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 24th, 2024.
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Today on the Show:
New Stuff From Wiborg Shaving
TI Glide Single Edge Razor
Old Soaps Worth Trying
Now is the time to Purchase on Ebay
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New Stuff From Wiborg
Wiborg has recently launched some new items. The quiet shave brush company has some of the most sought after models, and I have no idea how to get one.
I have usd a Wiborg brush before and agree they’re awesome, but still do not know how to get one. The website is always sold out and the company has never responded to an email of mine.
______________________________________________________________________________Ti Glide from Titaner
This new single edge razor takes ½ of a DE blade and is importanted from Asia. Still in the beginning stages, I signed up for their newsletter and found them to be very active on social media. What are your thoughts?
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Old Soaps Worth Trying
What are some brands that have been around worth trying?
Vintage Shave soap has a certain appeal to some wet shavers. Although getting more and more difficult to find, there are still many out there. Shave soap with time tends to harden up and lose its scent but performance is still there.
You’ll need to “wake up” the soap by using it. After several decades of storage they tend to get dry and hard. A little warm water will wake them right up!
Here are brands to look for:
-Tabac: It’s fun to see how this soap has evolved over the years
-Yardley: Direct from the UK, this is one of the most popular with the vintage soap crowd.
-Williams: Yes I said Williams. The vintage stuff works great.
-Burma Shave: So popular in the 50’s and 60’s and still a lot out there.
-Old Spice: No more words needed
-Palmolive shave sticks
-Vergulde Hand: Oldest soap still in production from the 1500’s
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Now Is the Time to Purchase on Ebay
Recently, several rare items have sold for very low prices on ebay. I’d say if your looking for a rare higher end piece for your collection, now would b a good time to look into it
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Transcript (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 June 24th, 2024. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I hope you all had a great Father’s Day weekend that just passed. I for one had a nice relaxing day. I can tell you it was a great time. Uh, I spent some time with my family, spend some time with my my son especially, and really enjoyed the the time together.
So I hope you guys were able to as well and got some good shaves in of the day involved as well. Or maybe even got some of those, those wet shaving gifts that you were looking to get or something really cool. So I hope you guys did that and got some some cool stuff and a ready now because, uh, ready for the summer, because we are in full fledged summer mode, I can tell you most of the country right now, it’s in the 90s. I know in New York it was like 95 degrees. The other day it was hotter. It was about seven degrees, actually. It was almost ten degrees hotter than it was in Florida.
So up north is going through a heat wave. And down here it’s going through, uh, kind of like normal. So enough of the weather. Let’s get on with some wet shaving. So today on the show, a few things, uh, few new items from the Borg shaving, uh, came out and emerged on, on Facebook just a few days, about a few weeks ago, probably now maybe a week or two. And I’ll tell you my thoughts on Borg shaving. Great products. I don’t know how to get one of these brushes or how you got how you’re supposed to, but if you do know how, hey, let me know. Give me a give me a pointer because I’d love to get my hands on on one again. Uh, having tried one before in the past, I know they’re really good, but they’re hard to get. Uh, the T glide single edge razor is a new prototype.
Or, I think, kind of like a brand new. It’s not a, like a, like a where they’re looking to. I forgot the name of it. Like, uh, where they call where they’re trying to get funds for it. Whatever. Gofund me. Sorry, it’s not a go fund me, but it’s something new that’s coming out from Asia. It’s a new style razor. That was pretty cool. Saw it online. Very receptive to online, um, communication as well. I’ll talk a little bit about that. Old soap’s worth trying. This is something that’s been coming up a little bit on the forums recently of people using and collecting older soaps, uh, not talking about old soaps like from 2020.
