March '16 - 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix and Discussion Thread

03/14/2016
Wolfman OC with Hempel Ti
Feather (1)
BSB-2 Vie-Long 2 Band Fan
Tiki Cabernet Neroli
Witch Hazel
Fine L’Orange
Whipped Shea Butter

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After a weekend of sub par shaves, it was nice to get back in the grove with a great shave to start the week. I am starting to get this brush dialed in on the water/soap ratio. The knot is so dense and holds so much water that I have realized I need to squeeze the water out of the knot before loading. With this trick in mind, the Tiki lathered very easily and the strong scent helped eliminate the last of the badger funky smell in the knot. Going with a 2 pass shave, XTG & ATG, with minor touch ups ended in a near BBS. This is more than good enough for a work day. Finished off with a splash of Fine L'Orange. I hope everyone has a great Monday.

 

SOTD
March 13, 2016
Prep: Hot Shower. Noxzema
Razor: Edwin Jagger DE89lbl
Blade: Personna Lab Blue
Lather: Valobra Almond Soft Shave Cream
Brush: RazoRock Plissoft Disruptor
Post: Thayers Rose Petal WH. Gold Bond Ultimate
Aftershave: PAA FU Fougère
Fantastic shave. It feels great to go back to the first DE I bought, and to have great shaves. Valobra Almond is very nice, think Cella but a tad better IMO.
Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try

 

I had never considered my own private medic, but I like the idea. Saves time and blood loss.

 

Beautiful looking brush.

 

Razor: Gillette President Y 1, 1953
Blade: Gillette Platinum (1)
Brush: Simpsons CH1 Chubby Best Badger.
Soap: Route 66 Frozen Margarita
A/S: Booster Barber Shop Classic Iced Lime

Excellent lather today with the Frozen Margarita. This soap has a juicy note of Mexican lime and sea salt, light hints of plum, berries and apple over mid notes of rose and jasmine; anchored with earthy, freshly cut hay, topped with a light dash of cooling menthol. It is long lasting, slick lather protective cushion and glide soothing post shave conditioning.

 

Thank you.

 

Injector Focus
I'm loving this month. Nice shave after nice shave with a variety of Injectors. I have to go to a meeting. Have a great day!
SOTD
(Travel Kit shave)
Arko
AoS Pure Badger brush
Schick G-5
Chick blade (2)
Pitrulon Pure AS

 

Lovely scenery!

 

Late Post - Shave 74
13 March 2016 - Shave Den Sunday!



Whipped Dog 5/8


www.theshavedenshop.com

 

March into Artist Club Blades

March 14​

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Woke up on a foggy Monday morning with things to do and decided that six days on the Kai Captain Original was enough. It's a great blade, smooth, effective, a bit more dangerous and harsh than the Kai Mild but one I could easily use on a regular basis. Today was a NO-SHAVE day so we'll start the Feather Pro off tomorrow with two days growth. Should be a good test for its first day back in the Feather SS.

Lease is signed on the new domicile so the packing and cleaning will begin in earnest now. I told the boys to make sure all cartel items and records were packed and ready to go starting with a weapons inspection.......

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To be followed by cleaning up around the old place to avoid losing the deposit.........

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Have to work on some new decorating ideas for the new place..........

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And....I'm happy to say we found Ivan after sending out a search party...........

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Hope your Monday is going well!

 

Menthol Monday, March 14, 2016

Krampert’s Frostbite
BSB-2 Vie Long Two Band
The One Blade
GEM Stainless Coated #1
Witch Hazel, Gold Bond Green Lotion, Krampert’s Frostbite Aftershave



Today’s had to be rescued. The GEM blade I used failed to perform adequately. After two passes I was left with considerable stubble that required extra clean up with another razor. After inspecting the razor I noticed that one corner of the blade had slipped back. This is the first time that has happened but not a total surprise since the GEM blades do not lock in. Krampert’s easy, slick and medium cold lather felt luxurious today. Gold Bond green Lotion is an excellent cooling moisturizer. Finished with a nice splash of Krampert’s Frostbite aftershave Menthol Monday Heaven.

Today was the Maiden Voyage for my BSB-2 Brush “Sancho Panza”. It took quite a while to get rid of Sancho’s barnyard scent. The obviously handmade Vie Long two band fan measured 25mm out of the hole with a loft of 48mm. It had a post bloom spread of 53mm. The crown of the knot, one Vie Long’s first fans, was slightly misshapen, which had zero effect on the brush’s performance. The Two Band knot has very soft tips, reasonable density, and no detectable glue bump. It splayed rather well, had good scrub and some (surprise) slight scritch when wet. My preference would have been for the two band knots to have the same (shorter) loft as the BSB-2 Silver Tip knots. The BSB-2 brush has excellent flow through, released a large amount of lather quickly, and held enough lather for more than a few passes. The brush lends itself to paint brush strokes and has a luxurious full face feel.

