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 June 20 th,2022
Today on the Show
New Article: Safety Razors Made in America
Beat the Heat With Mentholated Soaps
Escher Hones… Are they Worth The Hype and Price
New Give-a-way!!
New Article: American Made Safety Razors
This article was a lot of fun!!! Check it out!!
Beat The Heat With Mentholated Soaps
Summer is here!! What better way to beat the heat than with a soap full of menthol. I’ll tell you how to get started.
Escher Hones…. Are they worth the Price and Hype?
Recently, I picked up my Escher Hone and started to hone some razors. Are they worth the price tag? I’ll tell you my thoughts .
Give-A-Way
I’m still in the process of cleaning up my collection. A few months ago I realized I had too much stuff, and in order to try new items I must let go of some.
Up for grabs is a Medium Flat Rate box, filled with shaving soaps. CONUS only!!
Send me an email of your best wet shaving story and you will be entered to win!!
Email me at [email protected] !!
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 YouTube Channel for videos regarding some interesting wet shaving content.
Our next show will be 7/4/22
Until then….
Shave straight and Shave Safe!
Transcript (automated)
You’re listening to Wet Shaving Talk powered by Sharp Politics.com, where we’re dedicated to preserving the art and skill of classic shaving Army host Joe Borrelli. Today is June 20th, 2022.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast and happy belated Father’s Day to all of you out there too, celebrating it this past weekend. I hope it was very relaxing for you dads out there and you had a good old time with the family. And if even if it’s just sitting around doing nothing, sometimes that’s even better than going out and making a lot of plans.
So happy Father’s Day to the fathers out there and all over the world and hoping you had a great weekend.
So, guys, a few things going on in the wet shaving world right now. You know, a lot of things happening with summer soaps coming out. So, I mean, we’re talking we’re going to talk a little bit about some summer stuff. I see. I notice a few releases coming, a lot of vendors talking about it, about methylated soaps or soaps with menthol. So we’ll talk a little bit about that to beat the Heat in the summertime.
So also on today on the show, we’re going to talk a little bit about an article that I actually wrote and presented on a shark biologist this past week. It was one of the articles that had the most fun writing, I think, and also the most fun researching. And I actually noticed that I have to add a little bit more to it because I did miss a few things. One of the longest running articles took me. It took me a very long time to write and probably wrote it about three or four times over just because I wanted to make sure it was it sounded right and it was just it came out the right. It was also honestly interesting to read. So I’ll tell you a little bit about about that article and actually the article writing process and what goes into some of that stuff, at least on my end.
So at your homes, if you’re a fan of straight razors, there’s very few straight razor people that hone or even know about honing razors, which means making them sharp. There hasn’t heard of an Archer Stone. An Archer Stone is a company that was out until about actually went out of the business in the 1950s and was one of the main razor making hones or razor sharpening tools for well over 200 or maybe about 200 years. Yeah. From the 1700s on. We’ll talk a little bit about them. Are they worth the price and hype? And a new giveaway. Y
ou know, talking a little bit about the past few weeks I’ve been doing. I did about we did two giveaways here of some stuff. And I just went through my collection again and just wanted to do another giveaway. This is a pretty big one too, so you won’t want to miss it. So without further ado, guys, let’s get on with the show.
So this article that I wrote on Sharpologist, it’s actually based on American made safety razors or North American made safety razors, you know, including Canada and the United States. And, you know, everything really nothing else made it anywhere else that I could find but those two razors. And are they worth the purchase price and why it’s such a great decision to purchase these these razors. And, you know, a lot of people were asking, you know, you see a lot of websites I shouldn’t say that like Made in USA, a lot of companies are now advertising, made in USA, Made in USA is something that to me is dear to my heart, because I’ve always loved stuff made in America. I don’t know why. It’s always been something to me.
Actually, I do know why my father and my grandfather are very big into tools and they were into American made products. They always said, if you see it, you know, if it says Made in USA, it’s probably a better quality product than, you know, another, you know, a counterpart from another area. Right. So they always said support local and do that. Now, my father, I’ve mentioned a few times is a mechanic. My dad was a mechanic for over 40 years. So our automotive technician, master, automotive technician.
