June 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

The Chosen, @NCoxSTL, AKA Neal!

 

Orange. Good Blade.

 

Well, Voskhod, GSB, Sputnik, all Teflon. There's a trend there when you throw the orange Asco in.

 

Very interesting indeed!

 

Had another great shave with the ATT today. Stirling MITA made for a nice cool pick me up. The only real difference was, when I was reaching for a brush I thought about Neal and his love of horsehair brushes, and how I never really fell in love with mine, so I lassoed the pony for a ride. It's a Vie Long Bullgoose exclusive Natural Brown horsehair with an olive wood handle. I remembered that it was really scritchy the last time I used it so I examined it and found one really stiff hair that was the culprit, so I cut it off and gave it a little soak. It's still new enough that it smelled like a stable, but nothing MITA can't fix. It whipped up a really great lather and felt good on the face. I'm glad I gave it another chance.

 

Stirling Finest Badger Focus
Day two with this blade and still a great shave. The alum was still a little noisy.
Route 66 Bourbon Vanilla
Stirling Finest Badger
Gillette Big Fellow
Rapira Super Stainless (2)
Alum
Thayers WH
Fine American Blend
Have Fun!

 

Last day of June but you early birds can catch the JULY thread HERE!!

 

Made me laugh.

 

June Focus Day 29:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
MWF
Greaves & Sons Wedge
Stirling Unscented PSB
Avon Leather

Another nice shave with this wedge. I did a full two passes, and ended with a DFS+. The razor really did shave smoothly, and there is no mistaking it as a wedge with the weight and feel. I liked the Avon Leather so much, I went for it again. My wife was up this morning and gave her approval as well. I also had the best lather I had achieved from MWF. It was nice and slick, good volume, and some nice cushion. I loaded using a completely dry brush on my puck that has been hydrated using @PLANofMAN's method. It was definitely my best experience with MWF.

I spent this month trying work on wedges, and I ended up using 4 of them. Two of these were W&B razors, and to be honest, they were just a bit better than the other wedges I used. I have found that wedges shave a lot differently than a hollow grind. They are so heavy, that they plow through whiskers, which I very much like. But, for me at least, they almost feel as if the drag just a bit on my face. This can be worse if I haven't done a great job with the lather. The blades shave with very little audible feedback.

I definitely have a better feel for wedges in general, and while they can be good shavers, I think I prefer a hollow grind. I will definitely keep a few of these around, but I may look to divest a few.

I also spent some time with a Rolls Razor this month. This is a great razor. It is capable of shaves every bit as close as a straight razor, in my opinion. It is a little more work than a standard safety razor, so it doesn't work real well for the gym, but I can see it being a great travel set up as well as a nice razor for home use. If you had thought about getting one, I would highly recommend one. Just make sure it is shave ready. I definitely wish I had tried one a lot earlier than I did.

This was a month filled with some great shaves. I also had a lot of fun reading through the all the shenanigans this past month. I am looking forward to July.

 

Last day of Jolly June!! It's been a fantastic month. I got my shave on, now out the door and I'll be back tonight with details! Have a great day!

 

Stirling Finest Badger Focus
This has been a good month. I found a brush that I like a lot in the Stirling. I can't believe a brush like this is only $30.00.
I started out using MWF every day as part of the focus and found it I just didn't like it that much, so I PIFed it away after three weeks.
I have been using all the Russian blades that I received in a PIF and found this one is my favorite by a long shot. The Voskhod is one of my top three blades and has a permanent place in my rotation. Thanks for the blades @NCoxSTL !
Today's shave was a two pass BBS with very little touch up and no irritation. I'm a happy boy.
Route 66 Bourbon Vanilla
Stirling Finest Badger
Gillette Big Fellow
Voskhod (1)
Alum
Thayers WH
Fine Clean Vetiver AS
Have fun!

 

June 30, 2016
A successful month, focusing on my Schick Type L (L1 and L7) using a variety of blades, comes to a close.



The L types are mild razors that shine with sharp, smooth blades. I do not recall a nick or a weeper in a month of near-BBS shaves or better, many of which were one-pass ATG.

The Schick Dutch and FergieFeather rise to the top of the blade trials in this razor due to their sharpness, while the Schick Twin blade performs the most efficiently of the bunch but may be a tad less smooth as the others. This was noticeable on my chin using ATG.

But I'm really nitpicking here.
And of course, YMMV.

If I'm in a rush and need a quick, no-fuss and near BBS shave - I'll pick up this razor with any one of these blades. I'll probably load a new one in the L right now and keep it nearby just for that purpose.

See you in July.
Cheers!
RT

 

SOTD June 30, 2016

GEM Stainless
GEM Featherweight
Artisan badger brush
La Toja
Witch hazel, Nivea sensitive balm
WTG, touch-up

Internet is out. No pic again.

