TRBeck wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:47 pm
As far as I can tell, I got my Edwin Jagger Barley Chrome razor in November 2011. Given missed shaves here and there, a dozen or so efforts with a straight, and a few dalliances with single-edge razors, I would estimate I've got about 1800 shaves on it. At the time, I paid south of $40 for this simple variant of the very basic "89" double-edge razor. I get a very clean, close cut with Personna Medical Prep blades, Polsliver Iridiums, and Gillette Silver Blues using this razor, even as some coarser hairs creep into my beard with age.
I have not been a big forum participant in recent years, and I guess while I was preoccupied with other things, boutique DEs (and, to a slightly lesser extent, SEs) sort of blew up. I see stainless this and titanium that everywhere I look, with prices well into the three-digit range. I don't want to criticize anyone's choices there, and I have tried a couple of them to see what the fuss was about. But for me, the general conclusion I came to after several shaves was, "Huh." Not bad, not great. Functional, felt good in the hand, worked fine, but...
I think it's easy when you're new to this hobby to get caught up in the bling of high-end brushes and fancy soaps and Penhaligon's. I know I did, and sometimes I still do. But man, the one thing I was told by dozens of guys here was to just get a good Superspeed or Merkur or Gilette Tech, learn some technique, and enjoy the shaves. And I did. I experimented with Red Tips (!) and Black Beauties (!!) and the Progess (!!!), and they are all excellent tools. None of them were any better as instruments than the EJ 89 or that first flare-tip Superspeed I had a decade ago. Oh, sure, I preferred the balance of this one or the look of that one or the weight of this head, but in the end, I got good shaves because I learned how to use the razor I had in my hand, not because I bought a different one.
Sometimes you read about these "pot metal" razors having QC issues, heads breaking off when one goes to rinse the razor or whatever. Maybe that happens. But I've used this thing with no particularly special care and have yet to get more than a couple of light scratches on it. It is simply an excellent tool for the job. Some expensive brushes feel better on the face, some look better, some build lather more readily. When it comes to DEs, other than a nicer handle, none of these seem to be improvements so much as they are variants.
Again, I don’t want to criticize anyone’s choices. Buy what you want and use what you like. Just to say, though, I think new guys in particular chase their tails enough trying every product out there instead of settling down. And now they can drop $300 on a DE “system” of interchangeable heads and handles only to find that they still have to shave themselves, and no razor can do it for them.
I may buy a backup of this Barley Chrome razor at some point, but I doubt it. I imagine it will last indefinitely. At some point I may replace it with my late grandfather’s Gillette slim adjustable, which was given to me when he died earlier this year. If I do, though, I’ll be replacing one quotidian razor with another, an ordinary piece of shave equipment made for everyman, and made to endure for a lifetime or longer. And I’ll keep getting great shaves.