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 August 25th, 2025.

____________________________________________________________________________

Today on the Show:

Barrister and Mann Fall Release Pre-Order And a New Razor! 

Wet The Face:White Lotus Shave Soap Release 

Tariff Talk: New Updates 

Collector Series: Wade and Butcher Chopper: 8/8 Straight Razor 

___________________________________________________________________________

Barrister and Mann Fall Releases Announced!! 

The Skull Razor:

From the website: 

As part of the Horror Double Feature, we’re collaborating with the awesome guys at Proof to bring you the Skull, the first razor that’s truly ours. Anodized in jet black with a clear-coated, scalloped top cap, the Barrister and Mann logo engraved on the back, and the original Hallows skull burned into the pommel, these beautiful razors are milled from solid aluminum at Proof’s workshop in Montana, right here in the USA. They’ll be available as part of the pre-release, which opens this Saturday, August 23rd, and we’ll even have some extras come October for those who missed out or who love their new razor so much that they want a second.

“Barrister and Mann is proud to present the 2025 Horror Double Feature, featuring Hallows, and, for the first time, Southern Witchcrafts’ Samhain (pronounced “sah-wen”), which will be offered in our vegan base. A richly gothic scent inspired by an ancient Gaelic festival, Samhain features notes of bourbon, tobacco, pumpkin, sandalwood, nutmeg, oud, incense, amber, vanilla, hazelnut, charred wood, and musk. It’s gloriously appropriate for the season and the perfect compliment to the dry, fen-inspired cocoa/moss of Hallows.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Wet The Face: White Lotus Release 

From the very first lather, you’re welcomed by the refreshing calm of aloe vera and the bright, invigorating spark of crisp ginger. As the scent unfolds, the heart reveals a serene harmony of delicate white tea, transporting you to a place where time slows and the world’s noise fades away. The journey deepens with creamy cedarwood and warm vanilla, wrapping around you like a soft embrace. Beneath it all lies the gentle floral elegance of lily, a soothing base that linger

____________________________________________________________________________

Tariff Talk: Updates 

Some tariff updates that may affect wet shaving supplies from overseas. What we know. (Non-political opinion) 

 ____________________________________________________________________________

Collector Series: Wade and Butcher 8/8 For Barber’s Use 

One of the most collectable vintage straight razors out there, The Wade and Butcher 8/8 size “For Barber’s Use Only” is truly a shaving marvel. Its huge size makes it a rarity and if there are any razors that are worth restoring, this is one of them.

Value: $500-over $1000. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Mantic’s New Site: The Black Coffee Life 

MAntic has a new site dedicated to coffee:  Check it out: https://theblackcoffeelife.com/ 

____________________________________________________________________________

Our show is powered by Sharpologist.com, “What Your Father Didn’t Teach You about Shaving” 

Special Thanks to:

Mark aka Mantic 59

Most of All……….YOU!!!!

Don’t forget to check out my blog site www.shavestraightandsafe.com  for the tips and interesting wet shaving stories!

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]  

Subscribe to my You Tube Chanel for videos regarding some interesting wet shaving content.

Don’t forget to check out my book “The Modern Guide to Straight Razor Shaving” available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and at Pasteur’s Pharmacy in NYC. 

If you’re a vendor and would like to be featured on the show please contact me!!

Transcript (Generated by Transcript LOL)

You’re listening to Wet Shaving Talk, powered by sharpologist.com, where we’re dedicated to preserving the art and skill, classic shaving. I’m your host, Joe Borelli, and today is August 25th, 2025. Hey guys welcome back to the podcast on this beautiful August morning that’s right it’s raining like crazy cats and dogs here in South Florida and you can definitely tell we are in full-fledged hurricane season that’s right the tropics are Letting us know not to forget about it and

yeah it’s been pretty rainy over here so incredible to be honest with you. It’s been a very dry summer and now it’s just gone crazy the last few days. So it was actually, I was actually going to record this a day ago but it was raining so hard I couldn’t even get it in an area quiet enough to actually record without hearing the rain in the background. It seems to be pretty good right now, at least for the time being.

I am in a new studio, to say. I’m in my car in the garage. So hopefully it’s quieter in here, a little bit less sound because I’m not in the house. And it keeps everything, probably will work out a little bit better, especially with the rain and with all the sounds going on.

So that’s what’s going on right now here with the, I guess we can call it a mobile studio. in order to keep it quiet because of the extreme rain. So no matter what guys, no rain, snow, sleet, whatever the old saying is from the post office, the podcast will still go on regardless. A couple other things going on with me.

