July 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

I got my Seaforth mug in the mail today. Very nice vintage mug. Weighs a TON. The graphic of the kilted Scotsman is a bit worn but otherwise it's in great shape. Thought I'd throw up a pic of it alongside my "N" mug that I won in a PIF from @Shotwell last year. I use that one to soak my brushes before every shave and I"ll use the Seaforth to whip up lather if I don't face lather. It will probably come in handy with Arko stick remnants this next year during the Grand Trials. Also threw in my brushes. And, a pic of the back of the Seaworth mug with instructions on how to use it!

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SOTD
7/22/16

Razor: Schick L1
Blade: Chick
Brush: TGN Finest
Soap: Catie's Bubbles sandalwood
Post: cold water, alum, witch hazel, Gillette aftershave balm

Sorry for a short report tonight, I'm getting really tired. Three passes tonight, WTG, XTG, ATG for a nice almost BBS shave. Followed up with my cold water rinse, and the alum. Splashed on the witch hazel and let it dry, then went with the Gillette aftershave balm and that was that, LOL. A nice quick shave that did give me a little irritation on my neck but nothing bad. Hope everyone had a Great shave today!

 

July Focus Day 23:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
Arko
Gillette British Tech
Osage Rub
Stirling Unscented PSB
Clubman VI Bay Rum

Last shave on the road, and it was definitely a quicky. My wife went for a walk/run so I had all the kids. Just as I lathered my face, my 5 month old woke up, so I rushed through it to get done. Still had a CCS, and finished in under 5 minutes. Tomorrow, I hope to get a straight shave in. I hope everyone has a great day!

 

Welcome to Saturday! Going to be a balmy 72 degrees here with a slight breeze, the scent of coconuts and provel.......oh wait, nope! 100 with high humidity and just nasty blistering heat. May still smell some provel though since I'm thinking of Imo's for lunch. Shave is in - glad the Zorrik SS is done. Details later. Have a great day!

 

July Leopard Blade Trials
GSB!!!




Rare morning shave in preparation for another day with my niece! Age 40 days! So proud of my brother and his wife!



Have a great afternoon!

 

Good picture.

 

A head shaver I noticed.
Beautiful!!!

 

Great picture!

 

Focus Free Focus.
I have a suggestion for everybody. Don't take your brand new Wolf Whiskers brush on the road with a crappy soap stick. At least the face lather is comfortable The shave not so good.
A repeat of yesterday's travel kit shave.
Lea Soap
Wolf Whiskers Brush
Feather AC SS
Feather Pro Blade
Proraso AS Balm
Captains Choice Bay Rum
Have a great weekend!

 

Congrats! She is beautiful!

 

Thank you, Doug! God did the work on this one with the great back drop!

 

In the Good Old Shavertime!

July 23

Grand Blade Trial

Razor - 1962 (H1) Gillette Slim (9)
Blade - (3)
Soap - Arko
Brush - Vie Long 12601
Post - Alum, Nivea, The Veg

Final day on the Zorrik Super Stainless. Thank heavens. With a wide open Slim this was a wild ride. Not unmanageable, but definitely a bit on the challenging side. The more blade gap on this blade the rougher it got and at 9 it was rough. And, after the first pass being that difficult to take it wasn't even a great pass. Whatever positive attributes this blade may have it's all thrown away on the lack of sharpness. Really not a great blade at all in that regard. And, that creates smoothness issues, reduction issues, and adding gap just makes it more glaring that it's a problem.

The XTG pass wasn't bad on the face, but on the neck it was quite painful. No blood, just that dragging feeling. The final ATG and Gillette Slide did produce a very high level DFS but the irritation was off the charts. The alum felt like tear gas on my neck especially. Amazing the finish was that good with that much burn.

Overall I have to give this blade a D for sharpness, D for smoothness, C for efficiency and a D+ overall. Not one to keep around even if the yin- yang symbol is your thing.

I'm a bit behind on blogging this blade but I'll make up for it in the next 24 hours with a complete review along with company info.

Tomorrow is my day off for the week. Not sure what I'll use tomorrow but something fun and less irritating, in more ways than one. Then on Monday it's a new week with the Shark Super Stainless up the first three days and the Rapira Swedish Supersteel the next three. Hope your weekend is going well!

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Eep. I did not like the shark, best of luck! I will match up with your for the Swedish though!

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk

 

She is precious!

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk

 

Well I'm not a huge fan of the Shark Chrome. Never tried the Stainless so I'm in for a learning experience. Glad the Swedish follows it and I'll meet you there on Thursday!

 

I'm getting bored so the pain stick may rear it's ugly head for a day or two. The Sharp star makes for an effortless shave in every razor I've put it in so far. I'm amazed. Still bored but it is fantastic.

 

I was planning on joining you for the Swede, but upon checking the stock, I find I have Rapira Super Stainless, not Super Swedish. Furthermore, to my horror, I did discover a Shark Stainless, so I guess I'll be joining you Monday. What's the worst that can happen?

 

Straight focus

Saturday: After the failure to remove and hair I took the Dorko to the hones and ..... another failure. I had to load a blade into my ATT so I could look acceptable. This razor is going back on hold until I hone some more razors.

Sunday: Not taking any chances and need to find mojo again so PRC Damascus was called into duty. It did not disappoint, which the QCS delivering very wet, slick lather I did 4 passes and finished BBS. Just a little bit of irritation but I think that was from the prior day's terrible shave. Today's shave As across the board.

 

July Focus Day 24:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
TSD Lanolin English Fern
Kinfolks "The Ace"
Stirling Unscented PSB
TSD English Fern AS

I used another razor on loan from @Drygulch, and it was smooth. I really liked this razor on my initial shave. It did bite me, but the was a lapse of concentration on my part. Probably the worst cut I have had with a straight and the worst since a bad one with a Pain Stick. Still would rate this as decent shave, though as I am easily CCS on one pass. The English Fern is one of my favorite scents, and it was the perfect topper. I hope everyone has a great day!

 

It's FRIDAY. (Sunday). Headed in to finish up my week and hopefully make a million dollars. Had my "day off shave" this morning and I'll give full details later. However, just for fun, let's play a game. Let's see who, if anyone, can put my shave together from this morning. I'll give you the choices to choose from and just post up what you think my setup was. There could be a prize involved.

Razors

1959 Gillette Super Speed
Gillette NEW LC
1947 Gillette Super Speed
'46-'47 Gillette Aristocrat
Gillette Ball End Tech

Blades


Soaps

Proraso Green
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Tabac
C.O. Bigelow
Marvy

Brushes

BoS Omega 10066
Vie Long 12601 The Pony
Wolf Whiskers Custom Silvertip
Vie Long 12705
Tweezerman Badger

There you go....those are your choices. One of each is the correct answer, can you put the right ones together?

Have a great Sunday!