So tools were his life, you know. And he told me a story back when he was younger. He used a set of foreign tools one time and he snapped a broke a wrench and almost broke his hand. He almost you know, if you ever heard of the term busted knuckle, he almost did that on it a on an inferior tool. And one of the guys that was he was working with, he was in his early twenties at the time said, hey, don’t do that by these tools, buy American made tools. They’re better steel, better quality. You won’t hurt yourself. Well, nice say after a year, a career of over 40 years in the automotive industry. My dad has all of his hands, all of his fingers and everything.
Right. So he’s in good shape there. You know, he’s had accidents here and there. I mean, we all do. It’s a physical job. That’s that happens. So but he still has all of his fingers and toes. So he’s a good deal. A good deal there. So that’s why I think, you know, I’m a firm believer with that. So this was a really this article is really dear to me and it took me a long time to write. And I wrote it about three or four times over a time span, about three months. And I focused solely on this article, no other work besides, you know, doing the podcast and my regular work for about three months and maybe even longer. I think just because I wanted to get it right and I think it came out really nice.
So if you get a moment, check out the link. I put it I put it in the show notes to read about it, about American made safety razors. And, you know, the reason why it is a good a good decision is you are supporting you know, if you’re if you’re an American, you’re supporting the local economy. But not only that, you really know that like there’s a story behind all these razors. When you buy stuff that’s built in a factory or something like that, you don’t really get that touch. So if you if you love artisan products, right, you love, you know, local artisans and you love supporting them, then obviously you’re going to be this this article is going to probably interest you and you’ll look at it like that. It’s the same reason you get to buy it from the person who’s making it.
And you know, you get to see and you get to support a local economy. And usually the talent resources are a lot better. I can tell you right now, every American racer that I’ve purchased, yeah, it’s been more money. With the exception of a couple like the Weber was under $100. That was very reasonable back when it came out. And but other than that, most of them have been a little bit more. But all the tolerances on these razors have always been good. I’ve never had a problem to where they’ve been, an issue where I had to send it back or I had to return it, or I just didn’t really like the way it shaped, you know, some of the times they would be a little bit, you know, too aggressive or on that line. But I’ve never had a quality issue to where I had to send it back.
At least that’s in my, my, my experience over 11 years of what shaving. So I mean honestly I think it’s better quality support and local you are supporting you know very conservative I can say you know practices so where there’s no you know it’s very, very good the environment and all that stuff, very environmentally friendly. You’re also, you know, looking at you’re really just investing into the future. You’re dealing with with a company that’s that’s looking forward to, you know, just just making it better, you know, making a good product, making some, you know, they’re looking at making a little bit of money, but their customer service is always point. You know, you send an email, you talk to the person who’s making the razor, if not, you know, their assistant or something like that, you know, small companies, you know, machine small machines and stuff. You know, this is a company out there, a couple of them, like charcoal goods.
He was using his first few razors that came out. He’s using a World War Two lathe, you know. How many you know, how many big, big producers like, you know, those other races that are doing that. Right. How many how many guys are doing that? Probably nobody. You know, seeing machining now primarily runs the the business, which is fine but I mean you get I mean a World War Two lathe. You don’t see that too often.
Of course he doesn’t use anymore. He’s going to see and see machining. But the tolerances and this the beauty of these razors, it was it was fun. I had a great time doing this article. It was a lot of fun. I took a I feel it was you know, it was one of my better ones out there. And I took a lot of time into it. So, you know, checking it out, guys, if you get a moment, see if you like it, send me an email if you have any questions. I did notice that just last week I got an email regarding some companies from Canada that I forgot to put in there, so I will be updating this and going through that.
But you know, honestly, another thing is, guys, if you are a razor producer and you’re making or an artisan, you invest in having it easier for for people like me to find because I’m writing an article, review article. I’m looking to purchase some of these as well. And if I can’t find it after putting, you know, ten, 15 hours of research into something, obviously the consumers aren’t going to find it that easy unless it’s word of mouth. So invest some money or at some time or work with somebody to help you with e-commerce type things to get, you know, on Google searches and stuff like that because it will really make a difference because honestly, if I can’t find it, it’s going to be hard for a customer to find it unless they already know you or you know they get the word of mouth type going around.
