November 2018 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

@RyX sorry I missed you post. This is from the daily lather review

So what's Blood on Steel about? It was the official St. Louis meetup (and The Shave Den forum) soap, taking place on Saturday, July 14, 2018. The scent is a dupe of Parfums de Marley Herod - essentially an Oriental fragrance of wood and spices. The scent was launched in 2012 and the nose behind it is Olivier Pescheux. He's made a remarkable number of scents. While they weren't all rockstars, there are definitely some heavy hitters on the list.

 

When we cuddle at night, she likes to look at the shave pictures I have taken. If I have one for the next morning she always ask to help with the filter.

 

Thank you Andrew.

 

I put this in a Brush thread as well, but as this is my usual hangout, I’ll post these pics here as well-
I mentioned a little over a week ago that I’d bought my first resin kit. Bought some ‘Coral Metallic’ powder to go with it. Made a few wood and resin blanks, with this one being a piece of maple I split and laid in the form and poured the resin in the gaps. I turned it this weekend and had no idea how it would turn out:

I have a few more blanks poured to try a few different things. I’ve got a few ideas I’d like to get to try over the next few weeks. I’m not sure if I’ll keep this one or not.

 

That is a really neat effect, Jason! Do you have to do anything special or different when you turn the resin as opposed to plain wood?

 

Thanks, John. Well, I don’t have any experience to comment on other than this handle, but as for the turning itself, no I didn’t do anything different than with wood. You do have to sand and finish it a little differently, it seems.

 

Well, do keep showing us the results as you experiment with it, even the ones not shaving related. Where did you get the resin, btw?

 

There's a razor you don't see everyday around here. Very cool.

 

Windsor Plywood. A chain of wood/specialty tool stores. I assume you have them in Sask as well. This brand is called ecopoxy and is made in Winnipeg.
Wood is cheaper, though!

 

Yes, but is wood always "ecological"? I am assuming of course that the "eco" in ecopoxy doesn't stands for "economical"...

I don't recall ever seeing a Windsor Plywood in SK. We have local lumberyards, the Saskatoon Co-Op hardware store, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Rona, Lee Valley, used to have House of Tools... No Windsor Plywood.

 

Ahh...Nope. Eco stands for some sore of ‘earth friendly’ version that I can pour inside the basement without having to mask up.
500 ml of product (250mm of each part- resin and hardener) is about $50. If I knew what I was doing, I could probably get close to four smallish handles from that. Much cheaper by volume to get larger quantities.

 

very cool, i look forward to seeing more of them..

 

Well, I assume if you decide you like it you can buy it in the kegs instead. I suppose the other way to stretch it is to cheat by putting more wood pieces in the form with smaller amounts of resin as "accents" filling in little gaps. Ultimately, you might be able to do that so the resin strips would form patterns...

 

NOVember is NO whatever you want it to be! Apparently.

November 12

Razor - Razorrock TTO
Blade -
Soap - Van der Hagen Scented Luxury
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Post - Alum

A bit of an early night tonight. Winter arrived in the Lou today. Nothing terribly serious but snow all day, some slick spots, wet and cold, so I stayed in to avoid the idiots who have to be reminded how to drive in the winter. I randomized the shave and had a few concerns, mainly the razor. I haven't had much luck with the Razorock TTO. Seems like it's always been a bit rough and bitey for some reason. One of the scuppers seems a little off on it and I've always attributed the difficulty to that, though I never knew for sure. Mostly I gave it a few tries, sliced and diced and put it away. Well, the randomizer brought it back. It did grab the Gillette Platinum blade, however. A very good Russian blade from St. Pete. If you want just a basic Gillette platinum coated blade, this one is excellent. Smooth and sharp. Nothing fancy, it just does what it's supposed to do.

The Canuck turned up for its second and final appearance this month and the gods threw in the VDH Luxury soap. Ok, I can deal with that. VDH is another "drug store" soap that proves you don't need to spend a lot to get a great lather. And the Canuck absolutely loved it. Loaded and lathered three full passes with ease.

I focused on keeping the angle right on the TTO. I am wondering about head geometry. Perhaps it's just a bit different from the others I use so I'm not giving it an adequate chance? I dialed in the angle and noticed that, when cutting well, it's a noisy razor. Don't remember that before. I held the angle and kept the pressure off for all three passes and.......no blood. Then I grabbed the alum. Yep, this will prove how bad it was. Except it was quiet. Nice and quiet. As in silent. I'll be. Could it be that settling down and accepting the tool for what it is allowed me to finally bring technique to solve the problem? Technique Trumps Tools!

The baby is in the house, the VDH Luxury reminds me of Mountain Man for the scent and I had a great shave. And that's the truth.

 

Interesting... it looks like a rebadged Pearl razor.

 

Yep. I want one. I like how that turned out. Thanks for feeding my BAD again. I'll be looking at brushes all night now.

 

Yes, was trying for those ‘patterns’ with this one. I’m not worried about saving a buck or two, just having some fun. I’m probably going to do a few more ‘traditional’ wood/resin combos as well.

 

Well, as entertainment, it's wholesome and a lot cheaper than some. (Says me, having dropped into the local casino today and left without my shirt...)

 

Thank you, Neal. Alas, I don’t think I’ll keep this one, I think I’ll probably move it on to someone who doesn’t already have any of my brushes. It is virtually the same handle shape as the 30DC LE. I didn’t want to experiment with a new shape at the same time as a new material.

 

hello folks,nice monday night shave,thought i would test drive the new rfb french set-the good one..
nacet blade , second use ,eveready 150 brush with the timberwolf knot. made a lovely slick lather with the gtb and had an excellent 2 pass dfs shave..no drama .
cold water rinse and a touch of thayers.. great face feel, ghost town barber a/s to finish. ,love this stuff.
have a great evening., gary