May 2015 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic-Discussion Thread

May 30

MdC facial soap
Weber PH
Feather blade (day 1)
Kent BK4 silvertip
Le Père Lucien shave soap and glycerin
Two passes
Alum, Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, unrefined shea butter, and Alt-Innsbruck

I've had some fantastic shaves this month with my current set up. I've used MdC and LPL shave soaps, and both are great! The MdC lathers more easily for me, but the LPL provides really good cushion and skin care. My set up for June will likely include my new R41, but I'm still not sure yet.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and safe travels if you're on the road.

 

It's a wrap!

Day 30 of 30 Day Rule with a Schick!



Back tomorrow to wrap up May! Hope to see everyone for more fun in June!

Have a great weekend!
​

 

Brush Focus: Day 30/30
Brush: Whipped Dog Silvertip, Marbled Handle, Black/White, 22/65
Gillette - Black Flare Tip, SS, P-1 (1970).
Feather, Hi Stainless, Platinum (2)
Soap: Razo-Rock, Don Donato.
A/S: Captain's Choice, Sandalwood.
Old Spice Coffee Mug.(soak brush)

Thought I'd give Whipped Dog Marble handle one last chance before I finished my focus. Okay I did. Nothing changed. For me this brush is way to floppy. It does everything a Silvertips is supposed to do, holds a ton of water, and loads lather effectively. The darn thing is just so floppy I don't personally care for it. Whether this is the last brush I'll use in my rotation or one I will never use again is hard to say. Larry has been good to me and I have purchase a number of his products that I am more than happy with. So we'll let sleeping dog lay. No pun intended.
The razor, blade, soap, and A/S have performed very well.
I will do a final report on all my brushes that I have used in a day or so. Please, I do not mean any disrespect to Whipped Dog. I am not political and I don't beat around the bush. If I like it I say so, if not the same.
Have a blessed Sunday.

 

Recovery and play with soap week!
May 30, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - VDH Boar
Soap - Arko
Razor - RazoRock TTO
Blade - (2)
Post - Alum, The Veg

Early morning on the last sales day of the month. After yesterday's Arko failure (who does that, really!) I grabbed the VDH Boar and the Arko and got a great lather. Whipped out a DFS on two passes with one minor nick on the right cheek. Still not sure what happened but I felt the blade grab something right at my cheekbone under my right eye. Got a nick that bled pretty good. Cold water and alum closed it up post-shave but I'm still not sure exactly what happened. I did catch a nick at the same spot with the Lord Platinum a couple days ago. I probably just re-opened it. The alum was quiet everywhere else. Asco seems to be a solid blade overall.

In other blade related news I was slitting balloons at the end of the day so they wouldn't float around in the motion detectors and managed to catch my left hand middle finger on the tip with a corner of the SE blade I was using. Nice fairly deep slice that bled enough to make it look like I'd caught an artery. A finger tip bandage and tape cleaned it up but my typing is now impaired. How ironic that I was taken out by a razor blade when NOT shaving. It was obviously not a Russian blade though, so no respect at all!

Last day of May tomorrow. Going to figure out a special end of month shave and on to June we go! Let the tournament begin!

 

Did 17 shaves this month, and did the last 10 or 11 with no DE razor for training wheels. My biggest goal for the month was to be able to get a two pass, straight only shave with DFS results. Happy to say I made that a few times, but I have also started figuring out how to do the touch up with the straights. What I have learned from this month’s focus:

• Brush rotation: I found myself excited about using most of my brushes, but two of them were just things I had to use until I could get to the nice brushes. I realized I don’t get to shave often enough to have “meh” brushes, so I am getting rid of my Semoge Boar and Vie-Long Horse, both of which I have done a month focus with. The brush I want to spend some more time with is my synthetic. I will be using it in next month’s focus.
• Straight Razor Rotation: I probably should lock down on one razor and use it until it needs to be touched up, but my RAD is going too strong right now. There really are differences between different blades, and the feel is different. My Dubl Duck Wedge shaves awesome, and has no trouble with the thick stubble on my chin. The W&B razors can do it, but they take a little more finesse.
• Strops: I had intended on using some different ones, including this one and some vintage ones, but ended up just using my Chromexcel Horse one. I am glad I did that. I got a good feel for this one, and am confident I am using it correctly. I did take a linen only vintage strop and paste it with Chromium Oxide, and used it to touch up a few blades, just 7 strokes on the pasted strop makes a blade much smoother.
• Barrister & Mann soaps: My brother in law got me four different flavors, and I have been rotating them this month. The performance for all of them is great, it just takes a little more work to get the amount of water right, especially when you change brushes every shave. There is probably enough soap in these four tubs to last me a year or two. It is going to make it hard to convince my wife I need more until I get through these.

Overall, good month’s shaving. I learned a lot, and will be back for June’s focus.

 

May was another great month. I have learned so much by participating in the monthly focus/rule threads since January. I was able to take away a couple of things this month.

• I finally mastered the Mongoose Razor with the Super Pro blades. These blades increase the blade gap and exposure over other offerings. With this combo, I might have the perfect work morning shaver for me.
• I am a badger brush guy through and through. While I like my Omega Boar, I love the various badger brushes I have. All the badgers I use share the common trait of very strong backbone.

