You're selling your Delta Echoed Gillette Short Comb??!!!? Heresy! (Or is that blasphemy? I never can keep the two straight...) Uhm, I like Delta Echo coatings and I don't own a Short Comb yet... Just saying, I am in the market...

Great photos of all three boys, gentlemen! Now let the Friday Photo Wars of pictures of cute young relatives begin -- start your engines in 3...2...1...

OCtober 26
Gem MMOC
Cvs blade
Jayaruh 117
Col conk almond soap
Nivea post shave balm

Tonight was the sixth shave from the cvs blade and it is still shaving like new. I’m not sure who makes them for cvs, wish I did so I could order a larger package of them. Happy to report a weeper free shave tonight, and I also finished off the bottle of Nivea. 3.3 oz seems to last for many shaves.

Friday October 26

Gillette Old Type Ball End no SN (so dated 1921 - 29) / Astra SP (2)
JR #320 mahogany handle with APShaveCo 28mm SynBad knot
Stirling Coniferous soap sample
Stirling Coniferous splash sample

I shaved this morning and didn't have a chance to post until tonight as I spent the day at a seminar.

This razor is one that came to me as a bag of parts: the handle wasn't just cracked but was split from end to end and sprung wide apart with the ends fallen out completely. I tried fixing it with a new product I found, Just For Copper. This is a solderless bonding agent for copper and brass that was developed for the plumbing trade to meld copper piping together without using silver solder and blow torches. It's not an epoxy, because it doesn't harden or bind things away from copper or brass, but when used between copper or brass fittings, it bonds in five seconds and cures solid within minutes -- yet the excess on the outside of the join just remains sticky until wiped off even days later. It has to be some kind of chemical reaction. My attempt to seal the handle together didn't work. When I released the clamp, the sides just sprang apart again. But the ends I fitted into the tube ends with bonding are in there absolutely rock solid. The result is a razor handle with ends that are permanently and seamlessly fitted -- and a millimetre wide opening running the length of the handle. I have convinced myself that this could be a benefit because the handle can expand and contract freely as the temperature changes and water can flow into and out of the handle without getting trapped, so it may be more stable in the long term. Regardless, I now think that Just For Copper is a viable alternative to epoxy or silver soldering, both for fixing brass razors and for doing any future plumbing repairs involving copper pipes.

So how was today's shave? Excellent. The brush is a lather machine. The soap wasn't quite as slick as yesterday's mutton tallow but was still far above average like all Stirling soaps. The razor is on the mild side for an Old Type (or maybe I am just used to using them now). Two fast passes left me DFS, cleaned up, splashed with Coniferous and ready to go in about five minutes.

Hope everyone has had a good Friday leading into a great weekend!

Great report John. I learned something new.


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Thanks Randy!

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Thank you, John!

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Thanks guys. I am so thankful to have this sweet child in my life. It was a long wait to be a grandfather, but worth it. He makes my heart melt.

OCtober Oleo and Odd Balls!!

October 26

Razor - Gem Micromatic Open Comb
Blade - (2)
Soap - Stirling Ozark Mountain
Brush - Jayaruh #46
Post - Alum

Lessons learned on a wet, dreary day of GrubHubbing for dollars.

Lesson 1 - There are people who are so stupid they can't put their current address on an online order to have food brought to them. In fact, they can put specific directions to the place they are NOT. Then expect you to show up in the place they ARE just because they say so.

Lesson 2 - People on cell phones do incredibly stupid things like pulling a U-turn in front of others so close that, if not for good brakes, they would have a Mazda CX-5 in the front seat with them.

Lesson 3 - Sometimes it's the restaurants you never hear of or even know are there that have the best food. Man the smells will drive me back in to try some food! Best tacos in St. Louis? Taco Circus is the name of the place. Little dive down in South St. Louis owned and run by a young black gentleman who made me two tacos to go. Seriously. Tacos of the gods!

Lesson 4 - Apparently, Suburu either has really cheap bumpers or else they are designed to fail. I had a driver trying to parallel park next to me in a tight street and his front end hit mine. From the sound I expected both cars to be smashed up. His bumper was hanging off his car. There isn't even a scratch on my car. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. He and I looked over the damage to his car and realized that nothing was really broken. It's all plastic. We started snapping it back in place on one end and the whole bumper went right back on. No harm, no foul.

Lesson 5 - the OCMM can and will bite whenever it decides it wants to. I have the bloody chin near my goatee to prove it. And that, my friends, is probably the best lesson of all! Have a fantastic Saturday!

OCtober Limes & OC's

RazoRock Lime Burst SS
The King badger brush
Gillette NEW LC, Bar handle
Pinaud Lime Sec Cologne
Loving the lime soap & I'm curious how it acts in a bowl lather. I'm about done with this face lathering/badger experiment. Results?

1. I can make it work.
   
2. Some soaps are better than others.
3. I make better lathers in a bowl.

Didn't open the 3pc to see what blade it's holding, but it's still doing OK. Got my 3 passes, a little touch up, no errors, and a standard issue DFS. It's been six or more hours since the shave and I want another splash of the Pinaud. Lime EO isn't an all day scent.
Good Shaves Y'all!

Cartel HQ is proud to announce a new member is about to join our family in STL! Say hello to Jayaruh #230. Mrs. Czar mentioned that she thought I should get a new brush since it has been a bit since I added one. That and the fact I can pull off a No Repeat November with blades, razors and soaps, but not brushes. So, I took her advice and found this beauty just waiting to find his forever home. The adoption papers were filed, accepted and processed at @Jayaruh HQ and this beauty will be joining his brothers, #46 and #54 in a few days.

Some great advice already given so I will add some new advice:

If you are in a hurry, put down the SR and pick up DE to shave.

If you wife, significant other, kid or pet may interrupt your shave put down the SR, step back and pick up a DE to shave.

If something does not feel right put down the SR, step back and pick up a DE to shave.

There is an old wives saying that it takes 100 shaves with a SR to become consistently good with it. Stick with it and before you know it the irritation will be gone and your face will be smooth.

A triple dose of cuteness for Friday!

Saturday Shave:

Feeling in a Tabac mood, so I load a new puck of Tabac in my Tabac tub and even finished with some Tabac EDC. I thought it was an epic shave but tingle from the alum left me just short.

Irritation A Closeness A+ Smoothness A+ Sharpness A+

Razor: Koraat 7/8 half hollow
Strop: T Miller
Brush: Rooney
Pre: Proraso
Soap: Tabac
AS: Enhanced Florida Water AS
Scent: Tabac

Fair enough! I guess that I have got a helluva way to go! I can get 5 shaves out of a Personna injector blade and 4.5 out of a GEM stainless

I was thinking the same thing! Valuable information!

Too much of your attention given to mulling over the first 4 lessons, and the OCMM struck!

wilkinson sword blue soap stick is a good soap and cheap..smells good too...

thats a nice t-shirt...

my neighbour...

thinking of a november focus ,54 gillette ss with a gsb set up..thanks jason..,loving the OCtober theme..any thoughts for next month..?

I got re-ended in my wife's 2008 Forester. Not a mark.