Top tip for good finances

[Bob Williams]

Steve, my gran used to shave granddad with a cutthroat. I can still recall her approaching him as he sat with his head back in the chair, towel around his neck, foam all over his face. Gran would wink at me and make her hand shake a bit as she approached granddad. “Now don’t you mess about ‘lizbeth!” – “Got ‘im at me mercy, oi as!” she would say.

Me, quite young, watching this and giggling. “Don’t you make her laugh boy, I am your last living granddad!”

They had one of those razor strops, don’t know what it was made of but it kept the edge sharp. They are still available at Amazon:

Not the same of course: granddad’s was a Williams family heirloom I suspect, probably began life somewhere in Wales. Something else that went AWOL when granddad passed.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Bob asked why I posted this.

First the obvious one – razor blades especially the all-singing/dancing multi-blade jobs are darned expensive. Some people can only get one/two shaves out of them which means £15/week in the waste bin. However, what prompted me was I had just done the monthly go-through of our knife rack in which I use a variety of whet stones with each knife taking about 15 minutes to do.

I find the process mind-numbingly relaxing and finish up with knives that would make a butcher proud.  During this process the first edge is taken to the point where it actually does a small ‘micro-curl’, while the last whet stone is pretty much as smooth as a towel, or leather strop. Day-dreaming about this made me think that possibly others may not know about the razor-blade towel trick.

[JayCeeDee]

I regularly use a butcher’s steel on all our knives. I worked for 2 years as Saturday delivery boy at a butchers while still at school. That was one of my jobs ( in those days before Health and Safety ) where you were told to pay attention while sharpening knives and don’t do anything stupid. It’s second nature to me now and people are often amazed when I do a carving knife before cutting into a joint. It’s basically muscle memory and awareness and Ed’s right, almost Zen-like.

I even, every so often, sharpen our table knives, to the extent that we don’t need steak knives.

Razor’s are something that I don’t bother with these days. Years ago I used them to keep the cheeks and throat tidy, but with male grooming products like THESE I find they keep the beard that I’ve had since I was 21 in fine fettle.?

[Ed P]

My father used to say that it is only blunt tools that cut. Blunt ones tend to ‘stick’ and jerk where you least expect.

[JayCeeDee]

Ed P wrote:

My father used to say that it is only blunt tools that cut. Blunt ones tend to ‘stick’ and jerk where you least expect.

 

Very true?.

[Tippon]

Ed P wrote:

My father used to say that it is only blunt tools that cut. Blunt ones tend to ‘stick’ and jerk where you least expect.

Blunt tools and multi bladed razors ?

I wouldn’t like to guess the number of times that a multi bladed razor has either cut me because the factory finish is shoddy, or caught a hair and given it a quick yank ?

[Drezha]

At the minute, I subscribe to King Of Shaves – £7 a month for four blades and I usually get just over a week from each one.

However, I’m waiting to get the bathroom redone so I can have some space on the sink so I can go back to my safety razor – the double edged kind. I prefer it on my skin and I get a better shave but requires some bathroom space for the aftershave, preshave and shaving cream!?

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Malcolm]

I can get months of good shaving out of even a cheap Bic razor.

I’ve been able to do that since I was 17 or 18 and I’ve got the kind of face hair growth that produces 5 o’clock shadow by noon.

There is a simple secret to it.

I’ve had a full beard since 1974 or 1975, I’m even now back on trend with the youngsters.

As for betting the nearest I’ve got is the odd go on the National Losery, if you want to know which numbers won’t come up this week just lend me the money to buy a lucky dip ticket (don’t expect to get it back though). For that small investment I will be able to tell you 7 numbers that definitely won’t come up that draw.

I used to win a £1 every week by not playing and I’m pleased to say I’ve doubled my weekly winnings to £2 per week.

[Author]

Posts