I know I’m a little late on the podcast. I do apologize. Kindergarten has been, well, kindergarten is definitely a change for my son, a change for us as well, for me and my wife and my family. He’s doing very well.

He’s adjusting well. It’s his second, third week, starting the third week of kindergarten. So I know on the last show I was saying, oh man, he’s starting kindergarten. I’m getting a little nervous and all that.

So kind of focused on him going to school and just a lot of changes in my work My work just went kind of crazy with a bunch of leadership changes and stuff so adapting to new boss and new bosses boss and and a new Workers with me as well, so just a really crazy two weeks, but you know what glad to be back doing the podcast everything’s kind of subsided and going back to normal and So, what better way to do than to talk about some new items, some fall releases coming out or announced, and a couple things going on in the wet shaving world. So guys, without further ado, let’s get on with the intro.

So we’ve got Barrister and Mann announcing their fall releases with a little bit of a hiccup. So you guys actually, if you’re listening to this on Monday or Tuesday, you still have time to pre-order their items. So you won’t want to miss what they came out with this year. Really cool collaboration.

Wet the Face came out with a white lotus shave soap based on the TV show. So they have a brand new item coming out here and it’s just been released. A little bit of a tariff, I wanted to call it tariff talk. A lot of people, the most emails I’ve received ever on the podcast is about tariffs.

Unfortunately, like this is one thing like guys, you know, I don’t know much about, so I started really just staying up on it and just really researching tariffs. And I seen a lot come on, you know, Badger and Blade, Straight Razor Place, a lot of talk on it. and just been trying to stay as up to date as I can on it. And there is a new update on the tariffs coming out starting actually today, the day I’m recording this podcast, where it looks like it is going to affect some of us from our European partners.

Again, with tariffs, we’ll see what happens, but we’ll talk more about that. and Collector Series, a collectible straight razor, possibly the most collectible straight razor. You won’t want to miss this. This is one of my favorite things, favorite pieces that I have never purchased or owned that’s on the lookout for me.

So guys, without further ado, again, let’s get on with the show. Barrister Man has announced their annual fall releases and it is very very exciting. Let me tell you guys, this one collaboration, I could not get enough of it. I thought it was great and I actually was really happy to hear about it because I was a little sad that it was leaving us last year with the vendor closing down.

But first let’s talk about a brand new razor from Barrister Man called the Skull. The Skull is a single edge razor which is in collaboration with Proof and 100% made in the United States available at Barrister Man. So if you guys know, they did come out with a very small release, about 50 pieces of a collaboration with Proof and now Proof and Barrister Man are going to come out with a permanent razor called the Skull. This razor is Apparently single-edge and very smooth but not again not overly aggressive Really looks interesting to get guys again made in the United States So no worries on tariffs or it’s not going to be here anything like that take single-edge blades.

I believe it takes some The Snapped Off Double Edge Blades Oh, I’m sorry. I’m looking at the notes right now for the skull. It is made in the workshop in Montana. So right in the United States, it’ll be available on the 25th for pre-orders and there’s going to be extra for October as well.

But this looks like it’s going to be a one and out. This is going to be a special edition. So you’re going to, if you want to get it, get it with the pre-order. No idea on the price yet from, from here, but it is made from solid aluminum.

So Barrister Man guys, they’re coming out with their double feature. So the advertising of this year from Barrister Man looks like an old-fashioned movie, like horror movie, double features like advertisement. So it’s something like the drive-thrus or watching an old-fashioned movie from, we’re going back to like the 50s and 60s. And they’re presenting Hallows is Returning.

So it wasn’t here last year. Remember, they skipped a year. And now we have Southern Witchcraft. Southern Witchcraft which we all know closed last year they shut down business well Barrister Man is going to bring back their scent of the Samhain which is one of their which was their number one selling soap from uh…

southern which cuts one of my favorites i actually own it and they’re going to offer it in their base their vegan base of their formula uh… after collaborating with the previous owners of that company so really cool to see this barrister man will be bringing back it’s going to smell apparently she’s close to it if not that’s very close uh… the same I am very excited for this because it was a really very nice smelling like fall soap. Subscribe in US English saw this demand saw an opportunity to bring this back and we all get to still get this uh…

smell and experience that sent from that was really famous from southern witchcraft after they shut down so really glad to see this guys i hope more vendors do this like if you see somebody shut down you know there’s a couple cents i’d like from k shave works uh… vendor just at the top of my head that i really wish was still around i wish somebody would collaborate with some of their stuff they had some great stuff too so Congratulations Barrister Man and be on the lookout for that release guys. You don’t want to miss it. So make sure if you’re going to get it, hopefully they come out with like a cool t-shirt or something like that.

