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 September 18th 2023.
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Today on the Show:
Awesome Video Series by Razor Emporium
Shaving With Straights.. Still Going
New Adjustable Blackland Razor Osprey
Wet Shaving Forum Etiquette Continued
Schick Injector Replica on Amazon
Fall Seasonal Special: 10/30/23
Working on a Big Project!
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Awesome Video: 2 Part Series
Really interesting 2 part video series by Matt and team from Razor Emporium.
I really looked forward to this series and actually changed my work schedule in order to watch it un interrupted.
After watching the second part I couldn’t help but get an Old Type Shave!
Exploring Razor History Part 1 of 2: Gillette Collector Tours P&G Heritage Center & Archive 🪒🕰️
Exploring Razor History Part 2 of 2: Gillette Collector Tours P&G Heritage Center & Archive 🪒🕰️
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Still Going with Straights
Yes!! I’m still primarily shaving with straight razors! I’m enjoying it! I’ll tell you a little about my journey.
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New Adjustable by Blackland
Blackland has been testing a new adjustable razor. Several youtube videos featuring the Osprey. Looking forward to seeing this razor join the line-up.
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Wet Shaving Forum Etiquette Continued
Part 2: I have been more active on the forums lately ( getting back into the old routine) and really enjoying being back! I had a couple of emails sent regarding Wet Shaving Etiquette. I’ll discuss my findings as well.
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Replica Schick Injector on Amazon
I recently discovered this Schick Injector replica on Amazon. Reviews are mostly positive and the price is $22. Worth giving it a shot?
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Fall Seasonal Special 2023
Coming to you on 10/30/23!!!
Previous Years Shows: See how much has changed !
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Working on a Big Project:
I’ve been working on a big project (on and off) for the past few years. It looks like this project will be complete in the next month or so. More info to come!
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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.
Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Contact Me!!!
If you’re a vendor and would like to be featured on the show please contact me!!
Next Show: 10/2/23
Fall Seasonal Special : 10/30/23
Big Wet Shaving project: TBA soon!
Transcription (Machine Generated)
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. I’m your host, Joe Borrelli, and today is September 18th, 2023.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the podcast this week as we have a full, full show for you. A lot going on in the wet shaving world, a lot coming up in the wet shaving world. So there’s, um, well, there’s a lot going on and that’s that’s really good for all of us. Keeps keeps it interesting and keeps it fun. So hopefully everybody’s going through the last week of summer enjoying it.
As summer is coming to an end. We are in full fledged pumpkin spice season right now. So if you guys are in the fall, love pumpkin spice stuff. It is everywhere. Everywhere you can think of it. I think I even saw like a pumpkin spice, a theme, like a side dish at a restaurant or something. I mean, it’s everywhere. So, I mean, we are in fall season and that is the most exciting time of the year for wet shaving. So really looking forward to seeing these releases coming out and having some fun with with trying out some of that new stuff and bringing back the old favorites.
Uh, got, got my Halloween order in last week, so I’m really happy about that. The 10th year of Hallows, I did a pre-order on it. I got mine in. I haven’t used it yet, but I will be using it this week. I’m looking forward to it. I always look forward to seeing some really interesting fall releases, especially from like barrister and man Phoenix artisan accoutrements. And you also have of course, Holy Black when they do their annual fall release Halloween release, always they go over the top. I got last year. It’s huge box. It’s almost like when you get something like that you don’t even want to use it. Like you’re like, Oh, it’s a collectible item, but it is meant to be to be used. So, I mean, I got I got to start using some of this stuff
Today on the show, we have an awesome video series that was debuted by the by Razor Emporium about the history of Gillette. I’m going to get into it a little bit. I did link it up to the notes to awesome video. I was really impressed with the video. I even messaged a couple of people that were involved in it just to say how great of a job they did. I actually got to sit down and just watch it. I was on vacation for one of them. So I mean, it was really enjoyable to actually watch a video without having to, you know, be in the rush.
Are shaving with straight razors are still going? Yep. I’m still primarily shaving with straight razors, enjoying it very much, learning a lot more about it. And I’ll tell you a little bit more about that experience. I’ve been honing more. I’ve been actually getting more involved in some in some forums and having having a lot of fun with that and on and just really trying to get a little bit back to the roots of what shaving, I guess new adjustable Black land razor. The Osprey has been launched, not launched officially, but there have been out there. We’ll talk a little bit about that and a little bit more on what shaving etiquette continued from the last show. I did receive a couple of emails, actually, believe it or not, from viewers or listeners that said, hey, you know, they saw some, some, uh, similar trends in the, in the, in the forums, a Schick injector replica on Amazon. This is pretty interesting. A replica of this razor on Amazon for under $30. And the four seasonal specials coming up. It will be debuting on the 30th of October. And then there’s a big project that I’ve been working on that will be coming out as well to talk a little bit about that, give you a little bit of a teaser on that one. So without further ado, let’s get on with the show.
