August 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Adjustable (Arko) August!!!

August 3 - Grand Blade Trials

Razor - 1962 (H1) Gillette Slim (6)
Blade - (2)
Soap - Cumberland Gap w/ Goatsmilk, Oatmeal, Bentonite
Brush - BoS Omega 10066
Post - Alum

Something a little off the normal path for blade trials tonight. While over on the bay a few nights ago I ran into a shaving soap that is being discontinued by the maker. They live in Flat Lick, Kentucky and who in their right mind can ignore a shaving soap made there, right?! And, they announced in their ad that they were not making it anymore. This was it. The last of their soap business as they are moving on to other projects. He/she says they are going to take a long break from the soap to focus on their career of family, music and nursing. While there's nothing funny about any of those, somehow combining them when you live in Flat Lick, KY fills my head with lots of ideas. I'll pause to let you insert your own jokes here. _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________. Ok, that's enough of that.

Anyway, it's barbershop scented (so they say) lovingly hand made with goatsmilk, oatmeal and bentonite and I just had to get in on this. Besides, if it turns out to be a really fantastic find, I may want to buy out the inventory of 4 or 5 they have left.

Now, since it's a trial I usually want consistency in the soap. But, this will give the blade a bit of a challenge to see what it does if the lather isn't up to par. Besides.....it's the Rainbow.....and something tells me I'm not going to be stocking up on these unless the next two shaves give me BBS on one pass.

So, how did the Flat Lick made soap work? Well, let's start with the scent. The puck (which was delivered just as you see it below, no wrapper) smells kind of barber-shoppy with a strong hint of oatmeal, which you can see in the puck. That's the dry puck. Get it wet as you load it with the BoS and the scent changes. To something familiar. Something similar to what I've used before. But what is it? I know I recognize it...not exactly the same but close....I think.....OMG it's Marvyish. Yep, the odor is close to Marvy when the puck gets wet. However, the brush appears to have loaded pretty well. I used a medium wet brush and gave it a good minute or so of load. The first face lather produced.......lather.......from the same family as Marvy. Thin, fast dissipating and, when I tried shaving fast to keep up with it the other side of my face turned sticky and almost muddy feeling. Wow. Not good. In the blade's defense, however, it still produced a smooth feel and got some good reduction at 6 on the Slim.

Second pass I added water. Lots. Both to my face and the soap. Loaded again then face lathered like I was trying to scrub off two layers of skin. There's the lather. Better. Cushiony, thicker, still stinks like Marvy and......oh wait, yep there it goes. Starting to dissipate again. However, with that much water involved it did at least stay slick. The blade produced a nice smooth pass again and, after some touch up, I ended DFS.

Well, the remaining 4 or 5 pucks of Cumberland Gap soap are still available for those who may want to give it a shot. My opinion - Backwoods Marvy. The Rainbow blade, though, produced a pretty good result. Excellent if you adjust for the soap. I'll return to a more suitable soap for it tomorrow for its final day.

 

Now that's funny.

 

Now see, that's what we talk about here. Technique, technique, technique. Perfect analysis of a situation where you can adjust the technique to make the tool bend to your will.

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Adjustable Arko August 2017
Day Three


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So. I forgot to change the blade, but, a decent shave was had on a Day 4 blade. Day 72 on the stick. Opened the dial up to seven today and went XTG then ATG to see how seven would perform. The result was near BBS after a bit of touch up. Focused on good skin stretches and the alum called it good. Hit it with the Osage, and for a change it was only 69f out here, and the menthol felt great in the cool air. Other than that...all is quiet in Colorado.

Have a fantastic Friday!

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It's all on a hard drive somewhere...

 

The surest way to find it is to run for office.

 

My photos are terrible.

Shave Fu wrote it, and thus it is true.

 

Depends on who your friends were before you ran.

(Insert 30,000 word libertarian treatise on the derivation of authority for civil government)

 

Levels...

I noticed my first day on the FB was rougher than I remembered. But alas, all razors require techniques to optimize performance. I was rusty.

For the win......

 

There is a political forum where people would use the top 20 or so keywords in their signature boxes. The idea being is that if certain powers are searching in a digital haystack, without even knowing the object of their search.... keep adding hay.

Like this:

Ammonium nitrate
Nichrome
Resistors
Low voltage circuitry
Blasting caps
Bolivian marching powder

Etc.... it's fun.

 

I learned it all right here. Knowledge is power.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

Friday shave ultimate adjustable

Today's razor is a Fili 13 fresh off CrOx strop and still with Glen's edge. Smooth and sharp edge made for a bloodless four pass shave. The QCS was slick and I finished with an epic shave.

Irritation A+ Closeness A Smoothness A+ Sharpness A

Razor: Filarmonica 13
Strop: Harold Russian leather
Brush: Omega Pro boar
Pre: Proraso
Soap: Queen Charlotte Soaps
AS: Fine Snake Bite
Scent: Creed Royal Mayfair

 

Special occasion for QC?

 

I had a couple of razors that lost a little bit of their sharpness so I decided to do a group stropping.

 

Definitely don't do that

 

Gem OCMM
Gem SS (5)
Soap Commander Love
Semogue 2000
Soap Commander Love ASB

Another nice shave, but I had to work a little harder for it this morning. Day 5 and the blade should probably be done. It didn't tug on this shave, but it definitely lost a bit of sharpness.

 

Aug 4 SOTD:

Ever-Ready Brush
Arko
Gillette Slim
Big Ben (5)
Stirling Unscented PSB
Old Spice Classic AS

 

Cool looking filter effect and a very cool looking brush.