by The Complementary Spouse and I enjoy hitting thrift stores, antique malls, and the like. What we call “junkin'” is a cheap way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Inspired by a post by SayUncle about safety razors and having seen the prices for Gillette Fat Boys and Schick Kronas on EBay, I thought I might find something at one of the local antique malls like the one below.
I had no such luck. I did see a handful of straight razors but the thought of trying to correctly use one of those to shave is too scary for me.
However, the trip was not made in vain. The first thing that caught my eye was the bright red Prius below. Unlike the usual Prius seen in Asheville with its “Another Mama for Obama” bumpersticker, this one had of all things a NRA sticker on the front door window!
An older gentleman (but not the owner of the Prius) sitting near the door of the mall saw me taking the picture and said he was a NRA member. He said he’d joined a couple of years ago and now was being audited by the IRS. While I would hope the story is somewhat apocryphal, one never knows nowadays given the way the IRS under the Obama Administration seems to be targeting groups and people opposed to Obama.
The second thing that caught my eye was a nice fountain pen in a variegated green. I knew it was a Sheaffer the moment I saw the white dot on the cap. I ended up getting it for $20. When I got home I did some Internet sleuthing and found out it was a Sheaffer Triumph Lifetime Vacu-fil in marine green striated made between 1942 and 1949. It is in excellent shape but I still need to test to see whether it will hold ink. The band and the clip show some brassing but I can live with that given the great shape the nib is in.
It was all in all a fun day. As to that safety razor, I may end up doing what SayUncle did and just buying a new Merkur from Amazon. The prices of those old Gillettes on EBay are a bit much.
The Merkur is worth it.
Norelco is my preferred shave. Grew up around straight razors and Wilkinson Razors in Gillettes and have no desire to self mutilate.
Been toying with the idea of shaving with the old straight razors. Truth be told, I'm a little scared.
Merkur makes a good razor. I use an old Gillette for nostalgia reasons. I have a few different ones. My favorite Merkur is the Futur. It shaves well and adjusts for how aggressive you want to get. Occasionally I use a straight razor to keep my skill level up for the day when the world ends or the government comes to a stop and you cannot find blades for the safety razor anymore . . .
Many of us have converted from the razor company methods of extracting money from our wallets and credit cards. Go to this link best grooming tools .com
http://bestgroomingtools.com/
You will find all you need to shave safely with new razors, blades and brushes. Initial prices are a little high, but the quality of the tools is excellent. I converted when after one or two shaves, I plugged up the multi-blade inserts of the "modern" razors. Far too expensive for me. A double edge razor can be opened up cleaned, and made ready for the next shave. And there is nothing to compare to a badger-haired brush on your face and the clean feeling after the shave. No straight razors for me. King Gillette was correct to invent the "safety" razor and he did make his fortune on the replacement blades. Those who inherited his empire, found new ways to make money off of you. Go back to the old ways, just don't go all the way back to a straight razor.