So this awesome video, it’s a two part series video from Razer Emporium. Matt Pasek and his team went and visited the Heritage Center at at Procter and Gamble, and he met with Greg McCoy, which is the senior archivist. If you guys are familiar with some of the articles I’ve written for Apologist, I actually met or through email and phone Greg as well and got a lot of information from him in regards to Gillette. When I was writing articles on like the toggle, the bottom dial and the double ring when I was doing a lot of that stuff, he was able to give me a lot of information and really help me out in that. So he’s a very nice guy. I got to see got to see the archive center in this video pretty in-depth of what they have. I mean, they have a lot of stuff, but you got to see a lot of the main stuff. I have to say that I was looking forward to this when I heard about it and I actually woke up early last the last two Fridays to watch it.
So I got to say one thing, Matt, thank you for splitting it up and giving me a whole week of sitting there waiting for the next one. I felt like the old days when you used to watch a TV show and they leave you on a cliffhanger and you have to wait until the next the next show, which is a week. Instead of being able to stream it all at once, really, really wasn’t very happy about that, but happy about that, right? It gave you something to look forward to. Really did give me something to look forward to during the week. I thought the video was well made. I think it was kind of like a documentary slash interview type video tour, and I thought it was really interesting for us wet shavers, especially if you’re into Gillette.
But more importantly, it showed you how how Procter and Gamble, how serious they are about their development and how they serious they are about their their, I guess, innovation. Like they have the room of failures. They said in this video and I’m going to give you a couple of spoilers. So if you haven’t watched the video, you probably want to just skip through this part of the podcast. But the The Room of Failures where they said, Hey, this is something that failed and this is why, this is why it didn’t work. It just didn’t we didn’t market ItrillionIGHT. It didn’t work right. It just wasn’t built right. You know how a big company like that still knows that they fail at certain things and still tries to improve? Shows that the innovation of why they’ve been around so long.
Also, there’s a couple really great things about Gillette in there is some of their failures as well. Like they had that injector razor that they tried to make the injector like double edged razor. They had a couple of other razors, didn’t work. I mean, honestly, guys, the toggle in the bottom dial, the most sought after collectible items for Gillette, arguably were failures. You know, they didn’t work. The consumers didn’t like them. So that’s why they’re rare and that’s why they’re not around. And how how Procter and Gamble and Gillette kept these items close to them so would know not to do it again. You know when you see companies not being innovative and not understand their failures and not push, you know, hoping to fail fast in their business model, you never see him last that long and to last over 100 years. I guess that’s why they’re still here. They’re still being innovative.
And you got to give Gillette something, guys. Gillette has been around the Dollar Shave Club came and gone. All these like other razor companies have come and Gillette still here and they haven’trillioneally focused on certain business models like them. They didn’t cheapen their product. They’re still here because they’re still being innovative. So got to give them credit where credit’s due to. Matt and your team over there at Razor Emporium, This is really enjoyable video. I probably one of the better videos I’ve seen in the 11 or 12 years I’ve been wet shaving. I’ve been really enjoyed it. So keep it up. Hopefully we see more stuff like this and hopefully one day I’ll be able to swing by that Heritage Center. I think maybe, uh, they’d be nice to just walk around and take a look. I know it’s for employees only, so it’s a very. A very exclusive club. But who knows? Who knows what the future will bring?
So I’m still going straight razors. And the reason why I put that in to talk about it is I think I think it’s important that I mention what I’m doing and what’s shaving sometimes because I talk so much about what shaving in general, what am I doing to stay, you know, I guess keep it fresh and keep it fun. And I do a lot that I don’t mention on the air. And I was just going to start talking a little bit about it. Excuse me. We have some I have some iced coffee here going on. It’s nice early in the morning. Love iced coffee, by the way, guys, I don’t know if you do, but it’s one of my favorite things in the world. So talking about straight razors is keeping it fresh is like I’m keeping a routine. Usually with wet shaving. I go in there and I look at my stuff and I’m not. My collection is not the biggest in the world. I’m not going to say it is. It’s decent size. And I’ve actually downgraded a lot in the past year or two. Right?