So it’s just a little bit of my advice just for you vendors out there and artisans to make sure that you have like you have, you get the biggest audience you can get when it comes to selling your products. But yeah, so a little bit when going into these, these articles as you know, first off. You know, you start off with like a like a like an outline, right? You outline everything you’re doing and you say, okay, these are my ideas. And there’s no, I guess, to keep the creativity going. There’s no rules. I just write down. I don’t even look at spell check. I just write down the first thing comes to my mind and everything whenever I write.
And this is how I did in college and high school. You know, whenever I had to write a research article, I would just take a piece of paper and just write it down, write down ten, 15 things of what I want to include in this article or in this, this report or whatever I’m doing, and then build upon that, right? And then you build it and then you just write what you think you know, right? The first thing that comes to mind when you do your research and make sure you know, of course you don’t want to plagiarize, of course that’s a big deal.
So if you start researching, look at it, make sure you’re citing your sources as you go and then you go and then you proofread it later and you usually proofread it about two or three, maybe three or four times you read it. I like to read it quietly just to see if there’s any spelling checks, you know, or grammar issues. And then I read it out loud, believe it or not, at least once or twice to hear how it sounds flows. And that’s usually when I find most of my mistakes. So just a little bit. And then when you bring that together, you said you get your draft together, you start putting your illustrations, your links in, and you get that going and then you read it again, make sure it looks at it.
And then one thing that I do is not only I look at it on my laptop, I also look at on my phone, I want to see how the article flows and works on when I’m scrolling through my phone, because a lot of us do read articles on our phones. Right? You read a lot of things on their phones. Probably about 50% of this this audience, if not more, are listening to this on their phone right now. So I like to make sure it’s mobile friendly as well to see how it flows there. And then and then I’ll submit it to whoever I’m selling, whether it be shark biologist, my own blog, or, you know, if I’m submitting a project when I was in school or another website that you want to submit an article to. Yeah, that’s what I do.
So just a little insider. If you guys are interested in writing or if you like to write, or if you just need some help with some schoolwork, you know, that’s really just how I do it and that’s how I’ve been doing it since I was about eight years old. The book reports, you know, I just I figured it out. I had a teacher teach me that when I was a kid, and I just kept on going with me. And it still works today. So yeah, when you get a moment, guys, take a look at if you run, it’s a pretty good read. I think I put a lot of time into it and let me know what you think.
Of course, you can always email me and tell me if I if I missed some more stuff. So I appreciate those out there that have been and I will definitely get it updated as soon as possible. Moving on. It’s time to beat the heat with methylated soaps. It is. All right, guys, it is hot. I live in south Florida and this is the first couple of weeks we’ve been getting 90 degree weather. And it’s going to stay in the nineties till about September, maybe the end of September, early October, right around Halloween is when it starts cooling down again down here in Florida.
So the beat, the heat. I like to switch to summer soaps and the best way to do that is get some something with some menthol in it. Now, menthol those. Is that really like like that minty ish, really cool feeling that you get this stuff will make your face cold, right? So when you get outside and it’s hot outside and you get it out of your house and whether or not you have air conditioning in Florida, we all have air conditioning all year round. You have to have it. And there’s a lot of reasons for that, too, for the air conditioning. You know, I also have friends in Europe and a lot of them in Europe say, oh, you know, we don’t use air.
They don’t use air conditioning at all. But in Florida, you need to have the air conditioning going. I’ll tell you why. For all of you that don’t live here, there’s this thing called bugs. And I don’t care where you live unless you’re living on the ocean, ocean yourself, you’re going to have bugs everywhere in Florida. That’s one of the one of the key things they’re not telling everybody. You know, personally, I live in one of the biggest areas right now from where everybody’s moving, right. Palm Beach County, Florida.
