Shaving Myths We've All Heard

Discussion in 'General Shaving Talk' started by Carson West, Oct 6, 2019.

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  1. gssixgun

    gssixgun At this point in time...

    Supporting Vendor

    Neither does anyone using a SR...

    However

    A Straight Razor used competently, honed and stropped to YOUR face, is the most comfortable shave you will get..

    I do hold that to be true :D
     
  2. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    I was going to get mad if I didn't see this. The only proven scientific way to minimize pore appearance (without make-up) is through laser treatment.

    Hot towel to "open" the pores is another fictional favorite.

    Edit: Zinc (zamak) alloy razors are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. They can be 'good.' But they have inherent weaknesses. Zamak is brittle, and can break if dropped on a hard surface. It also corrodes when exposed to water and oxygen (if the plating fails).

    Once cast, the quicker it goes from casting to polishing, to plating, the better. If the polishing job sucks, the plating will fail. Older zamak razors tend to be better polished and plated than modern ones, which is why older zamak razors are still around.

    It's cheaper to manufacture than brass, and can be a decent alternative...but it's not better than brass for razors.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2019
  3. jimjo1031

    jimjo1031 never bloomed myself

    Me personally, wanting a BBS shave does involve two passes with touch up in most cases. Once in a while, two passes will work.
     
  4. jimjo1031

    jimjo1031 never bloomed myself

    I agree as my best shaves were done by a barber with a straight razor.
     
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  5. Chuck Naill

    Chuck Naill Well-Known Member

    If we all took as much time as a competent barber, we’d get the same result. For years I was shaving too fast to get a quality shave.
     
  6. jimjo1031

    jimjo1031 never bloomed myself

    I could never go ATG very well. But that's because of nerve damage in my hands.
     
  7. Carson West

    Carson West Well-Known Member

    Oz, I agree, but I find that if I bloom a soap (not a cream or croap, of course) for just ten or 15 seconds, it softens its surface enough to enable me to load my brush quickly, and I don't waste product.
     
  8. Carson West

    Carson West Well-Known Member

    OK, then that's the difference between us.
     
  9. Kilgore Trout

    Kilgore Trout The Smart Bunny

    DE shaving saves you money?
     
  10. Enrico

    Enrico Popcorn


    :happy097::happy102::rofl:
     
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  11. brit

    brit in a box

    :)
     
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  12. brit

    brit in a box

    the slim was the last all brass razor ending in 68..the slim 'crat in 70.the flare tip in 65 ish
     
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  13. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Yeah, but they didn't switch to Zamak. They just added nylon and aluminum. The bones of their TTO razors remained brass until the end. Gillette toyed with Zamak, and then embraced plastics.
     
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  14. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    In an infinite number of parallel worlds where DE razors are used, one of them surely saves people money.

    ...and this world ain't it.
     
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  15. RyX

    RyX DoH!

    "Van Der Hagen Ice Tempered Stainless Steel DE blades are horrible."

    I see them in the stores, even have a tuck. Haven't tried them out since I have other blades that are acceptable or recommended. I'm curious to know The Truth, but not so much that I want to have a bad shave to prove or dispelTthe Myth. I think the reputation is partly due to the easy availability to New Wet Shavers who apply cart habits using an unfamiliar new DE razor . I bought the store brand generics instead - Personna Reds.
     
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  16. Carson West

    Carson West Well-Known Member

    They were made of brass? Then I was misinformed by the same kind of myth I complain about here.
     
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  17. brit

    brit in a box

    yes,fair enough...:).i don't think any of the tto had any zamak..just the techs..
     
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  18. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    In the later years, the "blade adjustment tray" was made of black nylon, and the main handle tubing was (I believe) made of aluminum.

    Some of the British TTO's used steel and alumimum as well. Steel was a wartime substitution (Korean War and WWII) and the aluminium ones were purpose built lightweight (mild) razors. Those usually had aluminum handles and doors, but the rest was brass.

    Interesting note: I have yet to hear of those nylon pieces breaking on any Gillette razor.
     
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  19. Carson West

    Carson West Well-Known Member

    PoM, I'll bet you know more about this stuff than the current president of Gillette.
     
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  20. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Everything I know about Gillette razors, I learned from forums like these. And there's people who know way more than me. It's the incremental gains I treasure the most, like @gorgo2 spotting the one tiny difference that finally allowed us to identify the American Aristocrat Jr. without a box. That was a cool moment, as some members here had one of these, and saw their "common super speed with maybe a factory error?" tranform into a rarer shaving tool.

    I remember when Aristocrat Jr's were still called "double ring rockets" because nobody knew what they were actually called. We take it for granted that we can just browse the internet to find old advertisements rather than going to a library and checking out their microfiche reader to look at old newspapers.
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2019
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