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 5th, 2023
Today on the Show
Paradigm’s New Razor
Wolfman WR4
French Razor Company Making Some Beautiful Pieces
Mitchell’s Wool Fat No Longer Tallow Based???
Are You Mocked for Wet Shaving??
Paradigm’s New Razor
The Salient is a forgiving shaver with moderate blade gap and exposure, suitable for beginner and expert alike. It will shave you closely, smoothly, and comfortably. It is CNC machined, with critical tolerances of 0.05mm. Made in China and priced at $119. (Currently Sold Out )
Wolfman WR4
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Wolfman’s latest release the WR4. It’s an artist club style single edge razor that is now available.
Atelier DURDAN
Relatively new to the safety razor game, this French Maker is making several different safety razors, in different metals and designs. Probably the best presentation box on the market, everything is made to order with no available stock to be had.
They did a pass around last year on the DFS forum. Check it out here.
Mitchell’s Wool Fat No Longer Tallow Based!!
Here is the old label:
Are You Mocked for Wet Shaving?
Recently I found this on a thread and was wondering if anyone has felt this way. Personally, I do not discuss wet shaving with most people and reserve most of my discussion with only wet shaving members.
Our show is powered by Sharpologist.com, “What Your Father Didn’t Teach You about Shaving”
Special Thanks to:
Mark aka Mantic 59
Most of All……….YOU!!!!
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Our next show will be 6-19-23
Until then….
Shave straight and Shave Safe!
Transcript (Machine-Read)
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 fifth, twenty twenty three.
Hey, guys, welcome back to the podcast on this beautiful start of June first podcast in June we are halfway done with 20 and 23. I can’t believe it if you’re wondering what I have so much energy. Well, there’s a lot going on in South Florida right now. If you watch sports, we have two major teams in the finals. We have the Panthers, the Florida Panthers are in the Stanley Cup finals and the Miami heat are in the NBA finals. So if you’re living here in South Florida right now, Southeast Florida, it’s a lot going on.
Personally, I work down in the area where the Panthers play about one town over. So a lot of stuff going on, especially when you’re in the alcohol business. You know business has been booming. So it’s been really exciting to be in South Florida, especially in the last six months when we had, you know, we had a lot of college basketball going on. We had the Owls school that I actually went to. They made it to the now to the final four right in that area and then you had Miami University in Miami for basketball also made it. So it’s just a lot going on with sports.
So I mean it’s just been nonstop, especially if you’re in the retail business. You haven’t had much of a break every other week. It’s like a holiday. So yeah, I’m pumped up, I’m full of coffee, all that good stuff and and yeah, we’re we’re really excited down here.
But let’s talk about some wet shaving, because we have actually a lot of exciting things going on the wet shaving world. Currently we’ve got two brand-new razors that came out, one that I kind of gave to the last on the last podcast case I just found out about. It literally allows recording, and another one that came out from a longtime producer that has made a comeback, as hasn’t made arrangement about four years. They’re back now too. We have another french razor company that’s that’s making beautiful razors with beautiful presentation. They’ve done a couple of pass around in the forms and now readily available for custom purchase only, and then another major wet shaving soap. Well very well known brand no longer using Tallow, Mitchell’s Wool Fat is no longer using Tallow in their base. I’ll tell you a little bit more about that, and are you mocked for wet shaving? What does that mean? I’ll tell you my thoughts and what I found online during the week. So guys, without further ado, let’s get on with the show.
So I’ve mentioned this company several times in the past and I’m very excited to see that they’ve actually they’re back in the game. They’re they’re actually doing razors and they came out with the new Razor Paradise, which is Razor american razor company. That, if you haven’t heard of them before, I think they were the last. The last one they made was in 2017-2018. They made three major razors. They did Stanley steel razor, they did titanium razor, two versions of titanium razor and a couple of other. Those there, three main razors, and then they did a few other ones.
I own a paradise to titanium to have when I bought it, when it was new and when I got a chance to get one it was only limited to like an 100 pieces. It’s an awsome razor. The finish is great because it’s actually a polished titanium razor and these razors were all machines in the United States by one producer who had a background of machining and I think he forgot. I’m sorry, running a blank on his history because I haven’t haven’t talked to him for a while or talked about the razor in a while. And now they came back with a new razor that is called the salon, the salon. This razor is based on CNC machine and it’s a 100 and $19 so their razor is used to be about two or three times, but this one is actually made in China under the tolerances of Paradise. It is a tolerance of about point millimeters. Critical tolerance is on the on the gap and it’s a double-edged solid guard bar. It is currently sold out.