I think I might go all in and get that Proof Razor this year too. I always try to get something for the release and try not to miss it when they come out with some cool stuff. So really cool stuff for this year. All right, so moving along.

Wet the Face came out with a new soap. Now, I’m a huge fan of Wet the Face. I think what they’ve been doing over there has been some great stuff. They have some good, I guess you could say, theme sense of stuff that relates well to me.

Now, this particular soap, I’ve never watched the White Lotus, but I can tell you, Wet the Face makes one of the best Christmas scented soaps I’ve ever had. And I used to love their old packaging. Now, he’s kind of changed it around a little bit. We used to have that, the old, the guy, and it looked like something from the 60s and 50s, 60s, 40s, I don’t know.

Old, old, old. And it really made me look like, it made it look like to me, something really vintage and just very like, hey, Christmassy, I guess, I don’t know. But they came out with a new soap called the White Lotus, but kind of based on, I guess you could say, he says it’s based on the show or to… collaborate with the show the white lotus but if you’d look at the show but the notes like i just read through the notes you’re looking at um…

it’s a like a aloe vera scent with a crisp ginger and then you have a little bit of uh… it deepens it like cedarwood warm vanilla and then it kinda has like a little bit of a i guess you could say uh… like uh… a scent of like a a flowery scent a floral scent just came out great packaging and also wet the face if you guys haven’t tried from this vendor It’s again, it’s made in New York.

Very good stuff for those with sensitive skin. Because from what I notice, the scents on it are not too abundant. They’re just there enough to get you. If you have sensitive skin, if you’re allergic to stuff, for some reason this soap works very well from what I’ve seen.

This brand, right? I don’t know about this particular scent, but from all the things that I’ve bought from this brand, it works. So, Wet the Face White Lotus. Brand new release, guys.

It looks pretty cool. It’s our end of summer release based on the TV show. So if you’re a fan of the TV show, this might be for you. And again, a little cedarwood-ish, warm vanilla with crisp ginger, aloe vera, perfect for the end of the summer.

So I was really excited to see this and see a nice new item. And it looked very unique. It looked like a new scent that I haven’t seen before from many vendors. So look forward to seeing the reviews on it, guys, if you’re interested.

It’s on wettheface.com. And yes, tariff talks. A lot of people have been asking about the tariffs. The number one email I’ve ever received.

And it’s funny, it’s the one thing that I can’t do anything about. I’m definitely not involved in anything tariffs. Everybody’s like, what are you doing to beat the tariffs? So I said, well, right now, what I’m doing to beat tariffs is I’m just basically business as usual.

I’m still buying stuff. I could tell you that I work in the wine and spirits industry at work. and we had some struggles I’m not gonna not gonna lie last quarter Q2 was very hard for us to get stuff we didn’t get anything from Europe and we didn’t get anything from like Italy, Spain or France, Germany as well and those are like I could tell you our number One category is of course American wines, but also we sell a ton of French wines, right?

And the aisles were just going empty a little bit. It was getting, it was getting a little frustrating. Like we were starting to run out of stuff and people were panic buying. They were starting to buy a lot.

You know, we haven’t, the company I work for hasn’t absorbed and we haven’t raised any prices because we haven’t really been affected by the tariffs yet. We haven’t seen it because it’s all been hearsay, right? It’s been saying, Oh, we’re going to do this. And then they come to an agreement.

But right now it looks like, Germany and France are in a major shutdown. They’re not sending stuff to the United States again. So it looks like until something gets worked out, I don’t know as of the, as of this, but also India and the UK are also, um, suspending shipments of packages to the United States. So this isn’t large scale.

This isn’t like buying a trailer of soap or, uh, um, a container of wine coming to her. This is basically, stuff that you buy from them and you want to get sent to you so I did read about a couple articles on it looks like India is allowing up to $100 for gifts and personal mail to get sent to the USPS but a lot of them are saying they’re going to ban it so that means if you buy something overseas you’ll have to use you know different I guess a different shipping method you can use I always use DHL I haven’t heard much about them but we’ll see if they get affected at all DHL is I think the best shipping service probably available you can get if you buy anything overseas or anything from far away so if you’re using them I would definitely check their website if you have to call them or use their customer support check it out before

you make some large purchases guys into India, Europe or the UK as of right now Other countries in Europe are France and Germany. Those are the main ones that we would get stuff from, right? So it does look like they’re going into effect as of right now. Again, when this podcast comes out, everything can change.

