Very sorry to hear that! Family first, Mike. So of course we understand! Hope no one is hurt and not all is lost! Besides, I was very busy with forgetting this quest, so I may place an entry after all.
I'm just wondering how OP, Mike is doing. I am using my TSD $2 Challenge brush for my shaves this week. Oh, yes, I decorated it with a Sharpie and put Polycrylic on it. It is working out quite well. I used Sharpies to decorate. I then used polycrylic to seal it. I ended up with some smearing that makes it look like motion. HA! That was unintended.
I finally managed to find some time to make my $2.00 or less razor. Since I hadn't seen a GEM SE shavette yet, I decided to attempt to make one myself. I had an old piece of copper pipe lying around somewhere, so I used that. First I bashed the copper pipe flat with a hammer. Then I took my hacksaw and opened up the end. I took a GEM SE blade and removed the back. I folded the back around another (dulled!) SE blade, so it had a double back, and inserted this in the opened end of the flattened pipe. Then I proceeded to bash the pipe some more until the razor blade was snug. After some fidgeting I managed to remove the blade and the two backs. The reason I doubled the SE blade back was to make sure a standard SE blade would fit without being too tight. I proceeded to saw and file the razor into shape and sanded it. If course I forgot to take pics of the process. But without further ado I proudly present to you: The Gemisori ! The Gemisori is fairly light: 26 grams / 0.9 oz / 130 carat (it's a gem, ain't it? ) The blade slides in via the front of the razor and, once inside, fits snugly. The blade sticks out a bit at the front, so I can hold it to remove it and replace it with a new one. Since I had a great BBS shave yesterday night and am still slick as a baby, I can't try it out yet. But I surely will next Tuesday! I'll have 112 on speed dial (that's our equivalent of 911). Oh, and the gift I contribute, will be 10 Ladas blades & 10 Personna Lab Blue blades. Happy Shaving ya'll!
Wow. I am very impressed with that. It looks like it is a production model. The copper is a beautiful look. I hope it shaves as good as it looks. Tom Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Maiden voyage of the Gemisori. Weapons of choice: Pre Shave: hot shower, linseed oil, hot washing cloth Music: Max Richter, Solo Piano Music Cream: Lea Mentholated Shaving Cream Brush: Everclean boar Razors: Gemisori / Philite (Dutch razor from the 1930's) Blades: (Gemisori) GEM stainless (with dulled corners - I'm not a complete idiot, ya know... ) / (Philite) Kai DE blade Shave: 3-pass + touch-up Post shave: cold water rinse After Shave: Floyds (orange) The Gemisori behaved quite satisfactory. Especially considering its cost. The balance was quite nice (about 1 cm or 13/32 inch behind the blade). I had to search a bit for the correct angle, but got two effective passes before I switched to the bakelite DE razor to finish things off with a third pass & some touch-ups. The touch-ups concentrated just below the chin line and on both sides of my adam's apple, where the stubble grows sideways. I couldn't do an ATG there with the Gemisori (handle in the way) and if I don't shave ATG, there is no way I'll have any chance at all of attaining an acceptable grade of slickness. When shaving WTG or XTG the hairs always seem to find a way to bend under the blade and thus avoid being cut. Therefore I do all my passes ATG when I use a DE or an SE razor. All in all a wee bit rough shave, but the Gemisori may have found a steady place among my other razors!
The thread is still going. I have to extend it one more month do to personal issues. End of May is final deadline. I started this thread, and have several entries. I will post pictures of everything I made , and how. I am putting alot of stuff in the pot for the winner. I have a total of 4 entries & will be providing the winner with items for the winner's pot. I ask not to be eligible for winning. Sorry for having to extend it one more month, but I am facing personal issues. Thank you. Carbide Mike.
This is just an update of what's going on. Mike has contacted me to let everyone know that he has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks now. He is ok and getting better, so this will keep going until he gets out of the hospital. So, if there are more ideas, please submit them, thanks.