On the initial release it came out. I believe it was about a week or two ago and just seeing some of the reviews on line, a lot of guys have not received it yet. Come of them are getting it. Belie. They’re being shipped out on the fifth of June. So they haven’t actually the day that this this cast is coming out. So nobody’s seen it yet. But it does look like a very basic kind of off their design. It’s not fully polished so it’s really more of a affordable piece that you can get now a lot of guys, I saw a few people in the forms talking about: hey, it’s made in China. Aren’t you making the United States anymore? Well, I get it, the contracting it out, but it’s also it’s only a 100, an 20 bucks compared to, honestly, I think the as 400 when it came out and I was back in 17-2018. You know a lot going on there, for the value gives everybody a chance that you can actually purchase Paratime razor and you know what if the talents are the same and it’s working well, you know I’m pretty sure that it will be a great piece to add to your collection if you get into it. So Paradime Wealth, you welcome back to the game. Looking forward to seeing some new stuff on the horizon.
From what the, from what your website says, it does look like. There is something coming up. So we’re really excited to see the next, the next step in the Paradine journey in wet shaving and a little bit of a teaser from the last show. I didn’t have a slide for it, but I did just find out about it literally that morning. It’s the Wolfman four, which is based on the Artists Club style blades. That razor has now been released. They did action on it last weekend and I believe that there is now the ability to order one. If you are on the waiting list and you do the order form, you can actually get one for those of you don’t know, Artists Club is a modern style safety razor made popular by the Cobra back in 2000 and 122 and 13, maybe 14 and 15 a little bit later. The Cobra razor was the first razor to use it and then very popular with the Mongoose. The Mongoose razor, one of my favorites, actually made in my home town here where I live, where I’m currently living. The Mongoose razors were made.
The aluminum ones were made in Delray Beach, Florida and the Stanley steel ones were made in Miami. So another South Florida brand and then a couple of other brands have come forth and made this design. The Colonel razor was that it was a good one. I think a couple of other companies have made it, but those are really the two that made mainstream. That made it like a thing, with the Mongoose making it the first three-piece design and the coper making it like an injector style, which was really a nice razor. And they still think, believe they still make the cobra. The mongoose is no longer made.
So Wolfman’s got their their version of this out. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a great piece. You know everything he does is very high quality, very good fishes are always always nice, might be a little late to the game on this one because I know these razors were very, very popular back in like 2015 to 2018. So we’ll see what happens. And good luck to Wolfman on that. On the new release and now now razor company that actually it’s been around for about a year now, a little bit less or a little bit more here there and it’s it’s a french safety razor company that’s basically the story is a gentleman, was a machinist. Cousin came to him, said making safety razor, made a few prototypes and enjoyed it, and now he’s making razors as well.
So Alter, Alter All Durdan, we’ll call it is a french company based at the South of France. One guy, Show one Machinist making some safety razors from. You know the basic medals. You have stainless steel, titanium copper. I think he’s doing something. I think those are the three he’s using right now, different designs. He’s got a double-edged safety razor and he’s got a single edged Artists Club style safety razor design as well. But this honestly, the quality in these razors look awesome. I was looking at them on line. I saw the passion they did on the form they did: one on Badger and blade as well. So positive reviews.
These razors have high gaps, so they’re like around point to 1.5 or something like that. It was very, very high gap for safety razor you know, usually for for me I like you, know that 155. Actually you know when it comes to the gap it doesn’t really matter as long as the blade exposure is right and you get a good shave. I mean some of the razors I have have a massive gap and they they have very mild. But for the most part, when you see a larger gap, blade gapped, you think more of agressive razor. But these razors, from what I’ve been seeing, are not that aggressive. I’ve been hearing nothing but positive reviews on it. He’s been tweaking the design and now has a pretty decent website with a nice set up. You can buy parts, you can buy head, you can buy, you know, to cap everything. It is fairly expensive. I think the razors started around €300. So they are up there.
