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 April 14th, 2025.
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Today on the Show:
Watches and Wonders ( Not Wet Shaving but What a Show)
New Razor From Supply
What To Avoid When Purchasing a Vintage Razor
Personna Lab Blue/Accuforge Blades: The Last Made in USA Double Edge Blade
Fine Accoutrements: Big Price Increase Starting Today
Paradigm: New Razor: The Copper Diamondback
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New Razor From Supply: The Single Edge Max
New razor from Supply is here and priced at $79.
New design to increase efficiency, and make shaving more fun. Best of luck to Supply with the new razor!
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What to Avoid When Purchasing a Vintage Razor
The top things to avoid:
- Rust: If you see rust, there’s a good chance it will cost you a pretty penny to get right.
- Cracks in the blade/chips (straight razors0
- Brassing ( plating loss)
- In operable functions (such as Twist to Open)
- Bent/Missing pieces
- Excessive hone wear ( straight razors)
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Personna Lab Blues/Accuforge: Last of the Made in USA DE Blades
Recent name change for a long standing high performing blade. New name, same stuff. I’ll tell you why I love these blades
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Fine Accoutrements Big Price Increase
Large price increases for a well known artisan. What does this mean for the industry? Will others follow? Should we stock up now? I’ll tell you my thoughts.
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Paradigm: New Razor: The Copper Diamondback
100% Pure Copper: Paradigm has released it’s latest razor and is available now. Limited to one run.
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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: 4/28/25
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 April 14th, 2025. Hello everyone, welcome back to the podcast. I do apologize, I think I’m off on the timing a little bit here with the date, because I believe it was supposed to be last week for the podcast, but for some reason, I thought it was this week, so here I am. But I’m glad I waited a little bit, because we do have some great information, a lot of stuff going on in the wet shaving world, some new releases and stuff, and a lot of news and a lot of questions about tariffs and all that stuff.
What I have to say about is with, I did get a few emails regarding what’s going on with the tariffs and all that and everybody’s worried about it. So I’ll start to show off just by saying a brief mention. I don’t really know much about it guys. I know it changes every day it’s been seen. But what has been consistent is that most personal goods under $800 will not be affected. So example, If you’re purchasing a razor that’s valued at $200 from another country, you probably won’t have to be part of the tariff from what I’ve seen in certain situations.
So I wouldn’t put so much, I wouldn’t worry so much about it yet until you start seeing some other vendors say, hey, you know, we’re not going to ship to this country or ship to that country. So I wouldn’t, unfortunately, I don’t know, and that’s been, I’ve gotten like four or five emails in the last two weeks about, hey, what are you doing to, asking me what am I doing about it? Well, I’m not doing much right now. I mean, I honestly, I’m still looking at stuff online. I haven’t seen much go up and down in price except for a few vendors here and there, and I haven’t really been affected by it.
So I’d say until now, keep everything the same until we see, you know, as soon as something comes out, I will definitely report it on the podcast and say, Hey, this is what I saw. This is what I heard to keep you guys informed. But as of right now, I would say I’m business as usual here at the podcast. So still purchasing stuff, still going to buy regular soaps and brushes and stuff like that until further notice. We’ll see what happens. I haven’t made any major purchases myself and probably, you know, a few years, mainly because I’ve been enjoying what I have and trying to I guess really just focus on my stuff that I already own before I start going crazy buying other stuff, hence why I haven’t been doing many product reviews.
But I want to start getting back into that. So we’ll see that in the near future as well. So that’s all I know right at this moment. But as soon as I get more information, or as soon as I hear more, as soon as I see people reacting, like vendors reacting, I’ll definitely report it as I’ve been doing. So today on the show guys, we have a few, um, definitely a few things going on. We have, I just wanted to do a brief mention because I know a lot of you guys are into watches, watches and wonders.
