April 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

April 28 - Limes, Limes Limes!!!

Merkur 34C
Personna Red (day 2)
The Phoenix brush (JosephsLathe - Etsy)
DIY PSO
Caste Forbes Lime Essential Oil Cream
Alum/Thayer/Nivea

I received a tub of Castle Forbes Lime cream recently. This company only offer 3 scents: Lime, Lavendar and Cedar/Sandalwood. I was lucky to have sampled the lime cream from the Soap Pass Around Box II. To me, the cream is luxurious and the small sample made a ton of lather. I happen to find a video on Castle Forbes soaps and all they did to load the cream on the brush was a single rotation or two and only getting an extremely small amount licking a few of the tips of the brush. I decided to replicate this. For me, I needed a total of 4 swirls to replicate the amount loaded on the brush in the video. Looking at it and knowing this is a cream, I had my doubts it would be enough to make enough lather to shave with. Most of the tips were lacking any cream and maybe 10-20% had white tips. Boy was I wrong! This cream likes water and made a ton of delicious lime scented lather enough for 6+ passes. The resulting lather was light but provided great protection with excellent cushion. It also had a nice shine and great glide. The scent was deliciously strong and fill the room with the scent of limes. The lime scent is also a perfect, true scent of limes and had no indication of a candy scent. I would go so far as to say that this smells like perfectly ripened limes and better than a bushel of limes at most supermarkets!

3.5 passes with the Merkur 34C/Personna Red grabbed a BBS shave. Some would say the $32 -$44 price tag is a bit much for a cream. In this case, I find you use a fraction of the amount needed from soft soaps. I think it was similar in quantity I would use to Martin de Candre and would expect the 200gr tub to last over 200 shaves. I wouldn't be surprised one would get 300+ shaves. The swipe I grabbed didn't even show in the tub. That brings a lathering in the ball park of pennies per shave. The frugal side of me loves that .

If you love limes like I do and want a top quality lather, do not pass up a chance of trying Castle Forbes.

 

28 April 2017 TGIF/Pre MAYhem Blade/Focus Shave

Pre: A LOT of hot water and a hot towel
Razor: 1952 Super Speed Black Tip
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Omega 10098
Soap: Route 66 "Rum Runner"
Post: Hot/Cold rinse, alum block, cold towelx2, Dominello Vitali Calming Post Shave Moisturizer
After Shave: Clubman Virgin Island Bay Rum(you were expecting maybe the Veg? Ah no.)
For the final shave of the shave week I decided on a trip down the Mother Road. I gave JR#161 the day off and brought out the 10098.
The big Omega whipped up the "Rum Runner" into a great smelling, slick,cushioning lather. For it's final performance the SS/GSB duo delivered a near BBS shave.
A generous splash of VIBR and Friday was off to an outstanding start.
My MAYhem will be starting Sunday as my shave week starts then. My '50's GEM Featherweight will be making its debut. That's about as mayhemy as I'm gonna get. Had enough mayhem on the Job to last a lifetime.
See you around the campus!
TGIF/TCB

 

I think all ice-cream trucks should play "Just What I Needed"(The Cars), to keep the ice-cream cold for the kiddies. Meanwhile, back to shaving...................

 

Friday, April 28, 2017

Wolfman WR1-OC with Darwin Ti
Polsilver Super Iridium
Varlet Ranger Alpine Grade
Route 66 Cranberry Citrus
Gold Bond Green
Fine L'Orange Noir
Terre d'Hermes


​

 

April 28
Gillette Old Type w Merkur (1)
TGN Finest Fan
Proraso Green
Thayers Unscented
Barrister's Reserve Cool



Day 22 of the Canadian Old Type focus. Last day of the focus, as I'll be travelling this weekend and will be shaving with my travel set up. Pulled out a Merkur, in a 'Test my skills with this universally panned blade in my ol' rake to end the focus' kind of way.
The Green produced a nice lather with the Finest Fan and I went to work with the Merkur. It felt dull. No weepers, very little irritation, just dull. If this was a blade on its 3rd day I'd think it was time to change it out. Overall, still a pleasant shave. 3+ passes resulted in a good enough shave for work. Finished off with some Reserve Cool to complete a whole 'Italian Menthol' morning.
I'm going to put this Old Type away for a bit. Have enjoyed it more and more as the month went along, and I think I'm fairly well dialed in with it now. If this was my only razor, I could live with that. I'm glad that I don't have to! On to the next focus...
Have a great day all!

 

Clint- A very beautiful, simple photo!

 

I pulled out an old stand-by today. This razor never fails to perform. A very nice shave today.
Route 66 Sweeney Todd Soap
Rubberset 400 Brush
Otto Deutsch Hans Razor
Lucky Tiger
Pinaud Clubman After Shave
Happy Friday!

 

Great pic, Brian! Is that the original knot in that old 400 as well?