But there every single razor is made to order. So if you order it he’s saying it’s about six to nine weeks before you get it. So it’s that’s how long the backlog is on it. Every razors machine to your tolerance. And also there is a beautiful like display box that you can get two made out of wood. That looks really nice. I thought was probably one of the nicest boxes. I’ve seen solid wood box but it’s an additional €200 to be included. So if you’re really into the customer razor game and you want something different or you’re looking to buy that next high and razor you got a few $100 to you know in your budget this would probably be the one for you again. I have not held one or seen one yet. Hopefully maybe some of you guys going to the magar meet up or we’re at the mage meet got to see one. If you do have one or if you’ve used it, let me know. I’d like to know a little bit more about it and get some more insight and just seeing you now on the form. There’s a couple of videos out on it, but there not much. If you’re interested. Guys, look at that a brand-new french razor. I left it in the link shows. I left it to the, to the form on the shave form so you guys can check out the the review and it’s about seven or eight pages long, can go through the whole process interested in seeing some more people with them and seeing some more pictures of these in the shade of the days.
And I don’t know how I’m going to be able to tell you guys this but Mitchell’s Wolf. It is no longer tallow based and at first I thought this was a joke and I saw online and then I started doing some research and it is true: the new label does not have the first thing, is not the first ingredients not tallow anymore? It is not allow it. If you’re looking at right in the show notes it’s sodium plate which before it was like in the old label it was sodium talma. So it doesn’t look like there’s any tallow in the new Mitchell’s Wolf fat that people have been getting. So I mean I’m personally a fan of Mitchel’s would, I think, have a puck. An older one that I’ve been using actually was using it a lot lately and it’s got the tallow in it and it’s just amazing. You know, I mean it’s wool at it’s Michael’s Wool. We’ve all, everybody’s been wet shaving for a few years, have tried this soap en I first started in wet shaving. This was the big thing. Everybody was going for it before. There were artisans, because you know there was maybe three artisans when I started what shaving back in 2010-2011 and Mitchell’s wolf was a big know. It was a big, big thing. Then you know a lot of people had to have it to see this change.
You know, i’m pretty sure they’re probably going to have good performance. A lot of guys on line have been lathering the new one. A lot of people are upset, but it does look like the performance is still there side by side comparison, probably the best bed, but I have a feeling you won’t notice much of it. But why did they? I mean it’s a wolf, that’s what they’ve called it. So it’s really, if you think about it’s supposed to have tallow in it. Are they going to change the name or they going to call it something else? I don’t know, but the same design.
Remember this. This recipes been out since the 1930, so almost a 100 years, and now they’ve just decided to change it so it could be, it could be cost, it could be something else, who knows, but no information really from the company. Yet I did email them. So I’ll let you know if I find anything. But yeah, Mitchells Will Fat is now seems to be no longer tallow based soap. So hope. Hopefully we get some more information on that. Maybe it’s just a fluke, maybe something different, maybe we’ll see. Maybe they ran out. I don’t know. But maybe well, hopefully we’ll see the old version or the new version might be just as good.
All right, and also, are you mocked for wet shaving? What does that mean? What am I what I mean by that? So being mocked by wet shaving means, do people like don’t care? Do they just say hey, you know you’re this is a dumb hobby, wasting your time or something like that. Now I was recently going through my usual like routine. I go daily, I go into the forms, I lock it, I just kind of read what’s going on. I look for posts that are different, right. Look for stuff that I haven’t seen like I’ve seen. Help me decide to buy safety razor or help me buy a new brush, and I see that every day for years. You know, you see that. So II kind of go through those, but when I see stuff like this, you know I kind of look at it and I said: well, you know I’m really thinking this apply to me, so being mocked for wet shaving. Personally myself, believe it or not, guys, I don’t I’ve been wet shaving for a while and I’ve been writing and and buying stuff and and stuff like that.
I don’t really talk about it outside the forms and this podcast. To be completely honest with you, you know, I don’t go out in the street and try to like say: hey, guys want to be a wet shaver, here’s a watch, here’s a safety razor, in fact that most of the people that I know don’t even know that I am in the wet have. I guess it’s something that I’ve used myself and I keep it to myself because it’s my thing right, it’s my hobby and I have my separate life. I guess I have my wet shaving friends and stuff and then I have my, my family and stuff like that and I’ve never really try to bring both of it into it. You know I think I’ve discussed it several times, but really it’s kind of like people like, oh, that’s nice, you know that’s great and then okay.