This year was over over the last, the first week of April. That’s an annual event where it’s done in Switzerland with all of the major companies release their new stuff. And it’s very popular. It’s very, um, it’s very big on the in the watch world right and again I know a lot of us here at the podcast also collect watches or in the watches and you know pens and all that stuff so whenever I see something like that I’ll mention it but watches and wonders was incredible I thought that it was great I didn’t go to it of course it’s in Switzerland but I did watch it on On YouTube, I watched a bunch of YouTubers talk about it, a bunch of reporting, and I thought it was really, really interesting.
Some great releases, some epic stuff. Rolex came out with a new concept, which they haven’t done in over 30 years. I think 30 or 40 years, they haven’t come out with something new like this, so it was really cool. Just wanted to do a brief mention. If you guys ever have any questions about stuff like that, feel free to email me, and if you want me to add more stuff like that in the show, of course, let me know as well. Supply has a new razor. This is incredible. This razor looks great. It’s got a lot of Information online about it.
So really into it and a lot of the best off is they have it in stock So you can take a look at it’s not overly expensive and the concept of it looks good. I remember the supply company They were on shark tank and they make single edge razors, which are I have the original one Which is really good very good razor and they have they have a new one that just came out So we’ll talk a little bit about that Talk about what to avoid when purchasing a vintage razor. So what to avoid is I have a four or five things that you should avoid when buying one just to save you some time and some some headache.
Persona Lab Blue or AccuForge blades. This is the last double edge blade made in America. I’ll tell you a little bit about that. It’s one of the ones I use almost all the time. Fine accoutrements. Old a longtime vendor of soap and aftershave and more and razors and other stuff like that has a big increase Starting today on prices. So just letting you know about that. I have the price increase It’s pretty substantial for them to absorb some of the I guess some of the inflation costs. They haven’t had price increases some time We’ll talk a little bit about that and a razor company that I am a big fan of paradigm Came out the copper diamondback.
It is out. It’s available. You can purchase it And if you did a pre-order you should be getting it this week So, without further ado guys, let’s get on with the show. The new razor from Supply, the Single Edge Max is here and ready for you to purchase if you love single edge razors. Just looking at the design, I put in the show notes, I put a nice picture of the new one. This razor’s got a little bit of a different head design on it. It’s actually designed for increased efficiency. and actually make it a more fun experience.
So if you take a look at the head of the razor, it’s got kind of like a comb or scalloped head, which will let it glide and actually go over shaving cream a little bit easier. This razor cuts a little bit closer and is just a little bit more efficient when doing that. So this would be great for head shaving and stuff. in that area. So this is a new concept from Supply, priced at $79. Guys, this is something that we need in the wet shaving world. A lot of these new razors come out and they’re extremely expensive, but Supply has been very good at keeping it under the $100 mark for most of their items.
So, very excited to see this. Wanted to wish them good luck. Again, Supply was one of the only wet shaving companies to be featured on Shark Tank. Actually, Shark Tank’s one of my favorite shows. I watch that almost every day, reruns, new ones, whatever. I just think it’s really interesting and fun to watch that concept of a TV show, and Supply was on it. So, if you’re looking for a new single-edge razor, injector-style razor, this is here for you, ready for you to get it. And I’m really interested in seeing the reviews. It’s got very good reviews online, and I believe Mantic did a, he did a article on it just recently, so check that out too on sharpologist.com.
And yeah, this is great. Really, really excited about new release here. So good luck supply with this razor and hope to see more stuff coming out in the future. So what to avoid when purchasing a vintage razor? This is something that I learned the hard way. As you guys know, if you’ve been listening to the show for a few years or know me in general, I like to do things my, well, for a while there, I did things my own way, right? I said, I can buy this. I said, oh, no problem. I’ll buy stuff on eBay.
I’ll restore it myself. I’m a very much, I guess, do it yourself type of person. I love to learn about things and I usually honestly break a lot of stuff too when I do it So if you think about it learning the hard way is also Not very smart. I don’t think but also a way to learn how not to do it and how to do it I guess long term so This is what I’ve learned with when what I’ve learned to avoid when purchasing a vintage razor number one any sort of rust possible and If there’s rust, there’s a good chance it’s going to cost you a lot of money to get it fixed or time or it won’t be shave worthy.
