Thanks to all of you guys. I haven’t been around much lately, and probably won’t for a couple of months, but I am following along as best as I can. Happy shaves, All.
Here's a couple of photos showing all the brushes I currently have in my Den. I've done some thinning, and these are all keepers. Not shown is a B-400 by Tom aluminum handle with 25 mm and 27 mm ferrules - haven't yet decided what knots to install, but I'm always looking for recommendations. Knot size and loft are noted in parentheses. L to R: Kent BK8 (26/57) Silvertip JR #160 Louisville Slugger handle with Omega 10098 boar knot (27/65) 30 Day Crew LE figured maple handle with 24 mm APShaveCo Tuxedo knot L to R: Rudy Vey Custom Chubby (24/46) Shavemac Two-band Silvertip Kent BK4 (23/52) Silvertip Simpson Chubby 2 (27/50) Super Please post your family photos!
OCtober Focus holding firm Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood soap Omega Pro #98 boar brush Borrowed soup bowl Fatip Piccolo Feather Hi-Stainless Alum, Barbasol Brisk AS Still house sitting for my parents because hauling their dogs to my house doesn't make sense. Previous shave's paper lather bowl was upgraded to a low wide dish. Only lacking element from my usual was texture to aid in incorporating air. The T&H soap is a hard puck so it got a swipe of water to soften for easier loading. My Piccolo handled 3 piece OC was already loaded with one of those sharpest of blades and three passes did an admirable job of stubble reduction. No blood on the hardware and a smooth DFS result attests to the efficiency of the razor when used with proper technique. No alum sting, and the cheap drugstore AS compliments the soap scent like they were made for each other. Good Shaves Y'all!
October 22, 2017 Razor: English Flat Bottom New Blade: Derby Extra (1) Brush: Razorock Plissoft 22 Cream: KMF fragrance-free Post: Alum, Listerine, WH I was at the beauty supply store yesterday to pick up some clipper oil and noticed that they had a couple of tucks of Derby Extra blades for $0.59. On a whim, I bought one. I've only shaved with a Derby once before- about two years ago, near the beginning of my journey. I wasn't all that impressed at the time but decided I'd give them another go, particularly since I had read on another forum that they had been improved since then. Just to play it somewhat safe, I decided to stay the the Flat Bottom New as it seems to work well with some otherwise troublesome blades. The result was two passes to a DFS with no blood but a bit of a tingle from the Alum. It was a better experience than I remember the last one being, but I'm not sure I could ever see myself using these blades on a regular basis. I'll probably stay with it for another day or so, just to see if the blade improves.
Gem OCMM Gem Stainless Semogue 2000 Stirling Gentleman Superior 70 First shave in a few days and it was treat. At first I was not a fan of the scent of the Stirling Gentleman, but the performance is fantastic. I have become used to the scent and use it regularly.
OCtober!!! October 22 Razor - '46-'47 Gillette Aristocrat Blade - (2) Soap - Arko Brush - BoS Omega 10066 Post - Alum Well, here we go. Day two with the Gillette Blue Blade that was less than impressive last night. Using a blade this old, even NOS, is never a guaranteed good shave given the nature of carbon steel to degrade. These blades that @BearCWY sent are in immaculate condition but it still turned tuggy and rough in a hurry last night. My hopes for tonight were pretty low. I did take the extra step of stropping the blade twenty times on leather just to see if that would help. No signs of rust on the edges so that made me feel better. I also chose to go with just Arko without the pre-shave soap tonight. One of the old vintage ads for a Gillette razor mentions the Blue Blade and calls it the "blade your face can't feel". Well, trust me, you can feel it. Right from the start tonight it was rough and pulling and....surprisingly.....very ineffective. I shaved my right cheek in spite of the feel and discovered it had barely removed anything. I have no idea how many shaves they originally designed these blades for, but as a NOS blade it appears to handle 1/2 of a shave, then the second half is rough and getting worse and a second just was in the cards. I switched over to my rescue setup - '59 Super Speed with a Super Iridium blade. That finished me up in two easy and smooth passes right down to a BBS.....AND....my face didn't feel the blade with the Iridium. There's a lot of great history in these old Blue Blades. Thanks to @BearCWY for sending me some usable ones to play with and I'm glad I can say I took the challenge. I'm also glad to say that one's in the books! Hope you have a great Monday!
Reading this, all I could think of was something along the lines of "Can an upstart blade from an obscure Chinese manufacturer outperform the blade that defined a generation of shavers?"