A lot of people are moving to South Florida right now from from up north right there. They’re fleeing, you know, they’re working remotely. They’re leaving the high prices and they’re coming down here or whatever. But. A lot of people have been at a lot of the new neighbors I have and stuff that said, hey, I didn’t know the bugs were so bad, you know. Yes. So that’s why in Florida, it is crucial that you have your air conditioning on and their windows closed 99% of the time. Even if you have the screens open, you’re still going to get bugs. So that’s just a little insider for any of you guys that don’t live in Florida for those that do, you know exactly what I’m saying.
So for those of you looking to move to Florida, if you have any questions, you feel free to to let me to to send me an email and I’ll tell you I’ll tell you the truth about everything. Right. Example neighbor just moved down here. I didn’t realize that everything closes in the town that I live in at 10:00. Well, you know, the town that I live in, if you’ve ever watched Seinfeld or anything like that, those that’s where everybody comes to retire, you know, that’s where all those all those episodes are based on, right? So yeah, so everything closes at 10:00 because everybody’s retired. So I mean, that’s just how it is. So enough of that stuff. But that’s for another day, maybe even another podcast.
Beating the Heat with Methylated Soaps is one of the best ways to give you a little bit of relief during the hot weather. Just even if it’s for about 20 or 30 minutes now, a couple of the really good companies that make good methylated soaps, I’ve got to say, the Creepers from the Holy Black, those are really good. I mean, honestly, they have there’s a lot of menthol in them. They use synthetic menthol, a different type. I don’t know what he uses in that thing, but that gives makes your face feel cold and it for at least a half hour, especially if you use the aftershave. Frostbite from Phoenix Arson Accouterments. It’s a great soap as well that will make you feel good for a while. I think Arctic Ice by Stirling is a great one. You know, Uncle John’s makes one too. That was actually really good.
So there’s a lot of company. Most of the artisans will come out with a summer soap like this if they don’t have it. Also, fine accoutrements. Snake Bite has a lot of bite to it. I mean, that is just and that’s a good soap, too. And these what these are designed to do is to cool your face down. You walk outside, it’s going to feel really cool and sensitive for, you know, 20 or 30 minutes, maybe even longer, a couple of hours, maybe.
But there is a little bit of a downfall on these soaps. The only thing is sometimes, like for me, they will make my eyes water, sometimes a little too strong. So I go a little lighter on it. Or and also I’ve known of I’ve known people to be allergic to it as well. So just be careful, use it a little bit. I remember your mileage may vary and to understand that this is some this is some real extreme stuff. So I would use it sparingly when you get to it. And unless until you know that your face can handle it in your eyes and everything to but it’s a great way to beat the heat, especially in that hot weather. Humid, not humid.
Whatever it is you’re living, if you’re living in Las Vegas, if you’re living in up north or down south here in Florida, this is this is some good stuff to get you through the summertime. And it also gives you a little bit of a boost if you’re going to the pool or anything like that as well. So check out those methylated soaps. There’s tons of them out there. Guys, look up your your favorite artist and send them an email and I’m sure they’ll be able to help you out there. So at your homes, guys, this is this is something that has been dear to my heart. You know, I love honing straight razors. I’m not the best at it. I can tell you right now, I’m not a professional. I’m definitely not somebody that can go ahead and and start doing it for our business.
So I wouldn’t even even dream of doing that with someone. It’s all the talent that’s out there. But I will say that the the Grail is an etch or hone etch or is a German hone that is actually a third, a third gen or a third gen or I forgot how they say it, which is a type of from from a part of Germany where it’s like a slate ash type song on natural stone. You have like blue green, you have yellow green, you have dark blue, you have different types of colors. And usually the the darker the color, I think the the harder the stone.
So it’s better for finishing if you have like a lighter color, like a blue green or a yellow green, those usually are better for honing all together. Like they’ll they’ll basically get it done faster. Right. And they’re also much more valuable than dark blue. So is the price worth it or is it all hype? Well, now I always say, you know, your mileage may well will vary when it comes to any product that you use.