This is with straight razors and safety razors. If you see rust on anything that you purchase and you can say, Oh, I can get rid of the pitting and all that. Yes, you, you, you, you can clean it up. But example, if you get an old vintage Gillette razor, that’s got rust on the doors, right? You can sand it off and everything. You’re not going to get it a hundred percent back. You’ll get it to where you take the top layer off, it’ll be brassed, and it will not work out too well. Trust me, I’ve been there.
I took apart a vintage Gillette razor that had rust on it. I’ve never been able to get it right. Yeah, you can send it out to somebody else. But for unless it’s something that’s got some real value, there’s really no point in doing that. because it’s just going to cost you more than what it’s worth to fix it than it is to buy one that’s already fully restored. So avoid rust at all costs. Cracks in the blade or chips in the blade with a straight razor. Yes, there’s guys out there I know they can hone it out, do that.
It is so much work and not worth it and you lose a lot of the razors Look and and function because if it’s too deep if you see a crack in the blade, it will never get right I have a razor really I have a philharmonic that was given to me That has a crack in the blade that I tried to hone it out and a crack goes pretty pretty Decent crack in it and you can’t even see it’s a hairline crack and I cannot cut that thing shave it snags on the on the on the crack right even though it’s sharp It’s not right.
It won’t work. So, avoid cracks, chips in the blade. If you see it, just run. Don’t even bother. Don’t waste your time with it, even if it’s something that’s very valuable. It’s going to cost more to fix it, unless you can do it yourself. It’s hours of work to get that blade right. A lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but I don’t care. I’m going to tell you how it is. Brassing of a razor. If you see a razor with the brass is showing and it’s not a brass razor, I would stay away from it.
Example, vintage Gillette razors have a thin coat of metal over the brass because they’re mostly, most of the components are made out of brass, right? If you see the doors on it or the handle on it and it’s all brassed out and you see it looking like yellowish color, I would stay away from that because that razor, well, it will perform fine, you know, unless you get it for like free. I don’t know if I would hold on to it because it is going to not work right. It’s never going to look right. It’s never going to be right.
It will function, I’m sorry, it will function normally, right? But it will eventually it will start getting, you know, break down. It’s just not going to be an aesthetic razor to keep. So unless you plan on getting it replated by Razer Emporium or something like that and it’s got, unless it has like, you know, some, some real, like actual, like meaning to you, I would hold off on doing that unless you got it for free. You just want to use it and mess around with it. If it’s like a Razer, like a, like a toggle where the gold plating came off of it, expect to pay about a hundred to $200 to get that plating back.
So I think that Razer would work. bottom dials, you know, those razors that show three, four, $500 plus values when they’re restored, definitely want to hold onto it and do that. But if it’s something in the line of a, you know, it’s like a regular Gillette slim or something like that, I wouldn’t even bother with it, but I would stay away from it unless it was like something, something that was given to you or something that had some nostalgia to some real meaning. inoperable functions such as Swiss to open on a safety razor. If it doesn’t work, stay away from it guys.
Reason being, it’s going to cost a lot to fix it unless it’s, you know, worth it to you. Again, you could get a used razor online, right? Old razor, vintage razor for a good price. That’s not functional, right? Maybe it has some problems with it, but you can get it for a little bit more money. It’s way worth it to get something that’s completely ready to go. I’m talking about if you want a Gillette Fatboy and you purchase one for $50 that’s not restored, beat up, needs to be cleaned up and all that stuff online, right?
But you can get one that says restored or whatever like that, cleaned up, went to Razor Emporium or those services with the card on it for $120, $100, buy the better one because you will not have to worry about it. It’s 100% ready. It’s going to look great. And in general, it’s going to cost you more than $50 or $60 to send it out and get it fixed and the time and everything like that. So again, if it’s inoperable functions, stay away from it. Bent or missing pieces would be the next one. That’s number five.