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff because come to the realization that I’m not going to be able to use all this stuff and it’s going to go bad. Some of the soaps are starting to get, you know, they’re starting to look bad. It’s some of the aftershave and stuff. Been around a while or don’t touch it. So I’m just kind of like going to keep it fresh. But then I go back there and I look around and I’m like, Oh man, I really wish I had that. I guess it’s some nostalgia because it’s been wet shaving for so long, but and razors too. I mean, I have I have a decent amount of razors, but I use probably only, you know. Maybe ten of them, maybe less.
Now, I before I was using less than that, at one point I was only using like two. But now I’m like, you know what I got? I got to keep this fresh. So primarily using straight razors, been using different ones. I honed out three of them. Now I have going in the rotation. I’ve been primarily shaving with my Delvaux and my heart steel. Hard steel is. And it’s really hard to believe how different these razors are. You know, you have a hollow ground razor, which I personally love, hollow ground razors. I am a big fan of them. I like the sound of them. I like how sharp they get. They get sharper, It feels like it get sharper and they’re a little bit more agile to on the face than the bigger wedge blades, right?
But the heart steel is a quarter hollow, so it’s a little bit more on the solid and it just feels like you’re using like a heavier piece of steel on your face, which it is, and more solid. So I mean, I enjoy that, but I still love the hollow grounds. I love extra hollow ground as well. Razors. It’s just me. I do like them. Not a fan of those big wedges, but as you can see in the show notes, these are partial wedge razors that are in there that I put in the in the picture. Uh, messing around with those two. No, I’ve got probably at least maybe about 20 straight razors left or maybe 30. I don’t know. I have quite a few, a lot of them in a box and probably about 15 of them are shave worthy right now. Yeah.
So and then a couple of my collect and I’m never going to get rid of. And then there’s a lot that I, you know, I’m like hey I time the time to move on. But having a good journey with these with straight razors still going now I do have somewhat of a beard now, like a partial beard. So I like to I I’m basically just cutting, you know, cutting, shaving my neck and trimming it up. But it is easier to line your beard up with a straight razor. I have to say, once you get good at it, just take it, you know, a little words of advice, guys. It’s just with the cream. Just know your beard line in this. Get right under it and just more as less in that area. You want to get as much out as you can and then just even it out. So once you even it out, remember it will grow back quickly.
So you don’t have to worry. If you make a mistake, you don’t have to cut everything off. Just it’ll come back. So having fun with them, still going strong, still honing and talking about straight razors and, um, actually went back into a forum, a badger and blade and straight razor place and just been posting a little bit in there and just, uh, really just listening and learning to see what everybody’s doing these days. Haven’t really been on the forums too much other than just like lurking, but now lately just seeing and, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that and further on in the show today But yep straight razors have been great having fun If you guys are using straight razors or need any advice, let me know. I’m here for you.
Moving along. We have black land razors with a new adjustable razor. Now, this has been on the works for them, probably for a well over a year, I’m sure of it because I’ve seen them with certain posts where they were making it and just and just coming out with certain items on it, a certain like releases on it. Like, Hey, we made the head, hey, we made the handle, all that stuff on their Facebook page. But now I’ve seen a bunch of guys using it in the test phase. So really interested in seeing how this one’s going to come out. You know, Black Land Razors has been around for a while now, I think almost about 7 or 8 years, maybe longer. And he and Shane over there has done many really innovative things with the wet shaving He’s done, you know, his handle design was amazing.
I thought the handle design was really interesting, very original on the original Blackbird and just they’ve gone through brass, they’ve gone to Titanium, they’ve gone to different versions. He brought the shredder back, which is actually, I believe, his final batch. I don’t think he’s doing it anymore after they sell out the shredder. Of course, being one of the first CNC stainless steel excuse me, stainless steel razors that came out in 2012, you know, those are the one of the it was really the first modern day razor that was CNC machined. You had the Weber right before that, which wasn’t that was forged but opened up a lot of doors and the shredders and one of those razors that, you know, I have I have one, I have two, actually. And I I’m never going to get rid of those. Those are definitely my, um, definitely collectible item.
