May 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix and Discussion

May Focus Day 16:

Simpsons Commodore X3 Best Badger
L'Occitane Cade SC
Boker King Cutter
Stirling Unscented PSB
Skin Bracer

I picked up my King Cutter for this morning's shave, and it was great. Glen honed this razor for me, and he put a great edge on it. It was definitely smooth and was singing loudly. It was a DFS using my typical one pass with some clean up.

There is nothing like a nice straight shave to get me ready for a day. I hope everyone has a great day.

 

Good picture this morning. Have a great day.

 

Thank you, Doug!

 

SOTD May 17, 2016
Injector/SE Focus



Prep: Warm shower
Blade: Chinese Schick
Razor: Schick G1 Injector
Brush: Omega 10049 boar
Lather: VDH Luxury scented
Post: Witch hazel splash, Fred's knock-off Old Spice, Nivea sensitive balm
WTG, touch-up

Really nice shave this morning. The Omega boar whipped up some beautiful VDH lather. My VDH lathers last week weren't the best - not bad, but not great. This was prime lather. Rich, shiny, and all the other good stuff. The G1 glided right through it and gave me a close shave. Just one pass with touch-up is all I need on a work day.

This was shave 11 on the chick blade. I meant to change it out but forgot! Still felt really smooth but I can tell it's losing some of the sharpness. I'll hopefully remember to change it tonight before tomorrow's shave.

Hope you all have a great day!

 

Nice bowl.

 

Thanks! That's the older green and blue VDH bowl that came with the Deluxe kit. Works well!

 

He makes very nice strops. I like mine a lot.

 

Straight Mayhem
It's official. I've joined the Dark Side. I have an early flight and got up at 3:20am so I would be able to enjoy a straight shave
Route 66 Twisted Tweed
Doug Korn synthetic
Hien 650 Kamisori
Alum
Thayers WH
Myrsol Blue AS
Have fun!

 

10 shaves on a Chick, kinda make their price a little more bearable!

 

Good morning friends. Two first today, First shave on my Cooper MonoBilt that I acquired from Alan @Morman Bridge with the help of Ryan @PLANofMAN , which consequentially was also the first time that I shaved with an open comb.Made a nice thick bed of Tabac lather and begin finding the angle required to ride the cap with this razor. Finding the angle was very easy and intuitive and holding it was very comfortable. A very different beast then the flare tip I was using last week. Stroke by stroke this razor sings, very loud audible feedback! And Let me tell you, it is also quite efficient! Two passes and touch-up and I am BBS everywhere. Again "riding the cap"made for a very comfortable irritation free shave. The MonoBilt may quickly become my favorite razor, Thank you so much Alan. Have a great day my friends!

 

My Cooper Monobilt is s regular in my rotation. It's one of my favorites. Ryan is quite the Cooper promoter, isn't he? I hunted mine down because of his posts. Enjoy!

 

Yeah, they're expensive. Thankfully Clint sent me several blades when he gifted the G1 to me. I'll use all of those up before buying some new ones.

 

May 17, 2016- Soap/Lather focus

Razor: Gillette Super Blue Blade (aka Sterling)
Blade: GSB(1)
Brush: VdH Boar
Soap: Williams

This is the first of a set of dry runs for next week's vacation. Last week, I managed to snag an auction for one of those unbranded German vest pocket sets (actually, just the case and two-piece handle). Although the "correct" head would probably be my thick-cap OT, I decided to try pairing it with the Sterling head. Hmm... The head from the Chinese version of an Indian razor paired with a mid-century German handle... what's the worst that could happen? Turns out... not much. Unlike a lot of cheap Chinese DE razors and Neal's Rapira, the Sterling is a decent continuation/clone of the last generation Tech. The only downside is probably the weight (or the lack thereof) of the combo as neither the head or the handle seem to have a lot of mass. This was reflected in a couple of areas that seemed less close than they could be.

The Williams continues to act like Williams. I started off with what I thought was a decent lather, but had enough dissipation that I had to reapply a bit about half way through the pass. I'll be moving on to the Arko tomorrow or Thursday anyway.

