According to this new blog post by John Tischler, Going Green by Shaving Straight, straight shaving is the cheaper than DE shaving! Now, everyone knew that straight razor + hone = set for life if you don’t break the razor. But Mr. Tischler’s math proves that DE’s are more expensive than straights even if you use a hone-meister! The math is in the article, however, he doesn’t state how many times you have to re-hone per year. We recommend once every 180 days of use. Of course, it’s only $10 per hone if you use our re-honing service. But I’m getting off-track. The point is, straight razor shaving is the cheapest means of shaving; even if you use a honemeister to sharpen & hone your razor for you!

Further savings can be had if you buy a vintage straight razor. There is no advantage to buying a modern razor as opposed to a restored vintage razor or one in great shape. You also don’t need a fancy strop. Any piece of good quality leather will suffice. Finally, you should be shaving with a brush and soap anyway, so these shouldn’t be additional costs. Finally, buying your own hone may be cheaper in the long run, but in the short term it is actually not cost effective. You need to buy an expensive finishing stone rated at least 12,000 grit; 16,000+ is better. But more importantly, you must invest a lot of time into learning how to hone. Even more time than you invested learning how to straight shave. At $100 for a finishing stone, you could purchase five year’s worth of professional honing.

Either way you go, the proof is in the numbers. Straight shaving is the cheapest way to shave!