I’m talking about old soaps from like 1950s, 60s and using them. Believe it or not, there’s a very large amount of people in the community of wet shaving that do this and actually use these soaps. I’ll tell you a few of the brands worth trying and how to get them loaded up and get them started when you actually purchase one. And now is the time to purchase on eBay. Guys, there’s been several high end items, hard to find items that have sold at record low prices. I have one of them in the notes. I’ll go over with you, but there are several others, so if you’re looking to buy on eBay for a high end, hard to find item, now might be the time. I’ll tell you a little bit more when we get on with it, so it’s time to get on with the show. Oh that’s pretty that was pretty bad.
But, um, yeah, I’m trying to get a few different ways to, like, introduce the show itself. I’ve been doing the same. I guess I’ve been doing the same intro for like the last, I don’t know, eight years, nine years. I don’t know how long it’s been about getting close to 8 or 9 years. I’ve been doing the podcast. So I’m looking at different ways to, um, to start leading off and stuff like that, maybe change it up a little bit because it’s been really the same layout since we started, before I even was on the show. I mean, the guy previous to, to me was Andrew and he and I’m still using kind of like the same kind of breakdown he did, uh, back in the day. And I thought about it the other day.
I’m like, you know, what might be time to change it up a little bit? So let me know what you guys think. Send me some comments if you have any ideas on how to change it up or um, if you have any like, you know, any, any like I guess like templates or anything like that for podcasts as well, I’m going to start looking more into it. And then over the summer months here when I have a little bit more time and, uh, maybe get some new stuff going on here, I made a little bit new intro going on as well, so we’ll see.
So getting on with the show today, uh, new stuff from with Borg. With Borg shaving is a shaving brush company based out of Germany, and they have been very popular for the last probably ten years or so with wet shaving a little bit longer, maybe a little less. But they’re the brushes are really of high quality, great knots, great brush, great cool, really cool designs. It’s and they’ve been popular in the past. I just don’t know how to get one of these things. I’ve been in wet shaving since 2011. It’s now 2024. I’ve only held on to. I’ve seen them and I’ve actually was able a friend of mine. Lend me one a while and I got to use it for a couple of weeks. They’re really great, I gotta say. Uh, but they’re hard to get, you know, they never see when they’re on sale on the website.
I guess it’s more of like a you got to know somebody to know somebody type deal. But recently they launched some new items, put them in the show notes, some new colors, some new new shapes came out and they kind of like post on Facebook periodically every 3 to 5 years. I think the last post that they did prior to this one was in 2020. And then you just kind of see that they’re still there. And that’s what kind of reminded me, because I follow them. And I just got a notification that, oh, wait, they posted something like, oh, wait a minute, they’re still around. I didn’t even know they’re still making brushes.
But apparently in the high end brush world they are, and a lot of people are still getting their hands on them. So I’m not a one to to, uh, really knock somebody’s business model. But I don’t know what these guys are doing to be able to sell these brushes. And like I said, I’ve never seen them for sale unless I’m missing it on the website. You know, I remember when, when it was hard to get a wolfman brush or a mongoose razor. Excuse me? Wolf man. Razor or mongoose? It used to be able to at least see them pop up here and people talk about it. Well, Borg is more like a close knit cult type thing, I guess, to get into them.
And I’m I’m not in the I’m not in the cool group. So if you guys, uh, have a brush and or have one of these new ones and are really, you know, tight with the company, I highly recommend this design. Looks really cool, like that root beer kind of look or whatever you want to call it with the brown and the white awesome brushes. Again, having used one, I think they’re really good brushes and they’re definitely worth their price. It’s just getting one is almost near impossible. So for those of you to have them, cherish them, do not get rid of them unless you have another one on order. And for those of you who are like me trying to get one, you know the struggle is real. It’s going to it’s it’s going to be real. It makes you want it even more, I guess.
