From time to time I wonder what the ideal razor would be.

Ideal for me. that is. I harbour no illusions that I know what is the best razor for every shaver. Quite to the contrary, I do believe that there is no such thing as a razor that fits everyone – so I am very wary of any company, Kickstarter, or person who claim to have come up with the One True Razor.

Tangent aside, let us consider what m ideal razor would be like. To do that, we need to look about what I like. and why.

I recently passed through the injectors in my rotation, and I realised as I were using them that they make for really manoeuvrable razors. The narrow head and light weight benefits this aspect of them. There are however downsides to the injectors too; blade selection is limited.

After the injectors, I got to the GEMs and the EverReady in my rotation. I was struck by the ease of finding the proper angle. All you have to do is to let the cap ride the skin, and the razors all but shaves you by itself. The wide head makes for a much less manoeuvrable razors though, and blade selection is even more limited. Your option, unless you like to use NOS blades, is the PTFE coated blades from Personna.

After my single edged razors I am currently working through my double edged razors. I like my Bakelite (and Philite) razors for their lightness. I like the effectiveness of my slants. I enjoy the mildness of the Old Type, and the no nonsense feel of the fifties one piece razors. And as I’m typing this, I am looking forward to the, well, adjustability of my adjustables. And all my double edged razors share a benefit none of my single edged razors offer; plenty of choice in blades.

I like the feel of shaving with a razor that is vintage – be it more than a hundred years old, or merely as old as myself. I do love my new razors, some for the care and affection that went into making them, and some for the refinement that more than a century of development offers.

Across all my razors – new and old, single and double edge, adjustable and fixed – there is something to enjoy that isn’t offered by the others.

It is tempting to say that my ideal razor would be as manoeuvrable and easy to load as an injector, as easy to find the right angle on as a GEM, as mild and aggressive as a double edge, offer a wide selection of blades, and be new and a hundred years old at once.
But that would be a lie.

My ideal razor don’t exists. It cannot exist, since several of the features I wish for are mutually exclusive. So it is better to say that my ideal razor is a large rotation of razors. Some new, some old. A few injectors (I would love having a Schick type A or B, by the way). Some GEMs and an EverReady. And more than a few double edge razors, in a range of materials and design.

So I guess I have found my ideal razor, in a manner of speaking. It is the twenty or so razors in my rotation.

Can you say the same?