Any straight-razor users about?

[kronckew]

i use regular unscented plain no additive bar soap, and a 80 year old badger hair brush myself.

the romans used olive oil in the baths to clean themselves, rubbed on, then scraped off with a bronze tool called a strigel. they'd usually pay a slave to do the scraping. they would also pay a slave to pluck out their body hair which was considered vulgar, with tweezers, tho some kept beards. there were comments in some records about the screams coming out of the bath house. soap was known, but considered a medicine for some skin conditions. shaving with a bronze razor was also done for facial hair.

the scraped olive oil from gladiators was especially prized by women as an aphrodesiac

be thankful for modernity.

 

[Sylvrfalcn]

Huge score on straight razors this past weekend at the flea market. I snagged three Sheffield razors in good to excellent condition, one handled in bone (Wolstenholm IXL), one with black horn handle, and one hefty old beast of a Sheffield steel razor with wood handle slabs and iron/steel, not brass pins, including diamond shaped iron washers at the pivot pin. Judging by the size/shape/blade grind/patination of this particular razor it could be Civil War era or even earlier. Payed sixty bucks total for all three razors, and have already shaved with the bone handled one. Plan on using that wood handled beauty for historical reenactments and such, since it's the closest thing to a colonial era razor I've found without actually breaking down and making an eighteenth century replica myself.:thumbup:

Sarge