC machining. They did the fat guy, which is a fat boy replica. And actually at first I was I was very skeptical on this razor, but I have been hearing somewhat decent, happy reviews on it. Now it’s a relatively it’s under $200 a piece. I mean, it is expensive and you can still get a fat boy for under 100 if you really look around, you know, and it may not be in the greatest shape in the world, but you can get one. And to be able to see a toggle, I think these are going for around $200. I’m not too sure on that, but be able to get that.
I thought that was really, you know, a good value there. And what they’re doing is they’re taking, you know, they’re replicating the parts and making it closer to the original as possible. So, yes, you are getting a toggle per say. We do know that Janus Razors did come out with a toggle. A few hundred pieces or 50 pieces. I’m sorry. It was and it was a little bit mixed reviews. I tried one very aggressive, but it was. But the foundation of it, the build of it was really good.
You know, it was definitely a quality piece. So, you know, to just to see that this is one of the hardest razors to replicate. I think it is one of the most most of the like, most parts and most complicated safety razors I’ve ever seen. And I know that after talking to a couple of guys that work on these things, they say two. Yeah, the toggle is pretty intense. You know, it’s more intense than the bottom dial and very similar to like the red dot. You know, these razors are not easy. And also they weren’t really meant to be taken apart. You know, these newer razors now you see, like, for example, the Rex ambassador, you know, that razor is designed to come apart, to be cleaned. Right. You know, and that’s what Matt did when he built it.
He knew everything from working on thousands and thousands of razors. You know what will make these things last longer? And one, he did stainless steel construction, too. He made it so it can be disassembled and cleaned. And and three, he made it so, you know, one, he would have the ability to make parts for it or fix it himself. So he’s like the one, one man, one stop shop for that razor. You buy that? And in five or six years, you have a problem.
You can send it back to get service and they’ll fix it for you and they’ll and what better way to do it than the person who invented it and built it, you know? So that’s. Kind of where we stand on that. So with this toggle, really interested to see what the reviews will be. I have a feeling they’ll be pretty. It’ll be a good, good piece to add to your collection. For those of you that got in on the on the beginning and the pre order and a good price point too it’s under 300 under I think it’s not a $200 but I really awesome. I mean, I’m a huge toggle fan myself. I love the toggle.
I know it’s not the most ample design and it’s very troublesome with the doors closing and everything. Everything needs to be kind of perfect on it. But still a fan. I still have one and I still use it quite often. It was the it used to be the holy grail of a lot of us wet shavers out there. I mean, I can tell you right now, back when I started always seeing a toggle, it was like, wow, toggle. One day I’ll get a toggle and you still see it today. Someday I’ll have a toggle. Someday I’ll get that. And then some guys say, Oh, I found one in a, in a flea market and a tool chest for and I got it for $4. Well, I’ve never been that lucky, but for those of you that were congratulations, that’s really awesome.
So also global shaving. Now, while I was looking at the toggle, I notice that JFK replica set now the replica the JFK set is one of the most sought after most googled. Believe it or not sets that I learned from a couple of of what shaving friends write. A lot of guys are like, oh, a lot of people ask about the JFK set. A lot of people are obsessed with what presidents, past presidents used in their routines. You know, example, you’ll hear a lot of people talk about pens that the presidents used, their shaving sets, what watch they wore, what suits they wore, what cologne they wore.
They were right. A lot of people are interested in that. And believe it or not, a lot of presidents really just use basic Gillette razors. It wasn’t really that. And I’m sure today, you know, the presidents of today, they probably use the same thing. Maybe they’re using a mock three electric. Who knows? I don’t know if they’re using safety razor. It’s not really one of the things they speak too much about. But, you know, past leaders, this was a big deal and a customized shave set for JFK is very sought after. I mean, honestly, you see a lot of people talk about it and want to see pictures of it. And this is a replica of this set, which is it looks like a basic Gillette three piece tech that’s gold plated. So, I mean, honestly, it’s nothing special about it.
If it’s very expensive, I probably would hold off on it. But it did have a little, little container with JFK’s initials on it for his brush and a soap stick. So yeah, very cool. I’m looking forward to seeing that. A couple of those in the wild as well. I haven’t seen anybody posting about that yet.
So supply. Supply has come out with a new SC razor. And this SC razor is is honestly advertised with next stop technology. So there’s like a little open comb, guard, guard on it and it’s engineered.