I actually really enjoy using them here and there and love them, you know, they’re great. So it’s hard to believe that Black Lynn wouldn’t think about making an adjustable razor. So I think we’re going to see that hopefully by next year we’ll see actually where you’ll be able to purchase it. You remember a lot of time on these adjustable razors go in. It goes into a lot of time making them. So just make sure that, you know, we’re you know, we understand the price is probably going to be pretty high on this. I would say probably in the 3 to $400 range. You know, so it may not be attainable for everybody. But if you are looking for an adjustable and this is something that you’re you’re interested in, start, you know, start getting ready for it because I think this is going to be a nice one, too.
And it looks like some brass and I can almost guarantee he’ll have it in stainless steel. So that’s right, the black line Razor, the Osprey, it’s what it’s called, the name of it’s Osprey. Be on the lookout for that.
So part two on the forums. What shaving etiquette. I did get a couple of emails, believe it or not, from some viewers, haven’t really gotten a chance to dig deep on this. But I’ve been on the forums and I can tell you the etiquette is way different than it was ten years ago, 12 years ago, 15 years ago. You know, I noticed a lot of people are a little bit shorter. They’re a little bit. Uh, a little. Those little like, um. Little like the answers a little bit more, I guess. Smart alecky, I guess. A little short. It’s just, I think with what shaving. I think what, what’s happening is some of these guys that have been on the forums and when I looked at it, when I started reading through the forum,
I noticed that the people that are giving those like quick back result remarks have been there for ten years plus. Right? Maybe 15 years. And I think the reason is they’re just they’re just used to saying the same thing over and over again. And I think my my, because I went and I did a little sample post of something that I knew the answer to, and I just wanted to test the water out. And the results I got back were. I guess the responses were a little bit on the Hey, you got like, I’m stupid, Mark Like, they thought that I didn’t know what I you know, I was asking something dumb. And the question I asked WASN’trillionEALLY dumb, it was more along the lines of like a it was a technical question and it was kind of answered like, well, this and that.
You know, your mileage will vary type stuff and like, like guys just say, hey, look, try something different. Like back in the day when I started, I would put in questions. I would get a lot of responses. In fact, I loved the form so much that I used to look forward to logging in on my laptop because I didn’t have it on my phone at the time. They didn’t have it on you. I mean, you can look it up on your phone, but it wasn’t as easy, so it was much easier to do on there on your computer. And I remember I remember when I would go to school, I was in college at the time.
Remember, as I told you guys, I was a late student and I was going in there. I would log in to Badger and Blade or straight Razor place on my time where I had a little bit of a break and just read through the forms and and just add stuff and talk and stuff. I really enjoyed it. I don’t see that camaraderie anymore that that I saw in there. I think there’s just too many people on it. I think too many people come and go. It’s it’s a lot. So I was a little disappointed with what I saw and I could see why some. And the two responses, the 2 or 3 emails I received all said the same kind of thing. It’s just I guess it’s just times of change. But all I can give is advice. If you guys, if you are experienced, wet shavers or in anything, if you have if you’re in a watch form because the watch forms are brutal. I’ll be honest, those are the worst. I got into a watch form and I left after like two posts because I posted something and they all said, Well, how would you not know that? And all this and this. Oh, that’s this is, oh, you know, this is stupid. And like you, you should know this by now. You should do your research. I’m like, Whoa. I was just asking a question on on a color. And I was just like, I’m out. Like it was I was just I was just, like, destroyed. And I didn’t. It was legitimately a quest. A question. I didn’t know the answer to it. I was just asking. And it’s like it wasn’t really I felt like I got bullied out of a online form.
So I was like, Yeah, I don’t have time for this, so don’t. Don’t be like that, guys. Remember that some of these guys that are signing up don’t know any better. They’re not doing it on purpose and they’re just asking questions, you know, about anything in general, you know. So what? Shaving etiquette continued. Be nice, be, you know, use common courtesy when you’re when you’re talking to people because you never know what they’re going through on the other side as well. You don’t know who you’re talking to. It’s harder when you’re talking online than when you’re talking in person. So all I got to say is be nice to everybody because it really goes a long way and it will help.
Some of these people are really enjoy the hobby of what shaving and the lifestyle of what shaving. So that’s all I got on that subject. So and I won’t be talking about it again next week, but just I wanted to reemphasize on how important it is to be nice and to to be also to be thorough with your responses and and respectful as well.
