April 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

The decision has been made for my Birthday Blitz. I'll report it in The Haul when I have 'em.

 

Gonna take quite a while to finish the Wind Drift A.S. Due to the tiny hole in the bottle top, I can't see how much is left. Guess that's the English Leather way!!

 

SOTD Adjustable Arko April 14th


Ming Shi 2000S
Sputnik(2)
Arko
Stirling 24MM Synthetic
RazoRock Amici AS

This will probably by my only Adjustable Arko shave for the month. Every time Arko comes up in the rotation I'm amazed by its slickness. This morning I decided to give a two pass shave a shot and must say that it worked quite well with the Futur Clone. First pass was WTG and the second pass was diagonal ATG. This left me somewhere in the neighborhood of DFS++. Finished with a splash of RR Amici for a little menthol chill and to keep the citrus vibe going. Happy Friday everyone!

 

When's your Birthday, Paul? We'll need some time to plan the 30 Day Club party!

 

Day 19 of 30 days of Henckel straights

I went to Walmart yesterday. While I was there, I grabbed a bottle of Shave Secret. I tried it this morning and was quite surprised. This stuff actually works. If there is a trick to using it, the trick is to keep your face wet and immediately add more water after make a pass. There was plenty of slickness and I ended up with a really good shave. A downside is that there is no visible lather to tell you where you have already shaved. a 2 pass DFS today.


Shave Secret
24mm High silvertip set an extra 10mm deep
2 passes, WTG, XTG
Sampsons All Natural Aftershave Balm
Round Toe 6/8 Henckel 17 1/2

 

Is there a crew member who would be willing to send an Arko stick to someone who wants to try it? Let me know and I can get you their info. Let's do some enabling!

 

Razor: Supply Provision Custom 3 dot head
Blade: Chick
Brush Handle: B-400 The Brush by Tom
Knot: APShaveCo Tuxedo
Soap: B&M Roam
Post Care: Thayers Witch Hazel
Alum
Osage Rub
Aftershave: Chatillon Lux La Quatrieme Ville

What a shave I had this morning! It was my first use of this brush, @twhite is a genius. This handle is a piece of art and was a pleasure to use. It feels great in the hand, is well balanced with nice weight. The tuxedo knot is probably the best that I have used and was perfect for face lathering. I decided that it deserved nothing less than Roam for its inaugural shave and of course, the Roam delivered. The La Quatrieme Ville compliments the Roam nicely and is a wonderful product. It was a wonderful shave for this Good Friday. Have a great day folks!

 

If I had an Arko stick sitting around I surely would.

 

I hope you are preparing an alternative!!! I didn't like them, especially once I tried an Astra SP. best of luck

 

April 14 - Mama Bear Christmas Forest

Note: repost with additions

Today was my second soap from Mama Bear, Christmas Forest(MBCF). I wasn't very happy with the performance of Ice Citrus especially since I liked the scent although it was weak and la led any menthol. This soap looks like a piece of amber - yellow brown in color and clear and it was rather hard. Not sure if this too suggests age.

The scent was there but was lighter than Stirling's Scots Pine Sheep and just seemed not as accurate as Stirling. It was ok to good but once you try Stirling's scent, you would skip Mama Bear. The scent could be weak also due to age.

In an effort to get a good lather, I pressed some of the sample in the bowl thinly and added hot water to just barely cover it. I wanted to soften it before lathering. When done with my prep, I went to work. It took a good minute or so and a little more water but I finally got it all dissolved.

Now to work on the lather. I was working for shiny thick lather. With each addition of water I would work the water in well and check a sample with my fingers for slickness, gloss and whether more water was needed. I do not feel it ever went glossy and even though the additions were small I think I over shot and got foamy. I never got a real slick soap. I believe when I got a lather that had lots of resistance( but no shine) , I should have stopped. I do not believe this soap can take as much water as Stirling and will never shine like it either.

