MAYhem 2018 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Great photo, Jason! That label dates the soap a bit. Have you had it for a while ?

 

Thanks, Andrew. I got this puck in the wrapper from Keith about 6 months ago and then pressed it into a bowl. It is the old label, but still has a powerhouse scent. Pure mixed forest.

 

Awesome pic, Clint! Hope the rainy commute wasn’t too bad.

Great photo effect, Jim! It’s your signature for sure.

Finishing off a Jeeves puck is quite an accomplishment, Perry! Glad to hear the return to a comfortable shaver went well.

Awesome pic of an cool looking razor, Andrew! The Don Marco sounds like a winner as well. Is it based on something, or is it an original scent?

 

Thank you Gentlemen. I survived the commute. Only took 1 hour and 15 minutes to go 18 miles. I have told you how much I hate Atlanta traffic.

 

I think it is an original (TFS) scent. TFS has the same scent under their brand "Bergamotto Neroli". It is a very bright tangy citrus scent. Stirling Satsuma is very similar but has a little bit of spiciness in the background where Don Marco is just straight up tangy orangey citrus.

 

Thank you Andrew. This boar knot is not opening up at all. Since I am not really a fan so far, the knot might be gone.

 

Great photo Perry. What do you think of the Epsilon Blue?

 

Thank you, Andrew!

Thank you, Jason! The Jeeves is certainly a long lasting soap. Superb quality through and through.

 

Wow fantastic photo and it even has the "Soap Destroyer". Very cool looking razor.

 

Wonderful shave Jason. Your photos always have such a warm feeling.

 

Thank you, Clint! I really liked the Epsilon. Nice, silky face feel. Obvious that it has some glycerin. Good amount of menthol. The scent is similar in the bottle to the RazoRock Blue Barbershop, but it has dried down to something totally different on me. It reminds me a little bit of Stirling Piacenza in the dry down - soapy, clean, a little citrus? That's not AT ALL what this is supposed to smell like I don't think, but aftershaves and colognes can change character when on our skin. I really like it overall. And at $22.95 for 500ml, it's a bargain.

 

Thank you Jason. Unfortunately the commute was just as sucky as I thought it would be.

 

Thank you, Clint!

 

Thanks for the report. Many claim the initial scent is not an exact match for Floid Blue but the dry down is perfect match. If I ever finish off my bottle of Floid Blue I will give the Epsilon a try.

 

Fahrenheit one of my favorites, a classic scent.

 

I like the dry down a lot. The initial scent is nice as well. The RazoRock is much more powdery. Never tried original Floid Blue so I don't have any reference otherwise.

 

Great batch of photos and reports this morning from all the usual suspects!

Perry @PLAla, sorry to hear the Supply injector hasn't treated you well yet, but I find almost any model of Schick is good for a clean, relaxing shave too.

Clint @clint64, I don’t see what you're complaining about. A sustained speed of 15 mph sounds like a wonderfully smooth commute to me -- just ask any Amish driver. Do you use a standard one-horse rig or do you prefer a larger carriage with a matched team in place of the buggy?

 

I really have no reason to complain but Atlanta traffic does get to me at times. We are stuck in a weather pattern getting rain most every day which has me in somewhat of a bad mood.

 

LOL

For those who are new to the 30DC, we are talking about a shaving soap made by the William Marvy company, a company best known for its barber poles. It is generally considered to be a "difficult" soap, known for quickly dissipating lather. It's the sort of challenge that one takes on after mastering Williams. Neal, a couple of others, and I took it as a challenge during MAYhem 2016.

As I recall, we kicked around a few theories on making it work better including variations on brush wetness, lather building, and puck hydration. Personally, I wondered if the secret was something passed down verbally by members of the Barbernati during secret rituals. These days, I think the secret is a well-hydrated puck combined with a different set of expectations over what a barber might want in a shaving soap versus what we would want.

Which brings us to today's shave...

May 23, 2018

Razor: Simplex 7
Blade: 7 O'Clock Permasharp Stainless (4)
Brush: VdH Boar
Soap: Marvy
Post: Alum, Listerine, WH

My original plan had been to pair the 7 O'Clock with something close to its native razor, a Sterling Tech. Instead, I opted for the Simplex 7 after reading @NCoxSTL's latest SOTD. In my case, I opted not to use the travel Tech handle, but went with a full-size handle from an Old Type.

A bit about the Simplex... This particular razor, like the one Neal used, was packaged for sale in a vending machine by a company named "Mechanical Servants, Inc.". These were probably war surplus production which was purchased cheaply. I've seen some which came with the "proper" Simplex 7 Bakelite handle, so I assume that the travel Tech handles were from after supplies of the other handle ran out. The baseplate is Bakelite and the cap is metal with a black coating that wears off with time. (In the case of mine, most of it came off during the initial cleaning.) Like other Bakelite DE razors, the baseplate seems set up to accommodate either a three-post cap (with short posts) or a Tech-style cap with two short center guides. My own razor came with the latter sort of cap. It has an aggressive-looking gap, but I've not found the razor to be overly so. I also did not encounter Neal's issues with blade alignment.

I gave the Many a long loading period and got an acceptable if thin lather. The lather did, however, hang in for the whole pass.

Overall, I'm happy with the shave- BBS or near enough. The 7 O'Clock blade continues to perform well. Finally, as I said in another post, I would advise Neal to try the Simplex again with a better handle.

 

I'm 5 months into it, and I haven't had to talk myself down yet. However, one thing that I think has happened is that I have a short 'list' of things I want to get whenever this NB is over. The problem is that list is mostly high end stuff that I definitely want to try- the Karve razor for a few reasons, SV Aromatic Fern soap because I have a shower bar of it and love the scent, a NEW Improved as it is the one Gillette OC 3 piece head style I don't have and a Shavemac silvertip as a gift to myself for making a Romero styled handle for it to fit in...
I expect this list to get challenged by all the black Friday sales in November.