Most of all, I have learned so many things from reading the other posts. Thanks again for another great month. Looking forward to June.

 

Here is my brief wrap up and ranking:

The first group are blades I plan to buy in the future. They all provided good, comfortable shaves. I would recommend these to others if they are looking to try something new:

1) Gillette Nacet
2) Gillette 7 o'clock Super Stainless
3) Feather
4) Bluebird
5) Astra SS

I honestly would have ranked the Bluebird higher, but since it has been discontinued, I have bumped it down. Too me, it was a top perform, though.

This next group were blades I was bit more on the fence about. They were good, just not as enjoyable as the ones listed above.

6) Nacet Platinum
7) Derby Super Stainless

The Derby in particular was a bit perplexing for me. I really wanted to like this blade, and in some ways I really did. But, in other ways it just never got really comfortable for me. These are both blades, I would not really order, but would shave with if I had them on hand.

The last group are the blades I would really not like to use again.

8) Trig
9) Bic

The Bic in particular was pretty poor for me. I never got a decent shave out of it, and stopped after two shaves instead of going to at least three.

All in all, I really enjoyed this month's focus. I found some blades to add to my future purchases list, and I just really came to understand how different each of the variables can be in wet shaving. I may have to plan a month to keep my blade constant and use each of my razors in rotation just to see how different these are.

 

May Focus Shaving Brushes:
1/ WDC-2 High Mountain Badger, Grandfather's wood handle. This brush seems to have everything I want in a shaving brush. It has very soft tips and a good backbone. It holds lather extremely well and it applies the lather smoothly. I often say that when I'm finished shaving I could invite over other shavers to finish the lather load that remains in this bush. 22/65
2/WDC-1 Black Badger, Grandfather's wood handle. Very close to the High Mountain Badger brush and hard to distinguish between the two. Once again it provides everything I want in a brush. The tips may not be as soft as the High Mountain, again it's hard to tell. 20/65
3/WDC-3 Olivewood handle, come in at number three. It is a deep set Silvertip that is a great brush. Soft tips and a good backbone which also hold water very well as all my Silvertip brush do. Very hard to choose between the first three brushes. 22/67
4/ Fendrihen Silvertip, with a faux horn handle is the perfect accompaniment for a wet shave. The Silvertip bristles provide great elasticity and a soft and supple experience. The reason I chose this brush over the number 5 is that it didn't loose as many hairs as the black handled Frenfrihen to break-in. 22/49
5/Frendrihen Silvertip black handle. This brush took sometime to break in and lost many hairs at first. Which as you all know can be a bit of a pain. Having to stop shaving and pick hairs off you lather is never fun. After a month it stopped loosing hair and performed much like number 4. It is a little different than number four and I really can't explain how. Given the choice between the two I would use number 4 over number 5.
6/ Frank Shave brush Best Badger, travel brush. Great brush that I use on a regular basis. Tip are not as soft as the Silvertip, but this is still a good brush. 20/45
7/ Frank Shave brush Best Badger Rosewood handle. This brush has a more backbone that then Silvertip brushes, and you can feel the tips more, however, not enough to make much of a difference. 22/55
8/Frank Shave brush Beechwood handle. The brush is about the same as number seven, however, there is a slight difference in how it holds lather. Seven seems to hold more lather than eight.
9/ Semogue 1305, Boar. This is also a good brush and for me it works best with harder soaps. Not as soft as Silvertip, or Best Badger, but still a brush that stay's in my rotation. I find I have to keep adding quite a bit of water during the shave when using this brush.
10/ Whipped Dog Silvertip Black/White Marble handle. This is one floppy brush. It bothers me to use it after using some of the other brushes I have. This brush is out of my rotation and if it didn't get used again it won't bother me.
11/ J. Peterman 1903 Silvertip Dark Brown mock tortoise shell handle. Floppy, floppy, floppy. I'm very happy it is a mock tortoise handle as I would hate to think a tortoise lost it life to make this brush Although it is a good looking shave brush it will stay in my den and won't come out again.

May 's Focus on my brushes was a good learning experience. I have a better appreciation for my good brushes. It will also help me build better brush in the future. It turns out that along the way, somehow, I improved my razor shaving technique. Not sure how that happened, but I'm happy it did. Thanks for letting me participate in the Focus.

This is the original line up that I started with. This is also how I thought they would finish.

This is how they finish left to right (1-11). The two laying down in front are number 10 & 11.

 

Good summary. Thanks for you for your post.

 

Good month! I definitely agree with your choice of the Nacet. Disagree with #2 and #3, haven't tried #'s 4 and 5. Same for 6,7,8. I like Bic. Great work on the blades though and yet another example that the blade is probably the most subjective part of the setup.

 

Recovery and play with soap week!
May 31, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Soap - Mitchell's Wool Fat
Razor - '59 Ball Handle Tech
Blade - (1)
Post - Alum, Aqua Velva Musk

Last day of May. Wow. Decided to finish it up with the Pro 48 and MWF using a great vintage razor and a Russian blade I have actually never tried. I've had it in my stash for several months, just never loaded it. It's the Perma-Sharp Super from the Gillette St. Petersburg plant. Not sure why I've ignored it, other than it's from St. Pete and most of those don't agree with me.

