Injector & SE Party !!!

It is a keeper. I have adapted to the strange handle. Got a great shave today.

 

@spidey9 and @Darkbulb have enabled me again. Hopefully this will be the last one . I plan on getting one or two of the blades professionally honed and then trying my hand at honing. Going to get a poor mans strop kit and 12k Chinese barber hone from whipped dog. And from a previous excursion with sharpening I already have a DMT 600, 3k/8k generic waterstone, and a surgical black Arkansas. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me from falling down this rabbit hole any farther, for now.

 

I Honed this Old BOKER Solingen Full Hollow Ground Blade Last Night..Its a Tad Longer than the CV Heljestrand Blades I have & its a Fair Bit Heavier in the Hand..It Fits the CV Heljestrand Fine..Boy..This Old BOKER Blade is Seriously Hard Steel & it Offered Me Very Little Feedback on the Hone although I Did Manage to Tune into it Eventually..It Took a Killer Edge..

It Took Me a Long Time to Hone this Blade All the Way Through the Progression System..Took Me Longer to Hone than Some Hard Swedish Steel SRs..A Few Folks have PM Me Recently in the UK & Asked if I had a Spare SE Hollow Ground Blade or Can I Sharpen Them..I said Yeah..That will be £12.00 & Postage in the UK for a Honing Job or £25.oo Posted for Freshly Honed Blade that I May have Laying Around..

Err....I Will Get Back to You Later...I Will Need to Think About it..

I Get this Quite Frequently..Not that I Am Any Expert of Course..The Point Being..When Folks Find Out they May Need to Spend a Bit of Doe on these Hollow Ground Blade SEs they Wont Pay it..Its the Same with Rolls Razors..Here in the UK You can Purchase a Cracking NOS or Minty Condition Rolls Set for £20.00 English or Under..

A Guy the Other Week there Asked if I Would Restore a Rolls for Him if he Bought One..I Said Yeah..There's the Price & here is an NOS Rolls on UK EBay..Go for that One..It Went for £7.50 English & the Guy Got another One that was a Pile of Junk for £6.00 English..He Showed Me it & I Said Well Bugger off I am Not Touching that Pile of Junk for You to Save £1.50 it Will Take Me Hours to Restore That..

Bug Off Mate..Take a Hike..Go & Buy the Wifey a Cheapo G String with the £1.50 You Skimped On..

Getting a Hollow Ground Blade SE Up & Running Wont Cost a Lot of Doe..A Rolls System is a Good Way to Go..Get a Decent One & Pay Someone to Hone the Blade for their Time..Its Not Gonna Break the Bank & You Will be Rewarded..£25.00 English is a Small Price to Pay for a Properly Sharpened Hollow Ground Blade that are Almost Impossible to Buy or the Price of a Hone Job if You Already have One..

There is No Need to Burden Yourself with Getting into Honing these Blades to Maintain a Hollow Ground Blade SE..A Rolls System that is Set Up with a Properly Honed Blade will Maintain it Almost Indefinitely..Any other Hollow Ground SE can be Maintained with Just Stropping for a Sustained Period of Time & the Odd Refresh on Pastes..Like a Beginner Learning to use an SR You May Prematurely Blunt them but Hey that's Part of the Course..Most Guys that Shave with SRs Don't Hone their Own Blades..They Pay to get them Honed..

These Hollow Ground Blade SEs Don't Need to be Any Different..

Billy..

 

Did you get stropping handles with any of the blades? That helps a lot for when you want to strop them.

 

The Henckels Rapide has a stropping handle with it

 

Great, most of them seem to fit a number of wedge brands - there are only a few with slightly proprietary sizes.
When I sent my blades to Glenn to hone he did ask that I included a stropping handle so that he could borrow use it to get the blades to shave ready status

 

Good to know, Thank you!

 

Tuesday Shave

Brush- Semogue 620
Razor- PAL adjustable
Blade- Chinese Schick
Soap- Stirling Barbershop
Post Care- Crystal Alum
Thayers Witch Hazel
Stirling Barbershop

Another great shave this morning. The PAL adjustable just plain works. Excellent feel in the hand, efficient and comfortable. I'm very glad I bought it. Everything else worked flawlessly today. The Stirling soap lathered easily, the alum was silent, the Thayers felt good. First use of the Stirling aftershaves today and I'm very impressed. Great scent (Barbershop is my favorite), nice post shave feel, cooling menthol. I shaved 7 hours ago and I can still smell it. Have a great day folks!

 

Tuesday morning with the Single Edge. Very comfortable and close shave. I'm using the "aggressive " plate exclusively and it delivers a perfect drama free shave every time. I'm going to try a "dogs danglies " blade in it as soon as my package from my friend @Karl G gets here. Should be a cracking shave!

