My 70 year old reconditioned razor, with wooden soap box and shaving brush.

I wanted to share my findings and some of the useful information that helped get me started, but thought it best to wait until I was sure that I could actually use a straight razor day after day.  It didn’t take me long to decide that my straight razor was here to stay, but shaving with it became such a normal everyday activity that it hardly seemed newsworthy.

But then, on a weight-restricted cycle adventure, I temporarily switched back to disposable razors.

It was terrible.  The silly plastic handle felt all flimsy in my hand.  The shave was sloppy.  The pathetic little blades got all clogged up after every stroke.  The plastic safety frame made it difficult to trim edges, and didn’t stop the razor from cutting me regularly.  On top of all this, I had to throw it into landfill after just a few shaves.  The experience convinced me that straight razors certainly are worth writing about.

Disposable razors are inherently distasteful for anyone trying to minimise their resource footprint and live sustainably.  When Gillette invented them in the early 1900s, he sold the razor handles at a loss and then made his money off the disposable blades.  In other words, his business model depended on the inherent generation of waste.

And disposable razors come in award-winning levels of gratuitous packaging that also gets thrown straight out.

My original thought had been to try and find a traditional double-edged safety razor, which only needs new blades rather than bulky cartridges.  But I quickly came to the same conclusion as this Sydney Morning Herald article: why not go all the way to a straight razor?.

Of course, like anyone else who calls a double-edged safety razor “traditional” I had absolutely no idea about where to start with straight razors.

I went looking for help.  This Mother Nature article about how to use a straight razor was helpful, as well as being a fun read.  A website called the “Knifecenter” provides solid instructions for straight razor use, and includes some useful details about razor types.  However, it’s probably hard to go past RazorCentral for the definitive straight razor reference.

After a false start with an old razor on eBay that needed lots of work (and I still haven’t sharpened to a usable state), I found reconditioned shave-ready razors at The Invisible Edge.  In the same parcel I bought a strop and some Kent (“by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen”!) shaving soap.  There is no stronger protest against the disposable culture than a vintage razor!

Here’s a casual visual guide to shaving.

The first step is to lather up some shaving soap on the brush. I've been using this tub of soap for more than two years, and only recently began to see the bottom.

After a few swirls around the shaving soap pot, the soap can be lathered on with the brush. This can feel a bit weird if you're accustomed to shaving cream from a can, but is a lovely face massage.

Brushing the razor on the strop restores the microscopically sharp edge that you want for a good shave. I do this while letting the shaving soap soften my beard.

After re-moistening the shaving brush and lathering up the soap again, it's time to shave. Pulling the skin tight helps give a smooth result and prevent cuts.

Make sure to move the blade perpendicular to it's edge, not slice it sideways. The exposed blade of a straight razor makes it easy to trim edges and shapes.

And that’s all there is to it.  Obviously practise helps build these skills and increase speed.  At the beginning I would lock the bathroom door to make sure that nothing could disturb my serious concentration, but now I can plan the day while shaving half on autopilot.

There is no big punchline here to finish on.  I’ve already given my verdict right at the top: I think straight razors are the best way to shave.  They are long lasting and environmentally friendly, they give the best possible shaving results, they are fun and rewarding to use, and are interesting and elegant tools.

I’m going to keep on shaving with my razor till it wears out.  Considering that it’s already had one round of three-score-and-ten years, I could be in for a long wait.

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I sent the following letter 4 days ago in response to a Liberal Party announcement, to make sure that politicians are aware that this issue matters.

Dear Foreign Minister Smith and Prime Minister Gillard,

This afternoon Julie Bishop committed to appointing a Minister for International Development in an elected coalition government.

I am well aware of our globally privileged position in Australia, and am anxious to use this position of wealth to help those in our international community who are less fortunate.

A Minister for International Development may improve the effectiveness of our aid, but I see that you have a wonderful opportunity to surpass the Liberal party’s proposal.

Will you commit to policies that achieve the Millennium Development Goals by their 2015 deadline?

I don’t claim this to be the best possible letter, but I was trying to ask for more than just a matching announcement about appointing a new minister.  I was (and remain) concerned that such an appointment might end up being more about show and noise than about genuine commitment to action.  Thus I asked more generally for policies that achieve the MDGs.

I have just received the following response from the Australian Labor Party. 

Thank you for your email about the future of foreign aid.

We agree that foreign aid is an important issue in this election campaign. We think that it’s vital that Australia upholds its obligations as a good international citizen.