So then if you go to shave a little bit more aggressively or on your head or something like that, it will stop the nicks and won’t work and won’t make you. But pre-orders started last month, about a month ago. So around the last time we were supposed to be on the show, it was going to be live. And it’s again composed of the same equipment, same stuff, stainless steel as like the original supply razor.
Now I have a supply razor. I’ve been very fortunate to meet the supply team and before they went on Shark Tank, which is actually if you’re a fan of Shark Tank, it’s one of my favorite TV shows. Honestly, I watch it every Friday, like religiously when I’m not working.
Usually I work late on Fridays, but if I’m not, I’m always watching it or I will watch it the next day. My wife and I love Shark Tank. I mean, we really are a big fan of it. And I was able to see that. I remember when they were on, they were actually advertised, not advertised. They were on the show of Shark Tank a couple of years ago, which is really cool just to see one of one of our own, you know, on TV, which is really one of the first times I’ve seen one of our vendors or one of our artisans on TV, and they were talking about this, the original supply razor.
And and, you know, I don’t know if they made a deal or if they did, but, you know, still it was on TV and and that’s an awesome thing to happen for them. So this new SC with next stop technology should eliminate up to I guess 80% of your nicks or something like that and composed of the same equipment. So it’s still stainless steel, still really, you know, a high quality piece and a price point, I think a little bit over 100 bucks or around $100.
So, you know, in line with the last, with the other, with the other supply. If you are a supply fan, if you’ve used a supply injector razor, then this is definitely for you. This will be something that you’ll enjoy using as well. So looking forward to seeing the reviews and seeing when these things get sent out and let me know if you’ve got one or if you’ve tried a prototype or if you have, you know, if you’re on the list so we can stay in touch and I can hear more about it.
So moving along, guys, just to talk about a little bit on the shave rescue cleaning brush. Now cleaning your razor is something that one I never really did because I thought, hey, I use it with soap, I rinse it. It’s not a big deal until you really look at it and take your even if it’s a three piece razor. Now, if you have an adjustable razor, any adjustable razor, you got to keep it clean because honestly, guys, you will get crud and stuff in the middle of the mechanism, especially for those vintage Gillette. They don’t come apart easily.
Now, if you get honestly, if you have like one of the older fat boys. Where it has a two notches and you can actually unscrew the bottom of it with a modified pair of pliers or screwdriver. Those are probably the best fat boys to have or best because you can take it apart and it will take out the the the doors, the silo doors. And you can actually wash and rinse the inside a little bit better and clean that little mechanism and then put it together.
I mean, I’m not one to like taking apart my razor, but if you have a one that’s got one of those punch pins or those punches that are put in there, and you can’t really take it off that easy unless you have like a hammer or something like that. I would hold off, but these razors get dirty and nasty, so just to see a specialized brush for it, you know, I think that’s a great idea.
Now, what I do to clean my razors is I use to be completely honest, I use dish soap, Dawn dish soap, and I also use a toothbrush. And what I’ll do with my adjustable is after I’m done using it first, I thoroughly rinse it and then I’ll drop a couple of drops of dish soap in there, you know, periodically scrub the scrub the the base, the base of the razor down, scrub everything down on it and let it or I’ll just kind of run water through the mechanism with the silo doors open.
You can do that or you can you can put it into a ultrasonic cleaner. If you have one of those, you can get one very reasonable or a good one for 50 to $100. And that’s a great investment if you plan on, you know, restoring anything, really, if you’re doing anything that needs like micro cleaning or razors are great watches, pens, all that stuff. If that’s your hobby, you can use that for for a lot of things and you can just put it in there like every ten uses or so for a little bit and let that clean it out because really it’s preventative maintenance, the crud it gets in there.
That’s what makes these 90% of these things fail. So, you know, a big deal with that, that now the shaving brush itself is just the shave rescue shaving brush. It’s just a basic brush. It looks like it’s got softer bristles. I’ve never used it, but I can tell you that it is. And I’m looking it up right now to get a good picture of it while I’m doing this. It’s it’s kind of like fits in the palm of your hand. It looks kind of like like something you would use to, I guess, clean like tires on a car if you ever had a tire brush that would fit in the palm of your hand.
And you just scrub the scrub the outside tire. That’s what it looks like. So the rescue brush is actually it works well with with the excuse me, the cartridge razors, but I think you could probably use it on a safety razor as well. You know, looking at it, it’s advertised. It’s supposed to get all the crud out of there, all the oxidation, everything like that.