Now, a little history about Archer. Archer was around in the 1700s, went out of business, I think in the 1950s. And some of those last homes for the last ten years or so was all made from there was a lot of composites hones made of archer saw dust that were or dust that was made from stones that that were cut. And right now, the area where they were, you know, harvesting these stones is closed down. Right. They’re not making them anymore. A company went out there a little while ago and they started taking taking stones from that area and realize that that’s it. They got it all.
So they’re no longer harvesting at your stones or the stones were at yours came from now. And when we say Archer, it is a brand or company. It’s not a type of stone. It’s just that they’re all thorough inns. It’s just that’s like Archer kind of like if you’re saying, I use a Q-Tip, right? A Q-Tip everybody thinks is a. Is what a cotton swab is really. It’s a cotton swab, Q-tips, just a very well known brain and brand name of it. So that’s kind of a similar thing with that. You’re now at your homes tend to be very high quality. I mean, all of them tend to be and they are different sizes, different types.
And the way you would use it is that really depends on the type that you have. If you have a lighter colored one, like a green one, you would want to do a little slurry on it as well. And you can you can probably do some mid honing. You might you might be able to do one stone honing like a delicate method where you dilute it a little bit with the water and the slurry and you can get a good sharp edge on this. Now, remember, Archer was in business for a long time. A lot of guys hone their razors with these, right? They use it for many, many years.
So, I mean, this is a barber type stone. A lot of people use it. So, I mean, it is something that that is good quality. Now you have the the blue or one dark blue, which is a little bit coarse. I mean, they’re a little bit harder. Stones are better for finishing. Get a better finish. It might take you a little longer to maintain your razor. I mean, they’re more for maintenance, not for honing from the from the bevel up. I personally have a blue archer myself and I took me several years to get one, I think to pull the trigger on it. When I did, it was very happy I did. It still has a label on it and it’s a great hone. I mean, I love using it. I mean, it really is a lot of fun to use. All right.
So here’s a story. Is it worth the money? So an extra stone will run you anywhere from 3 to $500. Now, I think maybe some of the untouched ones, new old stock will be about over 1000 bucks. I think, you know, there are a lot of great homes out there. I mean, you can get something really nice for that price point. I guess it’s all about brand name. If that’s something that you want more of a collectible piece, it does work very well. But I mean, honestly, synthetic stones will get you get the job done faster, cheaper and probably better in most areas. I can tell you, you can buy a Norton, set a one, K, a four and a K, and you can get a finisher for about 300 bucks.
So I mean, you can get all that for about the price of a small archer. So really it’s all about preference. And honestly, it’s it’s more about label on this one. You can also get a lot of other German stones that were from the same area in the same time part for probably half the price because it doesn’t have that name on it. You know, that’s another thing too.
So it’s all about what you want, what you want to get. Can you get your razor sharp for a lot cheaper? Yes, you can. But also an echo will be a great collector piece. All right, guys. So I’ve got another giveaway. This is for a medium flat rate box full of soaps and stuff. Whatever I can find. I am going to send this out. It has to be continental us only. Guys, I’m sorry. I can’t do international. It’s. The shipping is just too expensive right now. It’s. It’s really bad.
And I can’t for the weight and for the stuff inside of it because I put aftershave in there, I can’t send it outside of the country. So it has to be done in continental us only. I do apologize if you are not in contact up to us, but if you do have an international or, you know, a an American address to send to and then have it sent to you, a lot of guys do that. I know that that would be fine, but I got to send it in the United States. I just can’t send it out. All you got to do is send me an email of your best. What shaving story with approval to add it to the show and you got a chance to win. Last time I think there was only a few contestants and everybody wants something.
So it was really good. The last two that the last couple of giveaways I did, everybody that participated was able to get something. I was able to split it up and send everybody something. So send me an email. Joe Dot What? Shaving news at gmail.com. All right, guys. So that concludes our show for this week. Remember, our show is powered by Sharpologist, which your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Special thanks to Mark, a.k.a. Mantic59. And most of all, you guys, the listeners, until the next show, which will be on July 4th, 2022. Shave Straight. And safe. Bye bye now.
