April 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix&Discussion Thread

That's a beautiful razor! Still blows my mind that we can pick up razors old as dirt and they still shave like they just came off the line yesterday.

 

It's been snowing here for about an hour. How is the weather at your place? Have you heard from Mark recently?

 

Into to Straight Razor Shaving (Day 6 of 120 days)


Gold Dollar 208 (Honed by Anthony Esposito)
JR #23 Silvertip
Stirling Executive Man Shaving Soap
Maggard Alum Block
Styptic Matches
1 Band-Aid
Fine Platinum Aftershave Splash


So on Saturday I reached out to Anthony about getting another straight razor and heard that he sells honed and shave ready gold dollars. A few emails back and forth and he had a 208 out in the mail for me. Was going to give it a go yesterday but wanted to use my Ontario Cutlery Co. razor that I received from @Norcalnewb instead. Well just finished my wonderful and bloody shave and here is how everything went. (Spoiler alert...I'm an idiot)...


3 pass shave today. 2 WTG on the cheeks and 1 XTG on the cheeks left me very close to a BBS shave. This 208 sang the entire shave and compared to my other 208 that I got off ebay I know now what shave ready is. Don't get me wrong the other 208 is sharp but compared to this bad boy the ebay one is not fully where it should be. 2 passes on the neck WTG yielded a DFS. No nicks no cuts and no irritation. Alum was silent and the Fine Platinum gave very little burn. Very happy with todays shave!


Wait...what's with the band aid and the styptic then? Well after clean up I didn't close the razor up fully and it was on the edge of the sink. While cleaning my brush I knocked it over and did what most people with a single digit IQ do. I attempted to catch it. Yes you read that right...I willingly tried to catch an insanely sharp piece of steel with my bare hands instead of moving out of the way and cutting my loses if something happened to it. Well on the plus side I did catch it with my left hand but only after it hit my right hand and bounced off. Nice inch and half cut that is refusing to stop bleeding but it doesn't look like I will need stiches or anything.

Conclusions of todays shave:

Straight Razors are sharp (No dip Sherlock)

Straight Razors are replaceable...body parts are not..

Fine Platinum Aftershave is amazing.

 

April 6, 2016
This month I will focus on the Schick Type F.

Morning shave
Hot Shower
Soap: Barrister & Mann Diamond Shave Soap
Brush: Rubberset 400-4
Razor: Schick Type F
Blade: Schick (China) (4)
TSD Witch Hazel
AS: Myrsol Blue



Groundhog Day! Another excellent ATG one-pass yesterday, lead to another ATG one-pass today.

As good as these shaves have been with the ‘Chick’ blades, I’m hoping for even better with some of my NOS blades during the rest of the month.

Cheers!
RT

 

Ouch! Hope it heals up for you.

 

Excellent line up.

 

SOTD 4/6/16
Razor: Kinfolks The Ace
Strop: Drygulch Leatherworks Chromexcel Horse/ Hemp Linen
Brush: Badger with hand turned handle
Soap: Barrister & Mann Seville
Post Shave: Cold Water rinse, Alum, Thayers’
Aftershave: Pinaud Clubman with M-Bomb

I rarely shave two days in a row, but a recent thread made me want to try it again. I stuck with my two passes, but did XTG for the first pass, and ATG for the second. Focused quite a bit on skin stretching. Managed to put a nice little slice on my Apple. Other than stopping the bleeding from that cut, got a nice DFS. Some irritation, but it settled down quickly.

 

Well I hear what you say about being spoiled by one's favorite soap Brian, and Route 66 is a great one.

There's been all sorts of suggestions about how to use MWF on this thread over the months. I don't know if it's my ugly mug finally paying me back for all the torture it's caused me over the years but,...whenever I have problems getting a soap to 'work' (lather up) for me, I've found one strategy that has yet to fail.

Rub the Puck on your Face!

Then I just add water as necessary to the brush. Has always resulted in an excellent lather. I am so happy about this as I never have to ditch a soap due to lather reasons.

Now of course comfort, glide, cushion, scent, etc., can't be helped by mechanics, so some do get ditched anyway.

Anyhow as they say - YMMV.
my two cents.

 

Bleeding has stopped. It's fairly deep but looks like it will heal up just fine. It was a bloody reminder to just get out the way and cut my loses if anything happens. Wont be trying to catch any more razors if they fall.

 

Thank you. I can get lather out of it but it takes more work than I'm used to. Maybe I'll dig it out of the jar and try your trick. Thanks!

 

It just works that way ... something falls and you try to catch it - can't help it

 

The pollen here is very bad and it is killing me. I am just trying to finish up some work today and tomorrow by mid day. My wife and I are going to visit my daughter at the University of Alabama. She is being awarded some additional scholarships on Friday and we wanted to be there to show our support.

I did trade some emails with Mark and read his post here.

 

Thanks Jim. Good to be back.

 

Thanks for the kind words Doug.

 

Congratulations to your daughter. Good school.

 

Wednesday Shower/Shave

Shower- Noxzema facial cleaner, Dr. Bronner's All-One Hemp Peppermint bar soap
Pso- Homemade mint PSO
Brush- RazoRock Plissoft
Razor-Gillette Slim on 9
Blade- Gillette Silver Blue (2)
Soap- Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements Gondolier
Thayers Witch Hazel scented with grapefruit essential oil
AS- Nivea Sensitive

Wedding anniversary shave! I'm really liking this combination of tools, I'm getting great shaves and it's getting easier. Three passes tonight and I'm BBS. No irritation tonight, I was a little worried about adding the grapefruit essential oil to the Thayers but there was no sting at all. I'm off to celebrate with my bride.

The April rule is really helping me get closer, more comfortable shaves. The secret was the skin stretching, thank you @Bama Samurai for the encouragement and tips. Have a great day folks!

 

Another reminder of why we never use a straight razor while naked. Shorts/towel always required. There are other cuts/slices/amputations we'd rather not think about! I managed restaurants for about 15 years so I'm well versed at letting knives and other sharp objects find their way to the floor if they fall. I have the "jump backward and throw your hands up" motion down to a science!

 

Now you're giving me pain stick fever. I'm doing my Jedi mind trick on myself to stay off of Ebay. Willpower.....willpower........willpow.....willp.......will......wil.....wi........

 

Arko April!!!
30 Day Rule Edition
Day 6 of 30


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Grail shave! Managed to catch the one pass DFS+ with no irritation. A voice in my head tonight said "hey!!! Just go ATG/XTG right off the bat!" Since talking to myself is fun sometimes, I said "what's the worst that could happen?" Just like that. All that from a Day 6 Derby! So, word around the campfire is Arko is about to be a thing again. I am way behind in the thread, but working on it. Other than that...all is quiet in Colorado.

Derby (6)
Fatip Grande
L'Occitane Plisson Synthetic
Arko!!!
Alum
Pinaud Lilac Vegetal

Have a wonderful evening!
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