Simple, quick, efficient shave this morning. I really love injector and SE shaving. Comfortable, smooth, and enjoyable.

La Toja is a fantastic shaving soap. Amazing lather, great scent, lots of slickness and terrific post-shave feel. I'll have to get some more as what I have is only a little bit from a shave stick that I pressed into a container.

Hope you have a great day!

 

Good month for me! I was on the road a good bit but used injectors and SE razors all month. This month combined with last month has persuaded me to adopt SE and injector shaving full time. I will keep a couple of my DEs but plan to PIF away the others. SE shaving gives me closer and more efficient shaves as well being very comfortable. I have three razors of this type with a fourth on the way. I'll be using those in rotation from here on out. An occasional DE shave will happen but they'll be limited.

Thanks for a good month everyone!

 

SE Focus.

First let me tell you how this all started. It was a cold night on a dark shadowy street where the wind was blowing at 40 knots. (just kidding.)
I was posting to someone about why they liked shaving with a Schick razor. They responded and I had said I should look into getting one as I had never shaved with one before as best I can remember. Brian @wristwatchb sent me a PM asking for my mailing address. Then in typical TSD fashion he said he would send me a Schick razor. This marked the beginning of yet another quest. In conversing with my Amigos Mark @Boojum1 and Clint @clint64 in a PM they had given high praise to the Mongoose line of single edge razors. The rest as they say is history. What an amazing place to hang out and converse with like people you have never met and for them to be so giving of their time, knowledge and ready to PIF someone they have never met .

My Focus for most of the month was on SE razors. I didn't get a poor shave with any of them. The Schick was excellent and gave me amazing shaves each and every time. I was involved in the Bunny pass around, where else would this happen, I got great shaves with the Bunny razor also. Thanks to Tom and our Canadian host @Hodge for putting it all together and including me.
Both are amazing SE razors.
Then I ordered a AlumiGoose, Black. This was another outstanding razor. I then got into a few conversation with TSD members about handles for SE razors. I guess you can see where this is going. It was suggested that a heavier handles, like the Hempel would improve the shave one would get with the AlumiGoose. Then I ordered a couple of handles from Germany from Jürgen Hempel. I'm very glade I did. Okay, then I ordered a Silver AlumiGoose. I it just looked good to me. I did get an iKon razor with a Bamboo handle, and a iKon OSS handle. The heavier handles made a good razor an outstanding razor to use.
It was a great month I learned a lot, plus I had a lot of fun. Win, Win.

 

I don't normally shave two days in a row, but I'm heading out later to meet friends for trivia night, so I decided to risk the irritation and shave anyway. Lately I've been sort of looking at things that have, in the past, been underwhelming at best, or in the case of MWF downright disappointing. The Fat issue was partially resolved, and my post yesterday chronicled my reunion with the Vie-Long brush which turned out great. Today I looked around for something else to try and saw the (I'm ashamed to admit this knowing the love for it) Route 66 Sweeney Todd. First of all I love the scent. It's very refreshing, especially during the summer. The problem was the lather never really appeared, and what did didn't last for the whole shave and I found myself having to reload. I know this is a top shelf soap for a lot of Denizens, so I decided to give it another chance. I used the Stirling Kong, because if you can't get a lather with it, you might as well throw the soap away. I made sure the brush was just barely damp and loaded it like it owed me money. I dipped the bowl in water, dumped it out and used the residual water in the bowl to start building lather. I took my time and added water as needed making sure to work it in thoroughly before adding more. Aaaaand.... Surprise! There it was. Clouds of soft, slick, cushiony lather. For a change of pace from the ATT I grabbed my R41 and loaded a Perma-Sharp Super and did my usual 3 passes. The soap was doing great and I was having fun, and enjoying the scent so I started really chasing the baby. This is not recommended with the R41, but I kept at it and finally decided I was as good as it could get. A cold water rinse, and I reached for the Alum, dreading what was to come, but to my surprise it was almost silent. I was stunned. Another rinse, pat down, and a splash of MITA Witch Hazel and Aloe, and I feel great. I highly recommend going back occasionally to revisit things that have been disappointing. You might find out that your technique has improved enough to make them enjoyable. I'll splash on a little Floid Blue on my way out the door.

 

Doug, you did have an amazing SE focus for the month of June. Talk about a whirlwind tour through vintage and modern SE razors. I have averaged using SE razors for 2/3 of my daily shaves. I can take a break from them but I always come back. To me they represent the ideal balance between efficiency and comfort. Way to go Amigo.

 

I

It was a great time Amigo. Thanks for guiding me through it.

 

So glad you discovered the lather and found it working for you!

 

Me too. I love the scent so much I didn't want to give up on it. Now I may have to order more scents.