So next is the Miami Dolphins, and I mean that’s kind of looking more minstrel hobby. If you look at playing like shooting pool or playing tennis, you know a lot of parts, a lot more people can relate to it. Wet shaving is is bigger than it’s ever been. Don’t get me wrong from compared to the when we first started, it’s just kind of like a, like a small hobby that I don’t know. Some of us just get into it on our own. Some of us get into it because somebody else showed us. But being mocked for wet shaving, I think one is it. It’s kind of. It’s kind of weird because like some people say, hey, I’m a wet shaver and one of the guys on a thread said yeah, I mentioned it, but never was like, oh, that’s nice, or they say hey, why would you do that? Why would you shave with old shaving gear? Or why would you buy somebody else’s razor?
You know that’s something that a lot you hear a lot of, but they don’t realize like what the hobby is about it. And how first would clean them mean? Let’s be honest here we do clean our razors and they are sanitary. You know some people don’t don’t think that. You know, they think that all those are just razors. You now I just use that for a task and then throw it away like I have one razor to tell somebody, you have a 100 razors or 10 razors and 60 shave so they might look at you like you’re crazy right. So don’t feel that way. We’re all in this together and if you, you do know that you have a community out there that you can reach out to that. We do understand. That’s what’s so beautiful about wet shaving forums, wet shaving groups and stuff like that.
There are a lot of people out there that think like you and me and say: hey, look, I need more than one razor and one I need more than one soap or I’m interested in how this shaving brush performs compared to that one. Or you know the history of what shaving, the history of vendors and and just talking about it. So it’s weird. I mean, I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I kind of like always separated the two just because I don’t think other people would understand it and I just don’t know if they want to. You know, discuss it right. So I have, like my very good group of friends. I’ve been friends with some, the group I’ve been with for over 20 years, some of my friends, and they don’t even know. We’ve discussed it briefly, but they’re just not into it.
So I don’t really bring it up any more, but then I also have some wet shaving friends that all I do. You know we we talk about everything and wet shaving and they kind of understand. Hey, look, did you try this razor or did you try that blade with that razor? How do you feel and they’re like, oh yeah, yeah, I did this. Or did you see that soap or whatever you know, kind of discussing it like that like you would like? You would talk about sports or something like that. So I don’t know if anybody’s felt that way. If you have, if you’re listening. But if you did, you know, send me, send me an email. If you like to discuss it, I’d like to put it on the show. If you, if you have a moment and let me know if you’ve been in that situation or how you handle it. Because usually for me I just kind of just don’t mention it or I’ll talk a little bit about it. You know sometimes one thing is I do for me with with what have I do, a lot of emailing?
I do a lot of like forum posts and stuff like that. That’s kind of like how I used to communicate and get out and learn more about it. But if you like, very rarely will you meet somebody else that’s into it or that you know is into it just in passing. I think since I’ve been doing this podcast I’ve met a couple of people and I was actually one guy saw my name on my name tag at work and said: hey, you do you are you lowrider? Do you do podcast? Go wow, yeah, so I mean that was really cool. That was great and we got to talk about some some wet shaving and stuff like that.
But usually I just kind of go about my day and don’t really talk about it, which I don’t know if it’s the wrong right thing to do. But yeah, this really got, as could see. This got my head the while in my head turning and I was really thinking about it and reading it. So check out this part of the podcast, guys, and if you feel like you have, you feel the same way. If you have, like, a few thoughts, or how do you handle know being mocked for wet shaving? Send it to me email and then we can discuss it and we can even probably put it on the show as well. All right guys, that’s about it for this week, and we have Father’s Day coming up and before the next show we’ll be Fathers Day.
So that’s in my opinion, the second biggest Wed shaping holiday of the year, next to Christmas and once in that time of the year, winter, Father’s Day being the big one. So I’m hoping that you all get the special father’s gifts that you want. Remember we talked about it last week. What to ask for, how to give if you are listening because you want to get your significant other or friend or father or somebody else, we shaving idea, make sure you know what they like and and and really get them a special gift from one of the vendors. You still got time to buy it, avoid like stores like marshals and t j maxx, to get the stuff there, because that was just more of a novelty and they may not like it and they also a lot of that stuff doesn’t perform very well, so that that concludes the show for this week.
Remember, our show is powered by Sharpologist dot com. What your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Special thanks to Mark mantic59 and most of all you guys are listeners. We will see you again on the 19th of June, until then shave straight and shave safe by now.
