January 2018 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

I've never finished one, but I bet a tub of Stirling would easily go 90-100 shaves. Probably more.

 

I have finished pucks but only a couple. I got a soft Island man and puck and used it over a summer.

I have yet to kill a 5+ oz tub. I just can not get to the bottom of one. I have 15 tubs. I feel like the wise old owl counting licks on a Tootsie Roll pop.

I picked 2 and have been tackling them pretty hard. There is no way I will empty either before spring hits and scents change.

I try though. I bloom them with the hottest tap water I can get and load hard. It's almost maddening.

You just can not beat the value in Stirling products.

 

At this point I have 10 full tubs of Stirling. It seems each lasts about a decade. None are showing signs of significant wear. And I beat them up. I don't see myself as a frugal latherer.

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Hey, I feel your pain. There are other scents I'd like to add...but my wife is starting to poke fun at the 15 I have. Add 15 bottles A/S and the same for balms? Shoot man...I'm taking up some cabinet space.

 

Thank you Andrew.

Wonderful photo and lineup. What to you this of the MS brush?

 

Thank you, Clint! I like it quite a lot, this is what I want a badger brush to feel like. Lots of backbone in a very dense knot, but super soft tips with little to no scritch. It also consumes quite a lot of soap!

 

Well, the Fine certainly smells better. All jokes aside, the Tabac is a great performing soap. I think that today was the best of the 3 Fine lathers I have made in the past few weeks. It was also the first time that I had face-lathered it, fwiw. It is 'Fine'- good lather, nice scent, decent post-shave feel. A keeper. Tabac, to me, makes a top tier lather, with a dated scent (a nice blend of tobacco, leather, certs and lipstick...) that I fine acceptable as I do like tobacco scents.

 

The seven ounce tubs of Jeeves of Hudson Street are even worse. I have four in rotation, and two waiting for later, and I haven't even gotten them below the ridge where the lid screws to. My next targeted soap will be a Beaver Woodwright/Blackship one. Once it's done I will be targeting either one of the Jeeves or my two Stirling samples I have in tubs. I have about 26 soaps in rotation right now, and six I haven't opened. I seriously can't get any more until I get some of these used up. The worst part is, I have already PIFed or sold all the ones that I didn't love the scent, so all of these are good ones. Nice problems to have, right?

 

Thanks, Jason. I know they say that Fine is based on the Tabac formula. But I've always wondered if it really was as good. Sounds like it misses the mark just a little bit.

 

So I should probably post Monday's shave. Van Yulay soap, Stephan's Island Lime with added menthol, Dubl Duck Brush with Omega Boar knot, and a Cooper Monobuilt with a third (and last) shave on the Gillette 7 o'clock Black blade. Neck was a little tender due to the blade, but overall a DFS.

For today's shave, I grabbed a 5/8 Genco with custom scales. Love this little straight, its very nimble and easy to use. Decided to actually do Jeeves January, with my two favorite Jeeves scents. Fougere soap and Cherry Blossom splash. I think he only made one batch of this soap, but it is a winner if he ever offers it again. For a Fougere scent, it is a very clean smelling one. The big Omega Boar in my 30DC LE brush wipped up a great lather from the soused soap. Three passes, and BBS on my face, chin, and jaw. DFS on my neck with no irritation. That's kind of my goal for shaves now.

 

The Frozen Tundra and Port-au-Prince tubs are about 3 years old. I have a few others from that same order, so honestly, I need to attack those as well. I am actually liking this older version, though. It lathers just a bit different, but cam you throw some water at it.

 

Andrew from all my reading that seems to be general opinion I have read. I can't compare as I have never tried Tabac and don't anticipate trying it. I think the problem was with Fine indicating that the formula was based on Tabac. Had they left that part out, many people would judge it on its own merits and have a more positive opinion.

 

Two wonderful photos and lineups Adam.

 

Interesting, I have never heard that. Based on that context, no, I would not say Fine is a replica -formulawise- of Tabac. When I used the Fine soap, my thought was never 'Boy, this is a lot like Tabac'.
It is a similar hardness, but so are other soaps.

 

This was the original release description for Fine American Blend, the first Fine Soap to be released. The rest of the scents came about 6 months later:

Product description from Mr.Fine himself:

Fine Accoutrements is proud to announce the long awaited release of Fine Classic Shaving Soap!

From the very beginnings of Fine Accoutrements, it was obvious that a soap offering was needed to fulfill the promise of a truly “Fine Shave”. However, given the impact that Fine Classic After Shave has had on the traditional wet shaving community, we felt a responsibility not to tarnish the brand by slapping the name on a product that wasn’t similarly remarkable. This has proven much more difficult with soap than it was with aftershave.

It’s easy to forget that “craft aftershave” barely existed (outside of bay rum) at the time Fine Accoutrements was launched 3 years ago. There were the big European brands, the drugstore American Brands, and precious little in between. There were certainly some products out there, but most had the feel of a soap-maker’s afterthought, and the beautiful glass flask bottles we made famous were nowhere to be found. In other words, the world was ripe for something new, and our updated take on Alt-Innsbruck was just lucky enough to hit the mark.

The competitive landscape of shaving soap in 2016 is a much different beast. The world is full of not just good, but great shaving soaps, many of which can even be had at reasonable prices. Creating a product worthy of distinction in such an environment is no easy task, but… we think we’ve done it!

From the beginning of our endeavor to create a dream shaving soap, we had a straight forward goal: the lather of Tabac, with the Fine scents. Little did I know how difficult such a thing is to achieve. We talked to every large American Soap maker in an attempt to duplicate the Tabac experience, but to no avail. We even paid one $3,000 in an attempt to reverse engineer the ingredient list, but after 46 different attempts, the exercise proved to be nothing more than time and money down the drain. It became clear that something was lost in soap manufacturing while coming to the new world (at least when it comes to shaving).

As frustrating, time consuming, and expensive as that experience was, it also marked the turning point in our endeavor, because we finally got the idea to just start calling around Europe. It was this decision that led to a moment, months later, where we received a sample of a soap base with a lather and ingredient list (ex- fragrance components) identical to Tabac! It was love at first lather, and we soon struck an exclusive agreement with the single manufacturer that had access to this soap, and could produce it in appropriate volumes, to utilize it for Fine Classic Shaving Soap.

Although we could not obtain official confirmation that the soap base I had discovered is the same as used in Tabac, we have little reason to suspect otherwise. Regardless, even if we're wrong, I’m still happy to bring to market a triple-milled, tallow-based soap with lather remarkably similar to Tabac. But if we're right, wet shavers will now have access to what amounts to the first new scent(s) of Tabac since Sir Irish Moos!

Made in The Netherlands, Fine American Blend Soap is now available. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

- Mr. Fine​

 

She is beautiful, Jared. Fatboy's are my favorite. Oh my, that is a lot of chrome. Hard bags. Custom paint in a killer color combo! FLAMES!

What else could a guy want?

 

Some great pictures, Adam!

 

I get the 86.1 now! It looks comfy and built for comfortable miles.

The other day you mentioned north GA. Now the bike pic, I have to ask...have you ridden Tail of the Dragon? https://tailofthedragonmaps.com/

I'm not a bike guy myself but my friends are all about trips to ride the Dragon.

 

Somehow I missed this reply. I think this is very true, Clint. And have noticed that they have since taken down the comparison to Tabac on their website, but once on the Internet always on the Internet.

 

That is a very nice straight, Adam. And love the MonoBilt of course!