Moving along a replica Schick razor on Amazon for 22 bucks. So I recently discovered it. I don’t know if it’s been on there a while. The reviews are okay. I mean, it’s got a four plus review, but $22, is it worth giving it a shot and even advertises to buy Schick Blades with it? Because Schick does still make injector blades. Of course. And they will. They’ll fit. So if you are looking for an alternative way of getting a Schick injector and you can’t find one and you want something brand new, I guess this is something you could try. I don’t think it’s going to be too bad. It does. It may be of cheaper materials, but I mean. Hey, it’s worth a shot if you’ve never tried one and you want to try it for around that. With the blades under $30 delivered to your house.
So take a look at. If you’ve used it, give me an email. Send me, send me a line. See what you said. What do you think of it? And and let me know because it looks pretty interesting. I might even just try it just to try it. I do love my Schick injector. I have two. One of them I believe. Yeah, I have one. That’s pretty, pretty nice. And they are really good shaving razors. I got to say, they’re nice. Great for trimming a beard, like lining a beard and then just overall shave. So, I mean, they’re great. Blades is still readily available. You still get the Schick blades online. I actually went to a pharmacy in the last few months and walked in. They had them on the shelf. I was like, Whoa, you guys have. And I asked the guy behind the counter, he didn’t really know much about it. You guys have Schick injectors? And he’s like, Oh yeah, these we don’t have the razor, but we have the blades. And yeah, I got we have two customers that buy them.
So probably wet shavers in general, probably on these, uh, on the forums and, and in the community. So if that’s you and you’re in the, um, Schafer’s pharmacy in Wellington, Florida, let me know if that’s you. I’ll meet up with you one day because I don’t I grew up in that area and I don’t live too far from there, but that’s the place that I found it at in a small little pharmacy in Wellington, Wellington, Florida, had had the Schick injector cartridges, the injector blades right on the shelf by the shaving stuff. And I was like, Well, that’s that’s pretty awesome.
So the fall seasonal specials coming on the 30th of October. Really looking forward to this year. I’ve been already started working on it and having some a lot of a lot of fun doing this. My favorite part of the year. The only thing that’s bad about doing the research for this is sometimes, well, every year I go search a vendor from the previous year and they’re not there anymore. So, you know, vendors been popping in and popping out, but we get some new vendors. I’d say last year, the biggest one that we lost last year with good Halloween releases was Dr. John’s back of 6 or 7 years ago. He used to do some major releases for Halloween. Not so much anymore, but up until the end.
But that that vendor is no longer in business. So that was a real bummer for me, looking it up this year and knowing that I knew they were gone already, but just not. I always had like a little spot on the on the show notes for that year or for the for the special for them. And I always kept it in the same spot every year. And this year I got to take it out. I had to take it out. So I was a little maybe I’ll do a memoriam, like a memory in memory page. I was thinking about doing that as well with some of the older stuff that since that are out there because I know a lot of you guys probably still have it. I put in the show notes every single fall seasonal special that that we’ve done from 2016 till 2022.
So if you want to see how much is changing the wychavon world, how much hasn’t changed, and to see how much you know, how big and small it’s gotten over the years. Take a look. You got some time to listen to him. If you’re bored, you want to listen to some Halloween stuff. There you go. You got it All there for you. And finally, guys, this week I have been working on a big project. This big project has been on and off, but mostly on for the past few years and it does look like I’ll be completed pretty soon, so I will have more info to come on this. This is going to be one of the largest things I’ve ever done for wet shaving. And you know, with everything going on and craziness in my life, I was able to finish this up and get it going. So I’m in the final stages of it. So I’m really proud of what’s come up with this and what I’ll be able to to give to the community soon. So I will let you guys know on that, but be on the lookout for that. It will be posted on my blog site, which has been reactive, which has been activated. I just started sample posting on it last night and working on it, so I will be doing some more posts and it will be active again. So the Shave Strain Safe, a website is where it’s going to launch and a couple other areas as well. And of course it’ll be on the podcast notes as well when it comes when everything is done and finished, I just want to make sure it’s all finished and done and all the get rid of all the cross, all the T’s, dot, all the I’s and all that stuff before I start talking more about it. So more on that to come.
All right, everyone, that concludes the podcast for this week. Remember, our show is powered by Sharpologist dot com. What your father didn’t Teach You about shaving? Got to say special thanks to Mark Mantic59 for everything he does in the wet shaving community. And most of all, you guys are listeners. Don’t forget to check out the blog site which was updated yesterday. Shave Street and safe.com for tips and interesting shaving stories. And always feel free to contact me at Joe dot wet shaving news at gmail.com. All right guys until the next show. On the 2nd of October. Shave straight and shave safe. Bye bye now.
