Straight razor get together-11th December

mikew

mikew

Joined
Thursday January 2, 2014
Location
Ilkley
Would anyone be interested in a straight razor get together? It would be at The Traditional Shaving Company in Leeds probably one Sunday in the next month or so.

I could bring some stones and strops to demonstrate honing and general maintenance to anyone starting out and there would be a chance to sample lots of shaving products and generally talk about all things shaving related.

Please post here so I can get an idea of the general level of interest and feel free to share this with anyone who you think might like to come along.
 
RE: Straight razor get together.

I am on Christmas leave from Dec 5th to Jan 4th that sounds amazing as it is the next "tick in the box" I need to achieve on the road to straight razor proficiency. Pls count me in.
 
RE: Straight razor get together.

Seriously though, why not organise something in or near London? The Americans seem to be much better at these sort of get togethers than us.

Hey Michael, if you're prepared to fly over we could probably fit in to your dates.

CMOT said:
Brilliant idea but my weekends are a bit over busy until mid January.
Could this become a recurring event?
Click to expand...
If there's enough interest why not? Let's see how the first one goes.
 
RE: Straight razor get together.

Mike, possible...but pre-Christmas is starting to be short notice for me and even Ryanair jacks up its prices during that period! Maybe throw out some dates?

Another possibility could be to attach a meeting to a knife show? There must be a UK association with organizes a national meet (or regional event), which could be fun to visit at the same time (at least for things like sharpening, materials, forging, demos etc)?

Some ideas from Belgium:

The annual Belgian Knife Show (custom knives) took place last weekend (Gembloux) and a group of us straight razor guys usually get together in a pub for a couple of hours on the Sunday afternoon. OK, Belgium is a lot smaller than the UK!

Some weeks before that, Messewinkel in Antwerp held a straight razor day as part of it's 150 anniversary celebrations. Again, demos, sales, Baume.be launched some new products, beer...

The French straight razor web site also has a national convention every year and last August they did held in Belgium over two days (sharpening and forging demos, Pro barber shaves, presentation from Ardennes Coticule, trading or just meet and talk to people!). There is always a lead organizer, usually someone with a commercial interest, in this case a leading Belgian internet site whose shop was next door. Next year in the Vosges....

Finally, London has some advantages....every year I'm able to go to the Writing Equipment Society's national vintage fountain pen show because it's held very close to St Pancras station/Eurostar :) They also have south west and north west meetings, but I've not been able to get to those.

Having said that, I've never been to Leeds :).

Last thought, would be great if Neil Miller could be persuaded to come?

M
 
RE: Straight razor get together.

Some great ideas Michael, thanks.

The UK does have a knifemakers association and funnily enough I'm the treasurer. We are actually holding a knife and tool show in October 2015 in Sheffield and we plan on using a venue which will certainly be of interest to razor collectors.

In reality the get together in Leeds will be pretty low key but may well grow into something bigger. I guess it will depend on how much appetite there is. After all it's still a niche market.

It would be great if Neil and some of the other UK aficionados could come along and share some of their knowledge :)
 
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