 

I did the GEM push-button last night with a Ted Pella, and found it to be almost too mild. Not a nick, weeper, or red spot anywhere, and I could feel on my cheeks spots that anything else would have shaved smooth on the first pass. And the directions on that back of the case it came in are right...you have to have it flat against your face to get the right angle.

 

I noticed that the lugs on the ATT SE1 that hold the blade to the head are much shorter than on my AlumiGoose, and securing the blade on the razor I received is a little tricky. I found this handle when wet was a little slippery. The head may work better with a Hempel Ti handle.

 

It works incredibly well with a Hempel titanium handle.



I like the bamboo handle, but this really takes it to the next level. The Hempel handle is also an ounce lighter than the bamboo handle, making the razor feel quick and agile.

I agree that the lugs holding the blade could stand to be a little taller.

--Bob

 

That's good to hear. I'll be trying out my recently acquired PAL injectomatic tomorrow morning. It should be fun!

 

That's a great write up. I can't wait for mine to arrive!

 

Thanks very much Bob. I'll use the Hempel handle tomorrow.

 

Today's Shave: Tuesday August 9, 2016

Ever-Ready Streamline
Gem stainless steel ptfe (2)
The Grooming Co. synthetic brush
Haslinger Schafmilch soap
Captain's Choice Lime aftershave

I went back to the Streamline today and enjoyed another super smooth BBS shave. Maybe that's why I don't use the Streamline very often - too predictable.

--Bob

 

Shave 4 with my Rapide and my honed blade. This shave was my best shave by far with a wedge.

Two days growth did not stand a chance. 3 pass shave no touchup and I am BBS. I think this rivals my best injector shave.

I even got my jaw line smooth as silk. I used a bit shorter stroke with a light buffing stroke. I was not sure if that would work with this razor. It worked like a charm.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

*Full* hollow ground? Are you certain?

I've never seen a full hollow ground blade for a safety razor, but I have an F. W. Engels straight razor that is full hollow ground.

It's pretty radical. The spine is normal enough but it very quickly tapers to an extremely thin blade.



Ever try to take a picture of the end of a straight razor?

The third of the blade closest to the edge is no thicker than a modern Gem single edge blade - and I mean that literally.



I don't think that a full hollow ground blade would work very well in a hoe type razor. The blade is so thin that it flexes slightly while shaving.

Or so I'm told. I haven't gotten up the courage to hone the Engels and actually try shaving with it.

Getting back on topic, I completely agree that it is not necessary to learn honing in order to enjoy wedge blade (or whatever) type razors.

I had someone hone my first couple of blades for me - in the UK yet. Those are some well traveled blades.

After using those blades for a while I decided that honing was a skill set I wished to develop, but that's just me.

For someone with a few hoe type razors used occasionally a couple of well honed blades would last a long time, perhaps years, with nothing more than stropping before & after each use.

--Bob

 

Those Dammies are a Class Act, thats for sure...They have been stealing shavers hearts and whiskers for over a Century....
Congrats on a great acquisition, my friend....I recently replaced my curved top Damaskeene with one like yours, and I believe I liked this last one even better. I had to replace the curved top one because my real estate dealer's father wanted to get into TWS, and he only wanted a Damaskeene, sooooo. Now I recently replaced it with this one:


Now this past weekend an old student of mine from 2001 came several thousand miles to visit. He wife was complaining how he never shaves. He asked if I'd take him to get a new cartridge razor...
I offered up, for him to try the Damaskeen, and I do think it's the perfect razor for a newb or veteran SE razor shaver....He got the best shave experience of his life...He couldn't believe it....Sooooooo

Guess I'll replace this one in the not too distant future... I fixed him up a Starter Kit and he and his wife were both ecstatic! It's an unexplanable pleasure to start a friend down this TWS road.........I love it!

Since he was coming to visit...I booked a small Jazz Quartet concert for him to play guitar with my band while he was here....It cracked me up to catch him 'faceturbating' on the bandstand when not playing....(I know that feeling..}8^D

 

They Should be Honed Flat..

Yeah..Its a Full Hollow Grind Bob...That's Why its Such a Hard Tempered Steel for SE Use..The Engels SR You have there Looks Like an Extra Full Hollow Ground Blade & that's Made Out of Very Soft Steel as I Have One..Some of these Extra Full Hollow Ground Blades are Like Paper especially the Ones Made before the War Years & are Quite Sought After...Some were Called "Singing" or "Ringing" Blades..I Have a Couple of them as Well..

The Hardness of the Steel Makes a Big Difference & Of Course the Length of Them..You will Hone this Up No Problems Bob...In Fact..After Honing SE Blades that Engels will Be a Doddle to Hone..I Kid You Not..The Steel is Very Soft on that Engels SR & Will Cut in Jig Time..

Billy..