As Prime Minister, Julia Gillard is committed to an aid program that is generous, effective and in Australia’s national interest.

This year, total Australian aid is forecast to increase to $4.3 billion, up from $3.8 billion in 2009-10.

Federal Labor has made a strong commitment to increase official development assistance to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015-16.

And beyond 2015-16, we are committed to progressively increase Australia’s foreign aid, as economic and fiscal conditions permit, until we reach 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income.

Labor has placed the Millennium Development Goals at the centre of Australia’s aid program, directing more funds to education, health and other basic services.

We have made education a flagship of the aid program to give children in poorer countries a chance to go to school and improve their opportunity for a better life.

Tony Abbott and the Coalition would undo much of this good work.

That’s why many people who care about foreign aid are saying that it’s too much of a risk to put Tony Abbott in charge of Australia’s foreign aid programme.

Throughout the former Howard Government’s term of office, the Coalition’s contribution to foreign aid averaged only 0.27 per cent of Gross National Income, and hit a low of 0.25 per cent.

Already this election, the Coalition has announced a $300 million cut to the foreign aid budget (‘Make Poverty History’ Policy Report Card, 2010).

This seriously calls into question the Coalition’s commitment to assist the world’s poorest people.

And Tony Abbott has not ruled out more savage cuts to foreign aid if he is elected as Prime Minister.

At his campaign launch, Tony Abbott committed to the establishment of a “Debt Reduction Taskforce” with a commitment to identify further cuts to Australian Government expenditure, with no guarantees that foreign aid will be exempt from further cuts.

The Coalition’s promise to appoint a junior Minister for Development Assistance, sitting outside of Cabinet, is an attempt to distract from its real plans to cut foreign aid.

The Government has already acted to strengthen Australia’s overseas development assistance agency, AusAID.  We have made AusAID an Executive Agency directly responsible to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, a Cabinet Minister, assisted by a dedicated Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

If Julia Gillard is re-elected as Prime Minister, there will be comparable arrangements – that means an empowered aid agency and strong representation in Cabinet on foreign aid issues.

There is so much more work to be done.

Through Australia’s development assistance program, we can make a difference and improve the lives of millions, and it is our intention to do more.

We’re proud of what we have achieved so far and what we will do if Julia Gillard is re-elected as Prime Minister on August 21.

You can read more about Labor’s policy on international development
assistance at: http://tiny.cc/yg0q5

Thank you for your email.
ALP Information Services

P.S. Tony Abbott has already promised to cut Australia’s foreign aid. If
you don’t want to see more foreign aid cuts, don’t risk Tony Abbott and
the Coalition.

This response sheds a bit more light on the situation, and confirms my suspicion that a Minister for International Development is a distraction from the real issues involved.  I do like the emphasis on education (which I believe is one of the few things that can really make a long term difference), and I like the promise of 0.5% GNI by 2015-16.  I’m not quite so excited by the “increase to 0.7% as economic and fiscal conditions permit“, as I suspect this looks like a fairly hollow promise.  But 0.5 is already double 0.25, and so counts as a fairly good start.

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But the exciting thing about having gps traces put together is that I can put interactive maps into my daily update blog posts.  Starting with our first day riding from Whitehaven to Keswick, you can now explore the map of our route on each of the 11 days.  Feel free to zoom in, pan around, and change the map underlay as much as you want.

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But I am now home, and this server is buzzing along happily again on top of the filing cabinet.  It’s good to be home.

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We have so many delightful memories from our cycle tour of Cumbria, Northumberland, and the Scottish Borders.  Some of them are a bit mixed up and blurred together, and we’ll need to organise photos and video to put them back in sequence in our minds.  Although muscles are sore and tired after all the pedalling, we are convinced that another cycle tour should happen.  

But not just yet. Instead of loading our panniers and riding on, we caught a bus into the city and visited Edinburgh Castle.  It is a great building on a perfect location and it has fascinating history, but we were overwhelmed by all the people.  A week and a half of riding through small villages and minor roads must have recalibrated our tolerance of tourist crowds.

It was nice to spend a second night in the same place after being constantly on the move.  Today we picked up a hire car and drove back to the Lake District in about 3 hours.  Covering the distance so quickly was actually a bit disorienting, but Lake Windermere is beautiful.  The foreshore at Bowness became peaceful after the tourists left in the evening, and was full of photo opportunities as the sun set.

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It was raining lightly as we rode out this morning, but it lifted as we climbed out of the Tweed valley along the Leithen.  For an hour or two it looked as though we might complete our 11 day riding adventure without any serious rain.