If you have anything broken, if it’s bent, especially the guard on it, yes, it can be fixed. Subscribe in US English Although Razer Emporium is making parts now, some parts here for them, they actually produce parts for those razors that are aftermarket, I guess you would say, that you can purchase that will work. And that’s a recent addition, but still a lot of this stuff, it’s not available. And finally, the number one thing with straight razors to avoid is excessive hone wear on them. If the razor’s been honed a million times and you could see that it’s shiny on the spine of it and the bevel on the blade is like, you know, very noticeably big, like it’s like a quarter, I guess it would be like a sixteenth of an inch or something like that and you could actually see the shininess, that razor has been somebody else’s baby and has been used a million times, right?
Avoid it at all costs because it is just at the end of its life. It’s it’s coming to you because it was probably a barber’s razor if it’s vintage, right? And it’s been used up to where the blade starting to get flat. Now from when the blade is completely flat, you can’t really hone it. So I would stay away unless it’s something that you know, again has some, it’s a family heirloom or something like that. You want to hold on to it and get a sharp and use it. Yes, and I would keep it but If you’re looking for a used razor or a vintage razor, avoid that in all costs with straight razors.
Persona Lab Blues or Accuforge Blades Lasted American made, basically made in USA, DE blades. So Persona Lab Blues, you guys know about that. Persona makes blades in Israel, they make blades in the United States. They’ve switched the name, some of them are now called Accuforge. So that razor, those blades are now called Accuforge, the new ones, but there’s still plenty of Persona Lab Blues out there. These are the last made of blades that I’ve seen in the actual industry, right? And out there. So these are the only produced ones here. They work very well, especially with my other razors.
I still really love them. I use it all the time. That’s the one I’ve been buying a box. And because of, I used to use some other blades that you can’t purchase that much anymore. Sometimes you go online, you go to buy blades and you buy a hundred pack or something like that. These are my go to blades, these and feathers. They’re very sharp and they last a long time, but these are close second. These work very well. I think the persona lab blues are great or AccuForge, whatever they’re called now. Last of the made in USA blades, definitely a fan of them.
And with everything going on with tariffs and stuff, guys, if any, when, when in doubt, you know, you got at least one producer for your, for the people in the United States, they can buy if something happens. Remember with the the whole thing with the Russian conflict going on, you know, a lot of us like those Russian blades that came out It’s been very hard to get them and they’ve gone up in price if you can get them. So and plus, you know They’re not really very available anymore. So a lot of a lot of guys that said hey, you know what?
I’m gonna switch to something else Subscribe in US English Persona lab blues I’m a big fan of them been using them for a few years for years I did stay away from them because I heard too many things about all they’re not that sharp or they don’t work that well But I noticed with milder razors. They do work very well again if it’s an aggressive razor I do I tend to go with like Feather blade. I think those are really good. Those are Japanese blades Those tend to be the sharpest blades I’ve used but the persona lab blues are good all-around everyday blade that are good at you know available at a good price So those are the ones that’s one of my favorite blades haven’t talked about them in a while So I wanted to also let you guys know about the name change which recently happened to take within the last six months to a year So if you start seeing anything called AccuForge, it’s just the same ones just under a new name Now fine accoutrements with the big price increase.
Yes, this was something that was throwing off a lot of people online, a lot of controversy on this, but I understand where they’re coming from. So coming right from their website here. After a comprehensive review of our business practices and to address our longstanding struggles with out of stock products, fine accoutrements will introduce across the board price increases effective next Monday, April 14th. see the table for exact changes. So aftershaves are going from $24 to $34. Shaving soaps, again, $10. You’ve got spray, you have colognes going up from $34 to $48. Their DE5 razor, the razor they came out with is going from $50 to $74.
Their brushes, $30 to $45. Lather bowls, $25 to $45. And stands are going from $30 to $50. So large increase by a well-known artisan. What does this mean for our industry? Will others follow? And should we stock up now? Well, I say I think they’re going to be around if they’re doing a price increase like that. I think they’re going to be around. I think the price increases is extensive because 10 bucks on that. That’s over 30% price increase. So again, these are good quality soaps. I’ve had fine accoutrements for years. I’ve used them many times.