 

I decided to make today was the last day of trials for the Merkur slant, as I've got too many soaps and creams to focus on to spend much time on the razor at this point. Four shaves with it gave me a pretty good idea of the shave it provides. So far I haven't been crazy about the slant, but trying it has definitely been an enjoyable learning experience. I've got a bakelite (i.e. plastic) slant that came as part of a "den clearance" deal I jumped on, so I may have to try it out tomorrow for comparison, while the slant experience is fresh in my mind. Then on to soaps, creams and the occasional stupid human tricks.
Anyway, this morning I loaded up with the feather and it gave the smoothest, cleanest shave I've ever had. Not the most comfortable or least irritating, but for my first time with the blade and considering it was torqued at an angle and loaded in a frankenrazor that I don't have a lot of drive time on, I'm confident that it could be comfortable and irritation free after a few more shaves. Not to bring up an old conversation, but I have to agree with @Bama Samurai that until your technique is good enough (probably requiring at least 1 or 2 - 30 day focuses at minimum), you are in no position to judge what a blade can or cannot do. At 60+ shaves in using 95% the same razor and 100% Astra SP's, it was obvious to me that I'm now judging the blade on it's own merit and my evaluation is not being "colored" by lack of good technique. 30 days ago, I could not have said that. I also agree with @Shave Fu that the difference between the "hair pulling derby" and the "smooth slicing feather" is significant. Having a strong preference for the latter, however, I will say I was able to get a good 3 pass shave out of either one of them. The feather was just a lot closer and more enjoyable shave for me.

 

It is and it works great. Thanks.

 

Very brave of you using the Merkur, Jason!

 

Thank you Jason.

 

Beautiful Mark. I really regret not ordering a Darwin handle when I ordered the head.

 

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Very nice pic.

Muahahahaha! Yes, yes, please, use more Derby and enjoy it! Enjoy the drag!

You learn quickly, joung Jedi! Good the picture is! Awesome master i am!

One by one, you recognize my contribution into making you serious photographers...

Happy Friday to you too and to your shiny razor!

Nice photo! Shiny meets shiny! I love shinies!

Nice background again!

Nice photo. I feel like i have improved you all!

Be honest now. Look at this photo. Do you see anything wrong? Yes, you can. All the items are nice, except for that godawful, 50 year old razor handle.

No, no, no! You haven't REALLY tasted Derby! In order to understand the ordeal that Derby is, you MUST try it on a WEISHI! Please, you will get an unforgettable non-shave! You will see! If you don't have a Weishi, but you have a Gilette Tech, try that, since Weishi has the exact blade exposure. And of course you agree, it's my job to be right!

P.S.: Someone posted a photo with an old Fatboy and something even older that seemed like a brick (you know who you are!). My eyes are still bleeding, please stop! I am going to have nightmares tonight with razors covered in rust.

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PSeudofocus report:
Weishi FL + Treet Platinum + Proraso Blue + Omega 49:

Uhh... Most strange shave yet. Got BBS above jawline and BBS/DFS below, with 1 weeper in the most strange point (where skin is flat and tight and should have no problems), but i can't say anything positive about the blade... I tossed it already out of spite. The blade has medium sharpness, certainly lower than Astra, Dorco and Personna Red. I 'd say it reminded me of a hybrid of Derby and SuperMax Super Stainless, but in a bad way. I can't put my finger on it, but i didn't like it. Wasn't very smooth either. I think i prefer the humble SuperMax to this, despite this being described in my barber's shop as "definitely the best Treet blade". It was also i think a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde blade, because it didn't seem to be cutting much, but it did give good final result and of all the places it could cut me, it decided to give weeper to the easiest one. I can't see me buying more of this, unless i have an epiphany next time i use one. I think i will just stock up 400 Personna Reds and maybe Dorco Primes (next in trial) and be done with blade hunting. I am also thinking of making official a 5 or 6 pass shave (for Derby i would probably need a 10 pass) , instead of constantly repassing the razor without lather. Maybe i will eliminate weepers this way and have an easier way of comparing results, as with the Weishi, most blades don't give BBS just with 3 simple passes (besides i don't go XTG). Maybe i should do something like WTG, WTG, ATG, ATG, WTG (or a final 6th WTG).

 

I'm glad cute pictures of my son distract from my notoriously bad shave gear photos!

 

The photo with Don Marco is actually nice (and despite me not liking b&W shaving photos), but the baby caught my attention and forgot about the photo!

 

Thank you.

 

I wonder if there is anything under it that shouldn't be there?

 

Papermart has 2 and 4 ounce tin containers that are cheap and smaller than a full size puck. They work well for the Sterling Samples.

 

Yes I did and there was space left but I ended up liking the extra space. Loading the brush was easy and had lots of room to catch everything. Also, if the mouth was any smaller, I would worry of the edge of the jar rubbing on the handle leaving a mark or cut line on it. To me, they work great! I think the puck from Stirling is about 2.75" to 3" diameter and so there is just a 1/4 " to 3/8" or so of space around the sample puck. Besides, if I buy regular pucks, there is plenty of room for those too.

I also think the 4.5 oz puck is the same diameter as the samples from Stirling so if one fits, so will the other about the same way. Also, since the soap is soft, it was real easy to squish it into place.

When I get a chance tonight, I'll take some photos of several of my samples with the lids off to give you a good idea.