Right. So. So, uh, we’ll board brushes, some new stuff from them. Looking forward to seeing some reviews on that and seeing them on the market and seeing people get those in their, uh, shave of the days as well. So the T glide from Tightener or Tightener Tyner. I don’t know what they want to call it. Uh, it’s, um, I guess it’s tightener. So it’s a it’s a titanium based, single edged razor that’s kind of like a shovel head design that’s made out of, I guess it’s titanium from Asia. It’s supposedly from, I believe it’s from China or from another Asian country, because
I actually, um, was looking up into doing something with them and I was actually communicating with them on social media, but it was really hard with, um, the language barrier. It was a little bit broken English that I was getting back definitely through a, uh, like a Google Translate thing and hard. I guess they really didn’t understand me either, so I’m not too sure where it’s coming from, but the design looks pretty cool. Again, that half of a D blade. I’m just not crazy about the design. I think they should have just gone with the full, you know, full SE design. I know they want to keep it thin, the head thin, it’s very thin. But I mean, it’s just so dangerous with that splitting it. And I’ve done that with razors before. I’ve never hurt myself. I just I’m not a crazy about it. I guess it’s like a Chauvet style razor. Uh, it looks pretty cool.
A lot of guys have been talking about it online. Looking forward, I don’t think anybody has it or have tried it yet, but it’s, um, it is pretty nice and they are very responsive, responsive to, um, to communication online. Sign up for their newsletter and you’ll get an email welcome email. They’ll tell you all about it. Uh, and that’s pretty easy to read. I mean, if you’re if you if you write and read English, it’s not too bad. Uh, but sometimes when I was doing one on one conversation, that’s when it got a little bit rough or I. I even had a hard time understanding the, the, the, the translation.
So, uh, definitely looking forward to seeing some of these in the shave of the days and some reviews here soon. I have not seen anybody test one out yet, but when they do, I will definitely post it in the in the show notes. But as you can tell guys, it is a pretty cool looking razor. Not I don’t believe it’s a pivot head, just fixed head razor, but it’s, uh, made out of titanium. It’s a little bit on the longer side comes with the stand and also, um, really a lot of cool videos online from the company itself. So they definitely putting their time into advertising and stuff. Uh, really nice. Cool. So, uh, t the t glide from tightener. We, uh, salute you, and we wish you the best of luck.
And for the highlight of the show guys, old soaps worth trying. Now this is a an ongoing forum on one of the bigger forums subforum on one of the bigger forum websites that has been going on for many, many years. And you know, I read it. I like to read those old ones every now and then just to see, you know, what’s going on in the wet shaving world, you know, see what new guys are coming in, what they’re saying. But there is a real strong like following of old soaps, like people really do collect them. There are a lot of guys out there that collect soaps that are 50, 60, 70 years old, maybe even 100 years old and try these soaps and then like to use them on a daily basis.
Now, I, for one, have never gotten too into the vintage soap game, mainly because I guess I feel almost guilty using them because once they’re done, they’re gone and I know they’re made to be used and all that stuff, but when you use it, it’s like, you know, this thing has survived 60, 70 years of not being used, and now I’m using it up, you know, am I am I preventing the future generations from being able to use it, or am I just, you know, is it meant to be? Hey, you know what? It’s a soap. It was made. Use it or lose it. Life is short. Enjoy it. Enjoy your shaves. Enjoy your time.
Right. So I guess it’s a it’s kind of like a double edged sword type thing. Having used some vintage soaps, I could tell you that they’re fun to collect. They’re really cool. And there’s also a huge sense of nostalgia when you use a vintage razor, a vintage brush, and a vintage soap on certain days of the week, or on special shaves or something like that really is cool and and fun to use. But a lot of people will ask, you know, are these worth trying? Are they good still? Well, here is my thoughts on this whole thing. Vintage saved. So so they do have their own certain appeal to some shavers. Uh, they are getting a little bit more difficult to find. It’s not easy to find them anymore, but it’s they’re still very abundant. There’s still more out there than, you know then that seeks to demand that that meets demand. We definitely have plenty of them out there.
