Thursday OCtober 18
Gillette New Improved in Richwood box / Astra SP (3)
APShaveCo U-Brush with 24mm Flat Top knot
Stirling Sharp Dressed Man soap sample
Alum and Stirling Red Delicious splash sample
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I recycled yesterday's photo because it also showed today's razor: the 1925 dated New Improved in a box declaring it to be a "Richwood" model. As far as I can tell, the only difference between a Richwood, a Bostonian and a New Standard model is the type of case the razor came in -- the razors themselves were identical. This one is tarnished, suggesting it is silverplated, but is otherwise in very good condition. The Astra SP blade loaded with no trouble and I was off to the races.
For my soap today, I used another Stirling sample sent to me by Jason
@jtspartan, this one being Sharp Dressed Man. Jason indicated that this particular soap gave him a tingling or burning sensation although he liked the scent. It didn't give me any trouble at all, but I wasn't too wild about the scent. The synthetic brush whipped the soap into the usual slick Stirling lather. The razor then wiped lather and whiskers away in two easy passes to an excellent DFS. The alum was mostly silent and the Stirling splash finished off the shave. The splash is Red Delicious, which is supposed to smell of apples; the smell reminds me more of apple jack.
I would say that today's Stirling samples have fulfilled their function of letting me test scents without buying large quantities of soap or splash. And for me, today's soap and splash were both definite misses. The Sharp Dressed Man scent simply doesn't thrill me, and the Red Delicious smells too much like booze, which is not a scent I like to wear when out and about.
The razor on the other hand is a hit: a pleasantly solid feeling instrument that provides a good shave. Aggressiveness seems to me to be similar to most Old Types -- more aggressive than the NEW but definitely manageable even as a daily driver.
Hope everyone has a great Thursday! Tomorrow I am moving back to the Injectomatic injector for a few days to finish trying it out before returning it to Jason...
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