I'm wondering to myself if in fact the use of SR is such a dying "art" why are they so difficult to find. Seems lie every site I've been to is out of stock, well at least on a razor that is affordable. I'm sure someone can explain it to me or give a point in the right direction where I might find a distributor that is stocked up. Hell, I drove two hours to AOS last week for them to tell me they no longer had any available....Talk about a let down! Guess a phone call would've saved me a couple hours and $1,000 worth of fuel...ROFL!
Six of the seven straights I have came from antique stores. They were sent to Glen aka gssixgun here at TSD for a professional honing. My seventh is my only brand new straight and was a Christmas gift a few years ago.
Before you go hunting, send Glen a PM. Even though SRs are not my area of expertise, Glen and I have discussed some of these issues of purchasing straights. Friends outside the forums have asked me to find out for them and Glen is one of the go to guys for good information. As for all items there are high quality items and there are low quality goods in shops and on eBay. They can be priced high to low in the market. Some would be great buys and some would be bad buys. It is wise, before you start expending energy and / or buy sight unseen, to get some good pointers to help you out. Who knows, Glen may have one that suits your fancy in his stock. You never know until you ask. http://theshaveden.com/forums/members/gssixgun.2180/
It seems there was a huge uptick in SR interest after the 007 movie came out and everyone decided they wanted to shave with a straight razor. The manufacturers haven't been able to catch up yet.
I knew I liked this message board for a reason....super friendly! I'll definitely do that and thanks for the push in the right direction. I wonder if people know that just because you own a SR doesn't mean Naomie Harris is gonna be the one giving you that BBS shave???
Actually the growth of straight shaving in popularity predates the movie, the movie probably picked it up from the chicness of the straight shave from the hobby to the comeback of the straight razor shave in barber shops both in America and the UK. The renaissance in straights started with Lynn Abrams at Straight Razor Place forum and has mushroomed over the last 8 or 9 years. Because interest has grown the supply of vintage straights in junk shops or antique shops has shrunk as these are now hunting grounds for hungry straight users or resellers. Prices have risen pretty dramatically over the years on ebay whether in America , UK or Germany. More straight users has meant more manufacturers of straights whereas there was just Dovo and Thiers Issard some years back there are now quite a few new manufacturers as well as quite a number of custom makers . A surprise to me are the number of guys who go from shaving with a straight to making there own forges and then razors.
Another surprise to me is the number of folks who venture straight into 'straight razor' shaving from cartridge & canned goo use. For me, it was a gradual process; from the convenience of the cartridge/goo to the wet-shave/DE razor regimen, eventually morphing into the use of straight razors as a regular part of of my mornings.
I've always been interested in the straight razor myself, but I got comfortable with the DE at an early age and it's just been so easy to stay with what works - up to now at least! I suppose I might pick up and old beater and try to hone my edge skills...