And it is made actually in the United States. So that’s pretty cool too. It’s made in America and it’s engineered that you can use it. And I think I’m sorry, I think it’s got a suction cup on it. So and you can put it right on on a on a countertop or something like that and you can just scrub a clean and that’s what it’s advertised to do. It’s got a little, little areas where the water will drain and everything like that and keep that blades nice and fresh and clean and thus prevailing. So it’s really it’s advertised for four cartridge razors, but I was looking at it to use on a safety razor and I think it would work just as well.
But you’ve got to maybe do a little softer and just go easy on it. $25 is the price. So I mean, yeah, you know, it’s a lot. But if you’re into the specialty stuff, try it out. If you do use, I guess, what you call cartridge razors, it might be a good, good investment for you. Or you can use a toothbrush with your regular safety razors, too. So, I mean, that’s something that, like I said, it’s been working well for me. Soak it in in a in a bowl full of hot water and dish soap for a little bit and then just scrub it clean.
I don’t even use any micro polishing compounds or anything like that just to keep that unless it’s like a honestly, it’s a solid stainless steel razor or something like that with those old Gillette’s I don’t do that because the plating is very thin. So check them out, guys. Shave, rescue, cleaner, brush, American made and it’s $25 for one. And you can actually buy a big pack if you want if you want to do resale for about $300 or send you a bunch of them.
All right. And moving along, we have new shave brushes from Badlands shaving, badlands shaving. Now, this is a vendor I didn’t really I never really heard about until, honestly, just looking around. I’ve been looking around for razors. I’ve been looking around for a new stuff to talk about. And I found these new brushes and a picture on the show. It shows you the like it’s a a dual like a wood slash resin handle.
So I thought I’ve seen some vendors doing this before and I really think that at the price point, starting just for the handle 70 and you could start with a knot for around $90. Yeah, it’s really cool. So I’m not sure where these blanks are coming from or where these these handles are coming from or how they’re doing it. I haven’t really looked that much into it yet, but honestly, really cool designs. And I thought it was really I just wanted to share them with you guys today because I thought it was really nice and very interesting.
So yeah, kind of a of a quick show there today. A lot of information. Sorry, I had like two weeks of information for the same amount of time, but honestly, just really, really happy to be back. I can’t tell you how much and talking what shaving. So guys, a couple of things I do want to say. If you do have anything you want, you want featured on the show or if you want to talk more about some other areas like of what shaving, you know, let me know and give me and give me some of your ideas, your thoughts, something you like to hear.
Now, I did get an email from somebody. I forgot who it was recently and they asked me, say, Hey, how come you don’t do Joe? How come you don’t do interviews? And the reason why I just don’t do interviews is not because I don’t think the listeners would enjoy it. I think they would. It’s just there’s so many other areas where those those interviews have been done. It’s just hard for me to justify doing another interview for an artist, and that’s been interviewed four or five times in the last year and a half. You know, they’re going to hear the same thing from here. It gets very repetitious.
You know, there are a couple of other, what, shaving? You know what’s shaving excuse me, podcast out there. And I’ve seen that they do a lot of interviews and they do like a meet and greet and they have a couple of guys that have co-hosts and stuff like that, and that’s something that I would probably look into in the future. The thing is, one for me is timing. I do this around weird times because I do work a lot, but hopefully that will change someday and I won’t have to work so many crazy hours. And I could do something where I could just focus on, you know, a regular schedule like like a normal person. Right.
So, yeah, we’ll see how that works. I’m definitely working on some new content and stuff like that coming up here soon in the next few few months. So if you guys have anything you want it featured, want to hear? Let me know if there’s anything you want to hear about like review wise. Try it out. Let me know about that too and I’ll see what I can do if I can pick it up or I can get some more information for somebody that did. But guys, again, thank you very much. That concludes our show for this week. First off, I’ve got to say special thanks to Mark, aka mantic 59. Remember that our show is powered by sharp objects. What? Your father didn’t teach you about shaving? Don’t forget, guys, I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. So we are back to the normal schedule. We will see you on the 23rd of May. Until then, shave straight and shave safe. Bye bye now.
Joe Borrelli
Joe Borrelli is a long-time wet shaving enthusiast and collector. He hosts the Wet Shaving News/Talk Podcast, runs his own self-funded website http://shavestraightandsafe.com/ and operates a YouTube channel to help inform the community of new information involving the wet shaving world. Joe holds a BBA from Florida Atlantic University, and currently works for the nation’s largest wine/spirits/beer retailer. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife Linda & son Anthony, reading, writing, outdoor activities and collecting wet shaving apparel. Joe has also written several dozen articles for online publications such as Sharpologist and How to Grow a Mustache.View Author posts