Have a great week guys!

 

Mark! Good to see you!

 

Beautiful photo Mark!

 

Thanks guys. Missin' the '30 Day Crew'.

 

Shave Secret & PUUR Blacksmith
Omega Pro #98 & suribachi bowl
Simmons 6/8 The King & P.C.S.E

Took a shave off yesterday. Back to my S.R. focus today. PUUR Blacksmith soap is carbon infused and doesn't bowl lather well for me. Load up a boar brush and face lathering using @Norcalnewb 's Baseball Pattern© is the ticket. Square tipped straights might not be recommended for newbies first shaves. Glad I'm not feeling too newb anymore. Alum block did show me some irritation on my neck. That's what I get for letting the FatBoy have it's way with me Saturday. I was feeling good about my straight shaves. Guess I backslid using the DE. Splash of Special Edition for a smooth finish.

 

CJB painstick
Kai MG
Route 66 Black Pearl
Semogue Boar
Floid Amber

Last night's shave was not as smooth as the first one. I'm not sure if it was the guard blade or my steel wire beard. I ended just shy of a DFS but the Floid didn't burn so I got that much right. The first pass WTG went about as well as the first one but the 2nd ATG pass pulled a bit and wasn't an effortless smooth pass like the first shave. I hope I get more use out of the unguarded blades. I'll give the Kai MG tonight to redeem it's self. If it is draggy again then its getting binned and I'll move on to the Kai mild.

The route 66 is great. I'm going to use my WD synthetic tonight and try the RazoRock Plissoft before I run out of my sample.

 

I am back! Returned from my trip to the motherland and to the 30 Day Thread.

Next on the chopping block is a BBS-1 DE. The only reason that this razor is on the chopping block is because of my move to the dark side. Now that I shave with a SR more often than a DE all but my favourite DEs must go. This is well built razor but I am not sure if it is in my top DEs. It is competing against my 2011 R41, Joris, Barbasol Floating Head and ATT razors.

It does shave very nice but it does not have as wide an effective window for the shaving angle as my top razors, i.e. it is not as aggressive as I like. I shaved last night after a long flight because I had a welcome home rendezvous. This morning's shave was only 12 hours after my last shave so it is not a fair test. All in zero irritation and BBS. I did load it with my favourite blade, Super Iridium.

Irritation A Closeness A+ Smoothness A Keenness A

Tomorrow the razor will get a full test but I am leaning towards letting this razor go.

To Date:
Definitely staying:
Genco Easy Aces SR, hard to let go of cool looking, great shaving piece of vintage American steel just because it is smaller than I like. It is also my only vintage American SR.

Leaning toward staying:
Wade and Butcher will stay in the SR stable until a much nicer specimen can be sourced.

Leaning toward releasing:
Jerry Stark 5/8 SR. Looks great, shaves great just to small a blade. I would prefer to sell this and trade up for a larger blade
BBS-1

Will be released:
Sight unseen Whipped Dog SR. This shaves great but I want to PIF it to someone who wants to get started with SR.
Merkur Vision - despite major coolness she can't compete with an aggressive Futur.

 

It's not backsliding. It is good to compare your SR shaves to your DE shaves. It helps you measure your progress. Sounds like you are picking up straight shaving quickly.

 

March 14 - Straight Shave 15
W.H. Morley & Sons Barber's Tip
PSO, hot shower
Jayaruh #40 Synthetic
Route 66 Lumberjack soap
Alum, Nivea balm, Clubman

So, I picked up a Norton 4k/8k over the weekend (used, great price). I have two razors that have been honed by skilled hands. I wanted to give it a try myself and see how I could do. So I gave this one a pyramid on the 4k/8k and finished on a Naniwa 12k. Stropped 50 on nylon and 100 on leather. Of course, being my very first one, it shaved horrible. Three passes and still had a lot of stubble. Nor really a lot of razor burn, but I didn't push it. At least I know what good and bad feel like now. I gave this and my Friedr Schlemper both some more love on the hones tonight, see what the Friedr Schlemper does in the morning. I think I did a lot better this time on both.

 

I'm glad you made it home safely and hopefully you enjoyed your vacation