I used what I had. I failed to apply hot water and allow my face to steam and I had not taken a shower so the beard was tougher too. I tried a Gillette Super Platinum Black but it sounded like a higher pitch weedwacker while shaving. The drag was greater. Being dissatisfied, I put back the Treet Platinum and it was a little better but not like the day before. I ended up putting the Black aside and put a BIC Chrome Platinum in . In all I performed 5 passes (WTG, XTG, ATG,WTG, ATG) to get a CCS. This was rather disappointing. As I shaved, I did add water thinking more might help but all it did was help it to dissipate once applied. The lather was too light and lacked in glide, gloss,cushion and just about everything. Sorry but I made another lousy lather. Having not heat prepped my beard, the hair was tougher than usual. The soap did not appear to help any either.

Poor prep and lousy lather resulted in a less than close shave that I have come to expect. I believe the Gillette Black will be better with proper prep and a slicker soap.

Alum was remarkably quiet with all the shaving. I guess the soap helped or I just kept the blade light that it didn't irritate. The blades were not cutting close or enough so I think the uncut hair is what really did the protection. I know I had a good shave yesterday so there shouldn't have been tons of growth.

No blood and no weepers but unfortunate a disappointing result. I again will not believe this soap is just ok. The next time I use this soap I will stop when the resistance is at its highest and see from there. I could be spoiled with Stirling and just use to that much water to add. At this point I doubt I will buy and Mama's Bear in the future.

 

My three go to blades, GSB, Voskhod and Shark Super Chrome. Astra's are not for me. I think I've indicated this before in one of your threads. Glad they're workin' for you.

 

Thank you Doug. That bowl makes great lather.

 

Mama Bear is a glycerine soap and something of a different animal to lather. That is the reason for the amber look. Age would have pretty much no effect on it's performance or general appearance.

Lack of slickness is pretty much never a complaint about glycerine soaps. They can be harder to load enough product, especially when they haven't been used for a while.

 

One suggestion, if you have enough in your sample, try loading the brush like it owes you money. I'm normally surprised by how much lather this soap makes, but it takes a lot less water to make it than Sterling. I am sure I am using 2-3 times as much soap as I need, but soap is cheap and I have a lot.

 

Adam, that sounds very unfrugal.

 

April 14
Gillette Old Type w Voskhod (2)
TGN Finest Fan/Maple Handle
B&M Seville
Thayers Unscented
Stirling Barbershop AS

Day 11 of the Canadian Old Type focus. Day 2 of the Voskhod. Not working today, so shaved a little later in the morning. The Seville face-lathered with the Fan resulted in a fantastic lather. Man, we are so lucky these days...I have a rotation of great performing, great smelling soaps right now.
3 passes plus some touch up on the neck and jawline resulted in a DFS. I went sort of diagonal on my neck for the touch up. Not quite perfect, but close enough, with just a bit of irritation on that area. Another fine day with the Voskhod in this ol' rake.
Finished off with some Barbershop splash and am off to do some yardwork and some painting on my house trim. It was a long, hard winter here, and it shows on my old house.
Have a great day all!

 

Once you figure out how the blades treat your beard try an experiment.
Mild razor + Mild blade
Mild razor + Sharp blade
Aggressive razor + Mild blade
Aggressive razor + Sharp blade.

That the progression to go from a Newbie to a Pro. Next thing you know you'll be into Injectors and getting straight razor curious.

I picked up a huge 8 ounce bottle of English Leather AS. It has an all glass bottle - no plastic restrictor. The opening is 1/4" and flows freely. When I finish the Good Stink juice I think the wooden cap will make a fine travel sized brush handle.

 

Woke up late today, and didn't have time to shave with the second Koraat. Will get to either tonight or tomorrow.

 

April 14 SOTD:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
Stirling Ben Franklin SS
Merkur Futur
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stirling Ben Franklin AS

What nice Good Friday shave this morning. My favorite scent of Stirling and a great razor made for a DFS. I got to take my time this morning and enjoy the shave. It is a busy day with the kids and a service at the church this evening. I hope everyone has a great day!