h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.carterandbond.com/detail.phtml?pID=DS1010&filter=Shaving%3ARazors%2C+Cut-Throat

I don't find myself in PR that much these days, but this is a really fine entry.

I am among those who thought that a straight razor was "dragged" rather than "pushed". I can hardly fault this entry, but if I changed one thing I would add a footnote to say that dragging is a hollywood myth.

Would love to use a straight razor (I'm sure I could save on alternate days if I did so), but I lack the confidence, and I suspect with a 2-year-old in the house, it might be safer not to leave one lying around!

Superb job.

Ugi

How does one go about practising one's technique without causing injury? Do you practise on something unimportant and dead but hairy? Such as a gooseberry? Then work your way up to kiwi fruit or, if you're going to be a swarthy Turkish type shaving other swarthy Turkish types, a coconut?

Love the style: that tone of affected snobbery is great. Er, it IS affected, isn't it?

I believe one practices upon a balloon.

Affected snobbery? Moi?

This is wonderful.

It is _exactly_ the sort of thing that every hitch-hiker should know. Too many are, I think, limited unnecessarily to pub work.



PS: I think that Antarctic Tree Badgers are nearly all gone now because of the ozone layer hole. Their pelts bleached in the sun and on the snow, the girl badgers could no longer find the boy badgers. Unable to curl their freezing toes up into the boy badger's belly fur, the girl badgers have mostly now all died from sleep deprivation.

<>

Pfft. A *real* gentleman's gentleman would never use the cheap option.

True and what's more where does one find a reliable supply of disposable blades when one is out hunting Antarctic badgers to recharge ones rather bald old shaving brush eh, eh, tell me that.

The real Gentleman's Gentleman would never get in a strop.

An excellent choice of similie SWL.

Keep up this level of work and I can see that come the "Wimmen's Revolution" you will find yourself alongside me in the fortunate group to be first against the wall.

What do you mean when it comes, it's here, the Archers has fallen to the cliterati, what's next. We've even got a loud chattering women invaded our sacred tea time session at t'pub. Shove up and make room on that wall.

A great companion to your other 'gentleman's gentleman' entry.

The only sentence that didn't quite read comfortably to me was 'These 'safety razors' allowed the lumpen proletariat to achieve a modicum of grooming without unnecessarily cutting their own throats.'
Might 'unnecessarily' be better as e.g. gratuitously?

A fascinating entry I'll never actually have any use for, not being a gentleman.

That might be the reason this sentence confuses me:

>>Throughout of course, gentlemen continued to be shaved in a proper fashion by their manservants with a straight razor, sometimes called a 'cut-throat razor'.<<

Throughout what? Or, if it's referring to the previous sentence, maybe it needs a comma after the "throughout"?

Also, since the rest is plural - gentlemen, manservants - maybe there should be multiple razors, too, so they don't all have to share?

Leather thingie is still in use (as are proper non-disposable straight edge razors). It should be pointed out that it is not used for sharpening, but just, um, maintenance (?) to straighten the blade just prior to shaving. When you want to sharpen the razor, you need a stone - but we don't want to go into these details now, do we?

Also one question is - stainless steel or carbon steel? Stainless won't rust, obviously, but it's harder to get as sharp as ordinary steel, and it doesn't shave quite as nicely.



Should I mention that you can use alum blocks instead of those funny sticks? Shaving sticks are very sensitive to water, so make sure you dry it before storing it somewhere. My first one got all mushy and broke very quickly as a result.

Goo points all. I'll address them later.

Good points too early in the morning.

Just came back from a hot towel shave. Of course, what music did you stick in my head? Naah, Brahms's Hungarian Dance #5 it was

*ahem*


Just seen Sweeny Todd .....





Have you addressed all the points yet .....

oops - not yet

I think I want to re-write the actual shaving section.

Well don't let me keep you back.

Too busy defending the British Empire old bean