April 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Gillette New Deluxe Bulldog
Gillette Silver Blue (2)
Semogue BC Mistura
Arko SS

Another quick and lovely shave.

 

11 April 2017 Blade/Soap Focus Shave
I probably had one of my worst lathering efforts ever this morning. It's a good thing I had the bathroom door closed. The imprecations, disparaging remarks on the parentage of and leisure habits engaged in by the makers of the soap in question would probably have gotten me thrown out of any well run gas station restroom in the Western Hemisphere. I managed to whip up a runny, crappy mess.
I did find out one thing though. Even using that, I still managed a passable WWS with the GSB/Tech combo. No nicks or irritation. I shudder to think what my face would've looked like if I'd of been using my SA-109 with a Voskie.
So, I'm gonna bag the Catie's Bubbles and go to the Route 66, which I had much better success with.
Tomorrow is another day.

 

Great setup Doug!

 

Can you describe the scent, in your opinion?

Nice gear !!

 

Too much water? For me Catie's Bubbles worked well.

 

Nice brass . Congrats on tanking another soap, Clint!

 

April 11
Gillette Old Type w Polsilver (3)
TGN Boar/Maple Handle
Soap Commander Endurance
Thayers Unscented
Barrister's Reserve Spice AS


Day 8 of the Canadian Old Type focus, day 2 with a Polsilver SI. The Soap Commander whipped up a tremendous lather with the big boar and I went for a 3 pass shave plus ATG touch up on my neck. My neck is rebelling a bit from the added attention (essentially a 4th pass) with this beautiful old rake and I may put that technique to rest for a few days. I also seem to have developed a few razor bumps along my cheek near my mouth. Haven't had that in months. Weird. I think its just a one off.
Post-shave, I spashed on some Reserve Spice for an overall Spicy kind of morning and enjoyed this DFS.
Have a great day all!

 

April 11 - Truefitt & Hill 1805 cream

Merkur 34C
Dorco 301 ST (Day 4)
French Vanilla brush(JR#72)
DIY PSO
T&H 1805
Alum/Thayers/Nivea

Today I decided to try one of the upper echelon soaps, Truefitt & Hill and see if it truly is better or what. The sample I have looks to be a bit more than I would usually use so I grabbed then almond size amount and dribbled just barely a few drops of water on it, just enough to wet the surface of the dollop. As is usual for the soft Long Island water, I quickly got lather.

The scent in the sample container was strong and it maintained nicely as I created lather. The scent, to me, seemed like a rich clove like scent. Later, I discovered this is probably the combo of cardamon and nutmeg. I thought the scent was only OK. I was not thrilled with it. I like that it was strong just that it might not be my cup of tea. this first impression might have jaded the rest rest of the shave.

I whipped it up and did my finger wetting thing to see if adding more water would yield a slicker lather. When I got to the consistency I liked, I noticed it did not seem all that slick. It was merely OK. Nothing to write home about. It is possible that I should have used the entire container but it was more than I have ever used in creams so I decided against it. The lather was nice and floppy and light and lasted for 1/2 hour until I rinsed it down the drain. To me, this lather held well.

I did my usual DIY PSO as usual and performed 3 passes. I was not impressed with the cushion nor the slickness. Castle Forbes, Stirling and Wheat State had so much more slickness that this almost appeared devoid of any. Granted, there was some but less than these top skaters of slickness. I think this was the most disappointing aspect of this cream. Now, it is possible that some of the glycerin or oils were gone. I say this because this cream was nearly the hardness of a soft soap. It was rather firm and I could press it into the bottom of the bowl and have it remain. This was nowhere near as hard as a triple milled soap which I believe T&H make. I believe this is part of the reason the slickness did not measure up.

The Dorco 301 did a good job but was definitely showing its age. It think this is its last shave and in all it performed well. I will include it in my list of recommended blades. It very much reminded me of how the Aster SP wore down. This too kinda curved gently downward in cutting ability. It did not just fail badly or quickly. I am sure I could get another shave out of it if I so desired. It was just showing a bit more drag but not really pulling.

To further test this soap, I washed my face so as to remove any PSO oil that might have remained. I was concerned with it interfering. I did a 4th pass mostly just to clean up the rare spot that was missed but also to feel the slickness. It was not not slicker. If anything, it was less.

I recall seeing a YouTube video on 1805 and the user added glycerin to his 1805. I wonder if this was done to replenish what was lost or just to hyper slick the soap.

Alum was slightly biting indicating that the blade was done (or the soap did not perform as desired - possibly). I did get a BBS shave and I still smell the cardamon lightly several hours later. It does have lasting power.

I finished up with some Fahrenheit cologne which is the only cologne I have with a lean towards the spicy side.


In the end, I am not sure T&H is worth the expense for me. I did not find the soap up to the performance of CF which also was old not the newer Wheat State and Stirling. If this soap has a tendency to dry out over time, it would need to be used more quickly and I rather prefer the variability of lots of soaps than having to stick to a few.

I may need to get a fresh sample to confirm my suspicions. Rather disappointing.

The Treet Platinum has been loaded into the cleaned 34C for tomorrow's shave.

 

Day 16 of 30 days of Henckel straights

I pulled off a BBS today. I have only been doing a third pass when the first 2 passes are as perfect as they can be. Today was one of those days. My shave is as good as any I have gotten on a DE or SE. I am really getting used to this razor and beginning to think it is my favorite of the three Henckels.


DIY Pre-shave Oil
La Toja Stick Face Lathered
24mm High silvertip set an extra 10mm deep
3 passes, WTG, XTG, XTG
Sampsons All Natural Aftershave Balm
Square Toe 7/8 Henckel 17 1/2

 

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Shavemac 400 Silvertip D01 Two Band
Fine Platinum
Colonial Razors The General
Feather Pro
Gold Bond Green Lotion
Fine Platinum
Creed Aventus


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Barrister & Mann's Soapmakers of Awesometown is a very complex sweet floral scent. Hint of spice, but mostly sweet floral. This is a new soap base that is lanolin free. I think it actually performed better than their old base. (I haven't tried the Glissant base yet.) I enjoyed it, but will need to try some other aftershaves to find the right complement. Hugo Boss "The Scent" was a nice compliment for cologne.

Congrats on the BBS. What are your thoughts on the different sizes of straights?

 

I really hoped I would have enough whiskers this morning to be able to shave. I thought very hairy thoughts, and willed them to grow. No success, so I will get to take one of the Korratts out for a test drive tomorrow.

 

Great picture, Perry.

 

Beautiful picture picture, Mark! Your brush is beautiful.

 

Thanks Jim!

 

April 11, 2017

Razor: Schick J1 Injector
Blade: Personna Hair Shaper (3)
Brush: VdH Boar
Cream: KMF fragrance-free
Post: Alum, Witch Hazel

I skipped posting yesterday but, like Saturday and Today, I continued to put the focus on hold and stay with the J1. To change things up, though, I pulled out the VdH Boar which has not gotten a lot of love since I got my Plissoft. Unfortunately, though, it has definitely become a shedder since I stopped using it daily. I can only assume that there has been some adverse event like a drying out of the knot.

Two passes to another near BBS with an Alum that was completely quiet.

 

Thank you Jim

 

Great B&W Photo. Vintage razors look so good in B&W.

 

Thank you, Clint.

 

Thank you Andrew. That is 3 tanked this year with on more on the deck to be done soon.