All in all, a decent CCS and, most of all, no blood. Apparently, my daughter commented to my wife yesterday and how she didn't understand my fascination with vintage razors since all they seem to do is cut up my face. Sigh.

 

Hey @English expat just a reminder....you drew the Wildcard shave...so I need one more number. Between 1 and 6. The potential shaves are.......

Tiger/1918
Rabbit Straight
FeatherSS/Kamisori
Gold Dollar 800
Durham Duplex
Tiger/Soyuz1

The soap and brush are set from your original pick. Just need to find out how bad it may or may not be!

 

I'm hoping it is either the pain stick or one of the tigers.

 

Well there is a 33% chance for a tiger. Best odds on the board

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

May the odds be never in your favor!!!....until next month at least...

 

I didn't see his posts. I saw yours
I agree, It's a great shaver.

 

MAYhem 2016
May 17
Razor - Rapira
Blade - (2)
Brush - Tweezerman el-Cheapo
Soap - Arko
Post - Nivea. Give me more Nivea

It's Tuesday and that means it's........Tuesday. It also happens to be the @Bama Samurai second round shave. A couple of really nice items, a couple of not so nice items. But, he did manage to land on the Rapira razor. This cheap piece of.........I think maybe aluminum and definitely plastic.......has proven itself to be a rather harsh and uncomfortable razor, even turning Voskhod into a horrible shave. That takes a LOT to do that.

Obviously with Arko there shouldn't be any problem with lather and there was only a sloppy start as the totally spineless Tweezerman (says it's badger) just flew lather all over the room while I face lathered. But, it whipped the Arko into shape in time and away we go.

Now, I know a couple of things about the Rapira and how it performs. Number one, the blade isn't bent as much as a real razor. Yes, I just said real razor. So, the angle is tough due to the need to find the cutting edge without scraping the blade against the face. Number two, it's light. That is, of course, due to a plastic handle and some sort of imitation metal head. So, with my vast (or sort of) experience...can I make this MAYhem setup give me a decent shave? Well, for starters I kept the pressure non-existent. I held the razor at the end of the handle, let it lean on my face and pulled it without pushing on it at all. Literally let the razor do all the work. And, on the first pass, I seemed to have found a sweet spot. Not nearly as rough or aggressive feeling and I got a good result. XTG for the second pass and I think I'm on a roll. There is a bit of a tendency to add some pressure XTG for me but I channeled my straight razor/painstick approach and focused on keeping only the weight against my face. Very nice result again, and felt good. Ok, I think I've got this. This razor is actually usable and might even make a very light role in rotation. Went for the third pass and discovered the problem.

ATG on my face, no issues. Gillette slide on my neck.........not bad. Went for an XTG on the neck for one final cleanup and.......changed the angle. I had been cap riding for the entire shave to keep that blade exposure spot on. I came off the cap just a bit on that last neck XTG on the right side and felt a scrape and burn. Winced, went to the left side and did the exact same thing. Even while thinking about getting up on the cap I didn't. And, I have a couple of nice matching weepers. One on the left, one on the right.

Definitely not my worst effort with this razor and having the Ladas in it certainly helped out. But, it is incredibly picky on angle/pressure and is finicky about aligning the blade in the first place. It took me about 5 minutes to decide the blade was positioned right. Waaaaaaaaay too much work and concern for a daily shave. If you pick this thing up and try to rush a shave you won't be happy, and very likely will need first aid.

Final point - I rinsed my face just to remove the Arko remnants and set my neck on fire. Just that little soap residue was burning like it was alcohol. That's how bad the neck irritation is. All over too, not just where I dragged at the wrong angle. No alum needed or desired today. Nivea, lots of Nivea, and I'm still feeling some burn.

Tomorrow, it's the @English expat second round and I'm waiting on a final number to be chosen. He drew the WILDCARD shave and here's all I know right now. The brush is the "Brush of Shame". My Omega 10066 and it's a favorite and an excellent brush. The soap. I don't even want to type the letters. Seriously. What are the odds? Marvy. Unbelievable at this point. It's like you guys have radar or something.

Anyway, that's the lather combo, such as it is, and my brush has already filed charges with the NLRB for cruel and unsafe workplace. Once we get the final number I'll update with the rest of the gear.

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