I soaked the MWF puck during my shower. It was bone dry when I got it out of the cabinet so I figured a bit of spa treatment would be good. Dumped the water off after the soak and used a well shook out Pro 48 to start the lather. Loaded the brush well and went to work on the face lather. Just an incredible feeling as this soap lathers up, and I was able to figure out the amount of water to add as I went to get a super slick lather. I really like this stuff. First pass was amazingly smooth and I avoided the nick from the past two days. Great result on the first pass and the second produced a very nice DFS with just a couple of touch ups. Called it good. Really liked the blade, as in I was considering whether or not it might beat the Voskhod in a trial. Grabbed the alum and was very surprised to feel an all over burn. Once again the curse of St. Petersburg seemed to rise up. Most of my complaints about the blades from there have centered on the irritation level post-shave. Seems like the Perma-Sharp has the same issue. Makes me think it's something in the manufacturing process. A chemical used in manufacture?

Anyway, a great shave in spite of the curse. I wouldn't hesitate to revisit the blade in the future, and MWF is permanently installed in my soap rotation.

Tommorow - let the games begin!!! The Tournament of Blades, Russia vs. the World begins with the number one seed, current champion of my blade stash and glorious product of most noble and glorious motherland....the mighty Voskhod. Its opponent on Tuesday, the Rapira Swedish Supersteel. The gear for the first matchup will be the '46 Gillette Aristocrat, the Vie-Long 12705 and Tabac. Place your bets ladies and gentlemen!

 

May 31 - shave number 17
Preshave prep: Hot shower
Preshave: Stirling mentha preshave oil
Soap: Co Conk Lime
Brush: Omega 48
Blade: A. J. Jordan - Sheffield square point 5/8 straight
Post: Shave Den Aftter shave - iced sub zero, alum, cold water splash.
Growth: 2 days
Passes: WTG, XTG, WTG
DE: Gillett with Sword blade (5)

Started my final shave of the month with Sheffield rounded (whipped dog special), stropped 30x or so. First pass N/S there was a little bit of pulling and catching, so I switched back to the AJ Jordan (GEM starcustom) and completed the shave. I know that my confidence is going up as I was a bit careless with the square point and scratched my cheek a little.

One thing that I haven't talked about is that I picked up an Omega 48 last month and have been using it all month. It took almost a month to destink it but I love the backbone on this - it's also a longer bristled brush that I've used. I think I really like this one.

Since I had the time and really wanted to feel a BBS this morning, I did a ATG on my face and a XTG on my neck with the DE and I was rewarded with a true BBS - my family thinks I'm crazy when I say "FEEL MY CHEEK! ISN'T IT SMOOTH?!?" I'll have a final review later today - I have to address my RAD right now cause I need to add to my daily rotation. (HASHTAGLARRY'SSIGHTUNSEENX2 and HASHTAGGEMSTARCUSTOMREPAIRINGTWOMORE)

 

May 31

MdC facial soap
Weber PH
Feather blade (day 2)
Kent BK4 silvertip
Le Père Lucien shave soap and glycerin
Two passes
Alum, Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, unrefined shea butter, and Nivea Sensitive Post-Shave balm

Another great shave today! I plan to switch over to my R41 sometime this week. It will be my first time using it. I hope you all have a great Sunday.

 

I'll be honest, without trying those blades in other razors, I don't know it is a fair assessment of all of them. I may get a sampler pack and try something similar but try multiple razors with each blade.

I've seen some on here use a spreadsheet to do these evaluations. Maybe I need to let the engineer in me out and chart, track and report to do it properly. I can see my wife rolling her eyes now.

 

Hey, time for June 30 day focus. Who will start it? i am a noob and really don't know what to say.

 

YMMV.

 

June thread is here: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threa...ic-discussion-thread.45265/page-2#post-841237

 

Crazy Sunday for me, did not get to post. I went ahead and just used the same setup for another great shave. This month was one of our best all year. It was great to see everyone having a blast, and especially great to see all the newer guys join up!

Mayhem was great... Time for Williams now! See everyone on the June thread!

 

first off, yes, i realize this is the MAY thread, and i realize we are in the middle of JUNE. i simply must, however, put a wrap on my May blade focus ... for some closure and completeness.

my April and May individual blade trials culminated in the latter half of the month with the Final Four: astraSP, crystal, voskhod, and wilkinson sword ... for an end-of-month and spillage-into-June showdown.

when it comes right down to it, there are probably a 1/2 dozen blades that have worked very nicely with my EJ89 on my face. the differences are small.

but the winner of these trials is: CRYSTAL ... with astraSP second and voskhod a very close third.

incidentally, one of my sons who also recently started wet shaving found that israeli reds are his fav. he didn't have any crystals in his trial, and the reds performed VERY well for me except for the post-shave splotches. so, we've ordered some of each. he's gonna try the crystals, and i'm gonna try the reds again.

now back to our regularly-scheduled program ... June focus ...