The American blend is one of my favorite scents, although very aggressive. It’s a very good scent. And you know what? We’re going to have to move with the times here. I understand they’ve got to take a price increase. They probably haven’t because $25, that sounds like a price that they’ve had for quite some time. So we support them. So hopefully this works out for them. If I know these artisans, if they didn’t have to raise their prices, trust me, they wouldn’t. And it should have been probably done months ago for this company because usually these artisans hold off as much as they possibly can because they don’t want to lose the client base that they have.
and a price increase like this can do that. So I guess to say in short, let’s hope for the best with this one. My thoughts are, hey, the industry is gonna change. You have inflation, you have all this other stuff going on. Prices are gonna go up. But also, when inflation comes down and all that other stuff comes down, prices tend to come down too. So hopefully, operating costs and stuff, eventually we’ll see some price decreases in anything in the world. And I’m sure we’ll come through with wet shaving as well. Now, with all this stuff going on, we’ve seen long-standing companies like Mitchell’s Wolfpack go out of business, William Soaps go out of business.
So a lot of companies have been shutting down because of that. This one saying, hey, I’m going to survive by raising my price, make it more profitable for me so I can be in business. And I’ll still offer you guys the better in stock position. I’ll be here for you. We’re not going anywhere. So that’s kind of what I see from that. So good luck find accoutrements. We hope that you still have your customer base and you and you’re not affected by anything else. And you’re still going to be with us for some years now because you do make some great stuff.
And finally, I told you guys it was a big show today, a lot going on. The Paradigm Copper Diamondback. Now Paradigm is a company based out of Texas made by an ex-NASA engineer or space and industry engineer. He does CNC machined American razors using special metals such as titanium, stainless steel, and now copper. and this razor is basically the limited edition of 100% pure copper of the Diamondback that’s been around for several years. So of course with copper, you get a nice shine when it first comes out and beautiful patina when it gets older and easily polished off patina too if you want to hold on to it.
You can use brass or you can use, you know, MOSFETs or whatever like that. It’ll get a shiny again. They even give you directions in the box when you buy the razor. I think it’s priced around $329. So Paradigm does have some expensive stuff, but they’re more on the high-end razor. And I can tell you, I own the T2, the titanium razor they made about, say now, it’s coming up 10 years. And that razor is flawless. There’s not one spot on that razor of machine mark or anything. It’s fully polished. It is a beautiful razor.
It shaves wonderfully. and it’s one of my favorite pieces in my collection. So we wish you the best of luck with the copper. Remember guys, copper is very heavy too, so you’ll get a very heavy razor. But I think copper is beautiful. I also love bronze razors too. If I can get one in the near future, I probably would sell a couple of my pieces to get like a Wolfman bronze WR1 or something like that. So I think this is a great razor. It’s beautiful online. I think everybody’s going to really enjoy it. And remember, most of their releases are limited.
So if you’re looking to get it, it’s available now. Woo, that’s a big show today, guys. Lots of information going on in the wet shaving world, which I love. Great to bring a lot of good stuff to you guys, good content, so I’m really happy about that. Remember, our show is powered by sharpologist.com, which your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Special thanks to Mantic59 for everything that he does with the community and for letting us use his platform as well as having great content week after week. Most of all, guys, I want to thank you guys, the listeners.
Without you, there’d be no podcast. And quite frankly, it would be just me talking to myself. No, I’m just kidding. So don’t forget to check out my blog, ShaveStraightandSafe.com. And of course, feel free to contact me at any time at Joe.WestShavingNews at gmail.com. Remember, don’t forget to check out my book, The Modern Guide to Straight Razor Shaving, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Pasteur’s Pharmacy in New York. If you’re a vendor and want to be featured on the show, if you’ve got something going on, send me an email at your earliest convenience. Our next show will be on the 28th of April.
Until then, shave straight and shave safe. Bye-bye now.