But when we reached the northern edge of the Moorfoot Hills we were denied any view down into the Firth of Forth. In fact, the road ahead disappeared into cloud.  As we entered the cloud there was a sudden coldness in the air, and it has remained chilly for the rest of the day.

At first the cloud was just a misty fog, but as it soon turned into light rain.  The lower we got in altitude the heavier the rain became.  It rained pretty solidly on us all afternoon, and so we rose with few stops (and sadly no camera stops – it was wet and there were no views today anyway)

It was lovely to have a warm shower and get dry.  I suppose we have now experienced some authentic Scottish weather.

This map is interactive:

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The clouds were low when we left Kelso this morning, and it soon began raining.  The rain was not heavy by Australian standards, but it was the wettest we’ve had so far.  By lunchtime, however it had cleared enough for us to see through Melrose Abbey in patches of sunshine.

Melrose Abbey is better preserved than the one at Kelso, but it is still a ruin.  Like all the abbeys in the Scottish Borders, Melrose has a colourful history. It was burned down by the armies of Richard II, but he then helped pay to rebuild it! 

A low portion of wall remains from the original 12th century church, but the rest dates from this rebuilding.  Some of the pillars were added to in the 18th century by the people of Melrose, who converted part of the ruin into a local parish church. One tower is still sound enough to climb via its spiral staircase, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rooftop view.

We enjoyed a look around, and then continued up the Tweed.  The valley sides got steeper as we rode towards Innerleithen, and the route became more and more beautiful.

This map is interactive:

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We rode past Norham Castle at about lunchtime, and had a quick look at the ruins. It was once the strongest fortress on this part of the border, and was considered to be the most dangerous place in England. From the ramparts it is easy to look down across the Tweed into Scotland, so this castle had more than its fair share of battles.  The remaining ruins are from when the castle was largely rebuilt after a defeat in 1513, and they are now a freely accessible park.  When we were there a family of children were playing hide and seek in the ruined walls.

The ride to Kelso was on minor roads through fields and forests, and the day was again sunny enough for us to worry about sunburn. It will be an irony for us to return to Australia tanned and peeling from the English sun!

The ruins of Kelso Abbey are striking in the rooftop view from our loft room. We had a wander through the remains of what must have been an enormous church building, and the adjacent tree canopied cemetary.  There were a lot of abbeys along the debatable lands, and they were mostly destroyed in the border wars.

This map is interactive:

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Lindisfarne, or “Holy Island”, is one of the oldest and holiest christian sites in Britain. Without a boat, the only way out to the island is a causeway that is covered by high tides.  If you don’t consider the tide times it is easy to get stranded on the island; or worse, find yourself in rising water on the causeway.

We rode steadily along pleasant back roads to Beal, at the mainland end of the causeway.  There was time for us to get some food before the tide was low enough to cross.  On the way over we had salt spray thrown on us by cars coming the opposite direction!

On Lindisfarne is a ruined priory with remains from the 12th century, but there was a monastery in the site in the 600s.  The Lindisfarne Gospels are a decorated (“illuminated”) Latin translation of the four Gospels, and they were created at this priory in the early 700s.  We walked around the priory ruins in glorious sunshine. The weather really has been kind to us on this cycle tour so far.

Riding back to the mainland was hard work against a strong headwind, but the tide had dropped further and we didn’t get sprayed.  Most of the way to Berwick was right along the shoreline, and in a few places the track was just ruts in the grass behind dunes.

This map is interactive:

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Only a few miles out of Amble, we stopped for a look in Warkworth Castle. There has been a fortress on the site since Norman times, and the reasonably well preserved keep was built in the 14th century.  It is a well designed building, with multiple stairways down to the storage basement.

We rode along lovely country roads through the coastal fields. For a while we were on a public path through a farm, and got good views of the Dunstanburgh Castle ruins.

At Boulmer we ride past an RAF airfield, which explained the military jets that have flown over us a couple of times in the last few days.  I haven’t been able to recognise the planes, but they could be the new Eurofighter.

Bamburgh Castle is one of the largest and most famous in Northumberland. It was the seat of the King of Northumbria at one stage, and it has the dubious honour of being the first English castle to fall under cannon fire.  That attack was by lord Richard Neville of Warwick.

Much of the current castle was rebuilt in the 19th century, and it is an imposing fortified mansion. We had great views of it on the coastal skyline as we rode the last few miles down to Bamburgh.

This map is interactive:

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