January 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Assymetric razor grind?

 

Yes it is. I still shave with both sides.

 

I am reading this and designing mine in my head. May start working on a prototype and see if it actually comes together.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

I'm in. Same blade as last year, just for fun. (insert evil laugh here)

 

So you are joining us?

 

If you looked, there were no instructions. This is a total "in-the-zone" activity.

And since I am a moderator:

Popsicle stick Shavettes are for fools and may seriously injure anyone who employs one for actual shaving. It's an inherently terrible idea. Neither DE blades nor Popsicle sticks were intended for this, don't do it.

(Hey y'all watch this....somebody hold my beer.)

 

Difference between discretion and valor is often outcome.

 

January 18
Gillette Black Beauty on 3
PAL Gold Thin Hollow Ground carbon (15)
Surrey Premium Badger brush
The Eternal Tub of TOBS Avocado Cream ( croap )
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Original

New day and a new brush in the Focus ring. I believe Surrey was in the brush business from the 1920s until it was taken over by VDH about a decade ago. I bought this brush 10 to 15 years ago when the company was on its last legs as an independent (and then stashed it NIB until earlier this year). As a brush it's about the size of a small dustmop with similar backbone (handle 2 1/2" long, loft the same with similar diameter when bloomed.)

I loaded twice as long as usual with soap and added three times the usual water to the lather bowl and went to work ... And then had to repeat it all again because the brush swallowed the first offering while showing almost no lather. Second time was the charm and I had sufficient good lather for my shave.

I could see two schools of thought about the brush. One would be that lathering your face with it is almost cloudlike as the bristles are so pillowy soft you hardly feel them at all as the lather goes on. The second would be that lathering with this brush is like soaping up with a wet dishcloth. So far I'm in the second view. I will see if that changes over the next few days.

It is 3 shaves since I honed the PAL and the blade is still keen. A good smooth shave with no irritation at all.

 

If you keep the angle low, and avoid deforming the edge too much each shave...carbon can go for a long while. This is pretty cool.

 

I'll go GSB as well. My face deserves destruction at the hands of the finest Saint Pete has to offer.

 

I'm talking the actual blade I used last year. It's still around here somewhere. I'll just palm strop and go. What could it hurt.

 

As long as your tetanus is up to date...just your face.

 

At some point, you need to give it a shot after it has sat in some glass for a bit. It is completely different after it is decanted.

 

+1000

It's a different product after it has been in glass for a period of time.

 

Great picture, Mark!

 

I'm in this year!

 

The Arko shave stick does a bit. When I use my post shave balm, I don't notice, but this month is just about finding soaps that do well without PSB and those that need it. The worst has been Erasmic, which actually earned a trip to the garbage can, but three soaps have been great: Route 66, Stubble Trubble, and Stirling. Arko was fairly drying, but everything else more than makes up for it.

 

I assume this means it comes in a plastic bottle like the one Clubman VI Bay Rum comes in?

Any particular kind of glass it needs to sit in instead -- e.g. A glass bottle or just open and airing out in a drinking glass -- or any particular number of days, weeks or months it needs to sit for this transformation to happen?