And they tend to, um, you know, performance based, they tend to soaps tend to end up getting harder with time. A good soap, at least. We’ll get some soaps. You’ll see. Get soupy. That means that there’s a lot of other stuff in there. Or just the formula is not right with the oils and stuff. It might be a little off and they might melt a little bit. I’ve had that happen with some some weird tallow soaps that I’ve had, but for the most part, uh, these, these big name brands like Colgate and Yardley and all them, they’re going to be fine, right? They’re going to be hard. The soaps get very hard over time, and they kind of take a little time to open up and get them to be used again.
Now remember, scent may go away with soaps over time, but performance will stay right. Performance stays, but the scent might dissipate. So you’ll need to wake up the soap a little bit by using it usually, um, you know, just using it, getting it wet again. Uh, taking your time with that with a wet brush and just kind of like bringing the brush over the soap a little bit, opening it up and basically awakening it from its sleep. Right. I wouldn’t recommend blooming them or, you know, the process of soaking them in water unless you’re going to keep it out of the package and then put it into another container. If it doesn’t already have one, you can bloom it. It’ll open it up a little bit, but it might melt it and you might get some pre, you know, kind of like, um, too much wear and tear.
You might use too much of it than needed. So it might melt and you might lose some of it. So I would definitely recommend just brush uh, just taking your brush, soaking water, wringing out, you know, flinging it out a little bit and just rubbing it over there. Uh, more so than you usually would to open that soap up. If you want to bloom it, you can, but you’re going to prolong, you know, you’re going to lessen the life of it. It’s going to have less of it. It might melt out and it might use to more than you really need. And then they usually wake up pretty quickly once they get a little bit of a little bit of water on them and and get some actual, you know, and they will be able to lather up pretty well and you’ll be able to use it probably within, honestly, a few minutes of just of just lathering. So some brands to look for is it’s there’s a lot of them out there that have been around. But sure, some you want to stick with some decent brands that have proven results.
So then you can actually see that, you know they’ll work. And also some of the brands are still made today. So you get some to see comparisons of how they’ve evolved over the years. So example of that would be to back to backs. Been around a long time. Still made today. Uh, vintage tobacco is definitely way different than the new tobacco, but if you try it, you can see them side by side or have fun with that. That’s a good one to do. Probably the most popular, uh, shave soap from Vintage shave soap is Yardley Soaps. These are from the UK. They’re one of the most popular and also the better performing. Uh, there’s lots of scents out there, lots of packages out there, different types with wooden bowls with glass and all that. Very abundant online, very affordable. Uh, this is definitely a good one to get if you’re into vintage soaps. E
very single vintage soap collector and user has one of these in their collection. I’m going to say it Williams Williams soap. That’s right guys. Williams mug soap has been around for well over 100 years and will probably be around for hopefully another 100 years, and it has evolved immensely over the years. I’m not going to say it’s better or worse. It is worse now, but the older ones are really good. Believe it or not. I have a couple of, uh, vintage Williams soaps from, I think one from the 60s and one from the 80s. And there is a big difference between that and the one from today, right? I have one from maybe five years ago. I bought a bunch of them when I thought they were going out of business, and I used them and just they’re just very, very slick.
They’re not very leathery for the new ones. The older ones actually perform very well. So I was very shocked to see that the older one would work really nicely. And there is a lot of people that collect vintage Williams stuff, so go for Williams. If you’ve had the new one. We’ve all tried it. We’ve all bought it somewhere. It was $2 for a puck. Try it. An older one. If you see it on eBay, just purchase one, try it and then try them side by side and let me know your thoughts and I’ll put it. I’ll put it in the show. I guarantee you’ll say, hey, I got a new take on Williams. I think the older stuff’s really good. New stuff, maybe not so much, but, um, not bad, not bad. Burma Shave Dye. Guys, I love Burma shave stuff. I love the signs. I love the the packaging that they used to come in. I love the tins and stuff. Burma Shave is very, very, very popular back in the day, especially when you used to take road trips on certain roads in the United States.
