OCtober 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Oct. 29
Soap - Proraso Green Tub
Brush - Omega 10098 Boar
Ceramic Suribachi Bowl
Blade - Blade - Gillette Silver Blue - Russia
Razor - 1937 Gillette Sheraton
Aftershave - Ginger's Garden Swede splash on and Tabac Cologne

Saturday night shave. Thought I'd treat my wife to my Suede / Tabac combo. She said I smelled like her great grandfather and it made a scratchy feeling in the back of her throat. I guess there may be a PIF in my future. Great shave though.

 

Thank you. After this morning's frustrating shave I needed a positive comment.

 

Oct. 31
Soap - Proraso Green Tub
Brush - Omega 10098 Boar
Ceramic Suribachi Bowl
Blade - Blade - Gillette Silver Blue - Russia
Razor - 1937 Gillette Sheraton
Aftershave - Aqua Velva Ice Blue

All treats & no tricks for the last shave of this 30 day focus. My takeaway: Gillette Silver Blue blades are top notch, but for no more than 4 uses. My Gillette Sheraton is a keeper for my full time rotation and tubs of Prorasso last for about 90 days of shaving. Now I'm going to spend some quality time with my more modern Rockwell 6s. Thanks to everyone who puts together and participates in these monthly focus threads. They do make us better shavers.

 

OCtober Final Focus

Cremo Cooling & Omega #20248
Fatip/Muhle Hybrid/ Israeli blade
Alum, Osage Rub, Florida Water


Menthol Monday using Cremo Cooling! Splash of cool water to begin. Cremo will lather in a bowl, you just have to believe. Three passes, and extra clean up only netted one nick. No blood, but I knew it was there. Rinse, Alum, Osage Rub, Florida Water, ahh. A Nice Shave!
Slipping the Fatip OC base between the Muhle r89 cap & handle gives an acceptable middle ground. The Muhle is quite mild. Fatip known for aggression. I'm considering this as my No-Variation razor for next month.
Good Shaves Y'all!

 

October 31 SOTD:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
Stirling Glacial Wintergreen SS
Gem Junior
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stirling Glacial Lemon Chill AS

I missed SE razors a bit, so I went back to the Gem Junior. It was a great shave, very close to BBS. The Stirling Glacial Wintergreen was so cold, my eyes were watering. Just a great way to get me moving on my first day back to work after my little unplanned 3 week vacation.

I started this month with the goal of evaluating my razors as I try to thin the heard a bit, which was a continuation from last month (and will carry into next month). I did manage to make my mind up on two straights, which are now gone and one DE, sadly the Aristocrat. I had this razor and a Diplomat, and they were just so similar. Since I am really trying to thin things out, I had to let one go. Since the Diplomat was just a bit more difficult to get, I kept it. Probably the biggest thing I learned is that I need to be careful acquiring too much stuff. It can be hard to choose what to keep and what to let go later. The other lesson I learned is that not all stomach cramps go away by themselves.

 

You and me both. Good write up and photograph.

 

So you're using a variably built razor (sounds so much more delightful than "frankenrazor) for a No-variation month. Well played, sir, well played.

 

Thank you!

 

Razor: Mongoose B2 w/Custom Made Handle (England)
Blade: Feather Pro (1)
Brush: Elite Razor "Tres Amigos" Desert Ironwood Beehive w/Envy White
Soap: Route 66 Cavendish
Aftershave: Folsom Shambala
Although the handle looks like it may be slippery, I found just the opposite. The Mongoose shaved very close and comfortable, with the only draw back being a build up of lather in the baseplate slots. The posts that secure the blade are short, however, it was not difficult to load and secure the blade.
Happy Halloween!!!

 

Nice picture, Doug!

 

Big smile. Thanks!

 

I've resisted committing to a Rule. Took me a while lurking to Focus.
I'm getting better. I can almost do a couple weeks with the gear locked in. Then along comes another shiny thing.
So am I in?

You gotta get in to get out. And I'm already in! I'll continue using the Fatip/Muhle Hybrid with Generic Personna Reds. Let's see how far I can endure. No-Variation is my goal. But only the razor and blade. I've almost made a full rotation of my soaps. That was fun so I might do it again. Aftershaves I choose to suit the soap I just used.
Gotta keep some flibberdegibbet to my style.

 

You're definitely in. Anyone who says flibberdegibbet is automatically in for life.

 

Flibberdegibbet

 

Shave 20

Shave was just so so today. But the JR 90 rocked. This is one soft brush. The shave was smooth but I did not get a real even shave. I will try again tomorrow.

Tom


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Uh-oh....I may have started a new Cinco de Julio moment.

 

They'll let anyone in theses days!

 

OCtober-een!

October 31

Grand Blade Trials - OCtober shave

Razor - Durham Duplex Safety
Blade - (1)
Soap - C.O. Bigelow
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Post - Alum

​

FINAL SHAVE OF OCtober! And I hope you had a Blessed Samhain/Happy Halloween! No trick or treats here this year as we're a bit isolated where we live from the main traffic. That's fine. If I buy candy it's mine, all mine. However, I decided to do a trick or treat shave with the Durham Duplex Safety razor. It's related to the DD straight that I've used a couple of times, most recently in MAYhem. I've always found it to be less than totally effective but that may be due to the blade more than the razor. The only blades around are Personna blades from tryablade.com and they aren't exactly Russian steel.

I decided to go all out on today's shave grabbing a cream I love but rarely use, C.O. Bigelow. Of course, it's Proraso in a different wrapper but it lathers fantastically. And I used my Omega Pro 48 brush that has been sitting on SWMBO's side of the den for the past year. Turns out she hasn't used it in a very long time so I reclaimed it. I whipped up the lather with the big 48 in my Burma Shave mug and man oh man....I could have sent lather to everyone here.

So, loaded that fantastic new blade into the Durham and figured out the angle. You need to hold the handle out at about an 85 degree angle, so almost straight out. Then, as you begin the first pass, you need to relax, stretch the skin tight...no tighter. No, seriously, you want it tight because when you start shaving you are going to also start cussing and wondering why in the world you thought this was a good idea. Pulling, painful pulling. Yet, it's cutting so there is a bit of reduction going on. It's a bit like the Tiger....only it works. Just feels like it isn't. Ouch. This sucks. This is OCtober.......or is it MAYhem revisited?

Got the entire first pass done and only the menthol in the Bigelow was keeping me sane. No more from this thing. Grabbed my New that still has a Voskhod in it and did a second pass to get a nice DFS finish and then enjoyed the Alum burn letting me know that the Durham Duplex...at least this one....is a fun item to own....but not necessarily to use.

Well, that's it for OCtober. For me, anyway. Another fantastic month on here boys and girls....loved all the great gear on display and had a ton of fun. NOVember should be a great month as well and I think I've figured out what I'm going to do. I'll make it official on that thread a bit later. Thanks for making this thread what it is....because without all of you this would just be me pretending to be a fake Russian Cartel Czar with a bunch of imaginary friends running around drunk on vodka in my head.......or is it real?! The pain of the first pass has me confused. Soooooo confused.