Like it could be, oh, they came to an agreement or something. We’ll see what happens. Should be in the near future here. But I do hope that everything gets worked out so we can get our wet shaving stuff.

Now again guys, this is something that if you’re buying personal packages, this is what I read online, personal packages will be delayed or not sent out through partners of USPS. That’s all right now. I’m not so sure about DHL. I’m not sure about FedEx.

I’m not sure about UPS. There’s nothing on there about that. So this might not affect us too much, but I always want to keep you up to date whenever I hear of something that may affect us, what shavers before we make our purchases, just to be safe. All right, so now it’s time to talk about one of my favorite straight razors of all time that I still have on my radar.

I still haven’t bought one and I hope to get one pretty soon now that I’ve done this. So a collector series featuring Wade and Butcher, the eight, eight, eighth, For Barbers Use Only Massive Straight Razor Again I think they said for barbers use only because of its massive size and it was originally created for barbers. This razor was very popular from the turn of the century of the 20th century. to probably about the 1940s, maybe 1950s, before Barber stopped using straight razors.

A lot of these guys would get this big razor mainly because it had so much meat to it, so much blade, that it could be sharpened multiple times and used for years. So to find one in original condition, like where it’s actually an inch wide is very rare. Like you’ll see a lot of them stubbed down. Like I’ve seen some of these stubbed probably another half of an inch, half of the size and still being used, right?

You’ll see a lot of hone wear on it. So this razor is probably one of the few that are worth restoring vintage wise. Again made in Sheffield, England by Wade & Butcher. Wade & Butcher has been around since the mid 1800s.

I think probably 1870s to about 1940s this razor was being produced, right? Again, I’m not too sure. I know Wayne & Butcher was very big in those times, and I know some of these razors actually age back to the 1800s, but they are still pretty abundant out there. There’s still quite a few.

If you go on eBay, you’ll always find one or two on there. A lot of collectors have them. and they are fun to collect, fun to restore. Price for this razor is anywhere from in bad shape probably around $500 to well over $1000 in good shape.

So it is one of the more valuable straight razors out there and it does take some skill to use it guys. It is a wedge razor so it does have a partial wedge so it is going to be harder to hone. Please see review n°107.107,107.107.107 on PissedConsumer.com That’s why I love these old wedges. They are really, once they get honed, they are a pain in the neck to get there.

I have about two wedges myself. They are just so quiet when you shave to, you don’t hear anything. Just scrape it off. That’s it.

Just comes right off. Very simple, very easy, and very effective. So again, if this razor, you get one of these, definitely want to check the hone wear on it, the spine. If it looks like it’s very shiny and it’s like mirror polished on the hone, on the actual spine part, it means it has been honed a lot.

You want to measure it to make sure it’s as close to one inch as possible when measuring the width of the blade. And definitely look for rust, cracks, and all the other chips and stuff in the blade itself. Again, guys, this razor is worth about $500 to over $1,000 restored. And there are still a few of them, quite a few of them out there if you’re looking for it.

So definitely a collector’s piece, one on my radar. Wade and Butcher from Sheffield, we salute you with your big chopper, I like to call it the chopper blade, 1 inch blade, 8 out of 8 scale for barbeque use only because you are one of the most collectible straight razors out there. and Just get to the next shave right you know work hard have our fan take care of our families and again just enjoy our wet shaving part of the day because remember that part of the day is reserved for you remember that if even if when in doubt if it’s busy if you got a lot of stuff going on at work A lot of stress going on.

Take that 10 minutes a day, wet shave, enjoy your good soap, enjoy your brush, enjoy your razor and take that time for yourself and look forward to it on a daily basis or bi-weekly, whatever you do because you deserve it. I remember our show is powered by sharpologist.com, what your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Special thanks to you guys, the listeners, and of course, Mark. May I take 59 for everything that he does with the community, and hoping that, you know, Mark, you’ve had some health issues, so hoping you recover real soon, get better.

It looks like you’re on the mend, so keep up the good work and stay positive, everybody, for that as well. So don’t forget to check out my blog site, ShaveStraightAndSafe.com, and always feel free to email me at joe.whatshavingnews.com. at gmail.com. Alright guys, until next time, shave straight and shave safe.

Bye bye now.