You used to be able to see the Burma Shave signs. So if you’re into Burma Shave, definitely try some of their stuff out. There’s a lot of it out there. It does still work well. I’ve tried the creams, I’ve tried the soap I’ve had, I have their shaving brush, I have a couple of their old kits. It does work very well and it’s so fun to use just because Burma Shave was so cool and I really wish it’s before my time Burma Shave. But apparently in Arizona, I believe there’s still some signs out there that you could see on certain roads. I don’t know if it’s route 66, but it’s something else I’ll look up. There was a video of somebody recently last year or two or maybe three years ago, driving by the Burma Shave signs that were still out there. So there’s still some out there, here and there, not many. It’s not going to be in a very populated area. But if you do see them, take pictures and just understand that you may never see that again.
So take it all in when you do. But Burma Shave products still work really well. Still have that that, that scent that I’m sure everybody knew about, uh, back then in the 50s and 60s and still really fun to collect their stuff. Old spice. Yeah, no words needed. If you find vintage Old Spice, pick it up. Try it. Because it is way different than today from what everybody’s been saying, that the old versions of it are different than today’s versions. They are making it in several different countries now, depending on where you live is what you get. And I can tell you if I have some of my grandfather’s vintage Old Spice smells different than the stuff I bought the new stuff. And then I even have some other vintage Old Spice given to me from a friend that’s even different from that stuff he had. So I have three generations of Old Spice, I can tell you that’s all different. Fun to use, and if you can get an Old Spice mug with some soap in it, boy, you’re lucky.
So definitely. I highly recommend using Old Spice vintage stuff. Uh, Palmolive shave sticks are. Pretty good. A lot of people like them. Again, you’re going to have to take them out of the foil using a shave sticks. You might want to go easy on that if you. It’s the only thing I don’t like is you lose the packaging on it when you use it. So maybe get two of them so you can have one for the nostalgia to hold on to and one to use. But Palmolive shave sticks are very popular. And then, um, the Gilded Hand soap, the ver gold or the gold, uh, hand is the oldest soap in the world still being made. Or oldest shaving soap. It’s been made since the 1500s. Uh, they’re still you can still buy them on West Coast shaving brand new.
But if you can find some vintage stuff for that, too, I’m pretty sure you’ll be. You’ll be happy with that, too. I have a puck of the new one. It’s actually very affordable. It’s like 12 bucks and it works really well. And it’s got that old style, like lemony scent that you get from all that older stuff, right? Some that you talk like 1700 scents. They’re really popular back in the 18th and 19th century. It still has that scent to so good stuff. So shaving soaps I highly I think it’s a highly recommend, at least looking into it and reading about them. They’re really cool and a lot of fun to collect. And now is the time to purchase on eBay if you are looking. Yes, the collectors are going to hate me right now, and you guys are. Probably. Some of you are turning this off because I’m going to give you a secret. But. Yeah. There’s been bottom dials going for record low prices.
There’s been three of them that went for undervalue in the last three weeks. So if you’re looking to purchase a bottom dial a BZ one. All these really hard to find very rare razors that usually bring a lot of money in auctions. If you see one now, definitely make your move because I don’t think it’s going to get any lower. I’ve never seen it this low in the last few years, but it does seem like it’s very popular right now and a lot of them are being sold, so check it out guys, when you get a chance. I know this one that was just listed. I put it in the show notes. I actually spoke to the owner of it, who found it in an estate sale and was going to sell it, and I’m shocked that it didn’t go for more than it did. So it was in very good shape.
All right guys. So that concludes the show for this week. I hope this podcast found you well and I hope you enjoyed it. I remember our show is powered by Sharpologist dot com, which your father didn’t teach you about shaving. A special thanks to Marc aka Mantic59 for everything that he does in the West shaving community. And most of all, you guys are listeners. Don’t forget to check out my blog, Shave Straight and Safe. Com and if you get a chance, take a look at my book, The Modern Guide to Straight Razor Shaving, available on Amazon and Kindle. Our next show will be on the 9th of July, and until then, shave straight and shave safe. Bye bye now.
