September 2019 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Thank you, Joe!

 

Sept 3
Good afternoon guys!
Rockwell Model T (6)
Rockwell Blade (3)
Stirling Boar Brush
Fine Italian Citrus SS
Stirling Satsuma AS
Nivea Balm
First, I want to say thanks to Danny for sending me this soap. It was totally unexpected and greatly appreciated. Now, it's on with my shave report! Fine is a real hard soap so I used my Stirling boar brush to lather my face. I didn't bloom the soap. I used the paste/ painting and slowly add increments of water method to get a decent lather. I smelled the puck and their was a slight pleasant orangey scent that wasn't overbearing. My disappointment was the scent wasn't present while lathering my face. The lather was decent, but it took me a minute or 2 longer to get it just right. I guess Stirling spoiled me. However, I attribute all this to the fact that I have not use this soap before and have to get the water/soap ratio dialed in for this soap. Also, my sniffer is sometimes blocked so I don't get the full scent exposure. The most important thing about the Fine soap is that it was slick and gave some cushion. Now, I need to improve on using this soap like I did with Razorock to straight razor shave with it. Presently, if Stirling is an A, then Fine would be a solid B. I believe that the more I get acquanted with this soap the higher the grade just like my Razorock soap experience. I did 3 full passes and got an excellent BBS shave. Now, I know why I like straight shaving. It's because the time between shaves is much longer than when I use a safety. Applied the orange scented Satsuma followed by the Nivea balm. Guys, have a great day!

 

Great razors. They are probably my favorite SE razor.

 

Excellent picture, Gary!

 

Wonderful picture, Mark!

 

Nice shave, Joe!

 

Thanks, Perry! It certainly was a nice shave.

 

Interesting post (and timing)....

I'm going through a similar experiment now. Glen just did his hone services in addition to replacing the scales on my Henkels. The Henkels is by far the smoothest shaver of ANY straight razor I've shaved with to date. It's made me ponder metallurgy (materials) vs. sharpness vs. smoothness, and then how to combine those for smooth shaving edges for the straight razors I own.

I've honed 6 of my 8 straight razors, and all 6 of my kamisori razors (3 western grind and 3 traditional grind) from bevel set to 'shave ready'. I can create hair popping shaveable edges from toe to heel. A couple of my kamisoris and Japanese straights get scary sharp after linen/leather stropping (some of them even before the 12k hone). Same for a couple of my straight razors. But....some (straight or kami) don't always shave smooth though. In my mind...this is a combination of pressure (hone and/or strop technique) and blade materials (metallurgy) of my razor collection.

My 'shave ready' is a test that Glen shows in some of his videos, and it works very well guiding me to judge my honing and process. It's the tree topping arm hair test coming off a 12k hone (no stropping involved at that point). Some say, even Glen I believe, you can get results on that test on much coarser stones. I've been quietly lurking and researching A LOT of threads on 'finishing'. I haven't officially put anything on paper on my process vs. which straight or kami I've honed, it's kind of just in my head and flying blind, getting razors to shaveable sharp, but it is repeatable and works so far. Time is slowly becoming more available for me to work on a method or process to get to 'smooth' for each of my razors. Could be a long journey.....

Haven't jumped completely into rabbit hole of the 1% of final finishing. That can get pricey. However, I recently stepped up to the edge, peered over, chose to add balsa pasted stropping to my process.....results coming in the next few weeks.

 

Excellent picture, Joseph!

 

Thanks Jim!

 

Great report Joe and you are welcome. Awesome shave for the first round with Fine. Once you get the Fine soap dialed in you will throw your Stirling soaps away. Just kidding....both are top notch and will stay in my den. Have a great day.

 

Very neat focus this month, Keith. I'm following along with interest for sure. A great set up as always as well, with a very cool watch. Looks like Patina'ed Brass.

I say the same thing all the time myself, Jim.

Great basics (for software, anyway) shave, Jim!

Great pic as always. You posted well before 5 am, Jim. Still working those 12s I suppose.

You've reminded me that I still have some Stirling Barbershop somewhere, Terry, and I need to pull it out. Great Combo.

Is it too easy to say that any single guy who uses Clubman has just explained the reason why they are single? Paul is too nice of a guy to bug, though.

Yup, I bet you love SEptember, Perry! Sounds like the band is doing great as well.

Love, love, love the L'Orange Noir, Danny. You've just inspired me to bring it out tomorrow.

Great photo, Clint! You didn't buy ANYTHING? I'd bug you a bit about it, but alas I do have Cubebe and a few other goodies inbound, so I'll just lay low on this one...

Truly a magnificent photo, Mark. One of the best.

Sounds like a great shave, Gary!

I'm jealous on those old bottles for sure, Joseph. Between those, your Yardley and your various Old Spice ones, you've got some great vintage juice and holders.

You chatty guys? You ain't kidding, Blair. I got caught up last night... 41 pages in 48 hours, yeesh!

Love the combo, Jeff. How may plates do you have with the Karve?

What a great gift on the soap, Joe. I love Fine soaps, but they did take a bit for me to get them really dialed in. Load like heck, use lots of water added very incrementally, and forget a bowl with them, imho.

 

Thank you, Danny!

 

That's what I figured because it is a very hard soap. Williams is the other hard soap that I use and had to learn to get it dialed just right. So, I expect the same with Fine.

 

In the watch world, they are called Frankenwatches, Folex, Feiko... Guys that are brand purists seem to hate 'em with a purple passion.

Rolex, in particular, is very restrictive on selling replacement parts...even to watchmakers. They must have a "parts account" to get authentic replacement parts...at least in the U.S. I've seen folks overseas come up with OEM parts...not sure how they pull it off, though. If you send your Rolex for service to one of their authorized service centers, they'll require you to replace all the non-authentic parts as part of the service. If they have to replace a part, they keep the old part as well. In fact, they're known for replacing a highly desirable vintage OEM part with a new part...and this can destroy the value of a nice old piece. For that reason, you seek out an independent watch maker for service (with a parts account) to perform "sympathetic" restorations or service. Rolex watches are some of the most copied in the world...so I guess this drives a lot of this. I bet this is pretty much the same in the HD world with motorcycles. Parts usually don't fly off Rolex Oysters though.



Sorry to bring up the watch thing again. If anyone needs a watch, my phone number is BR-549.

 

Thank you, Gentlemen. My wife is very supportive of my wetshaving hobby. As such, if she puts the nail in the coffin of Gentlemen -out of the roughly 50 scents or so that have come thru the den- so be it. I like it, but I like being happily married more...
I can still use the soap as long as I cover it with a different splash to finish. The balm will go permanently in the dopp bag for out of town trips exclusively.

 

Thank you, Jason! I certainly enjoy SEptember.

 

Agreed, Jason! As you can see, I placed the Fine soap in a used Rockwell soap tin and did use the lathering method that you suggested. However, I didn't super load the brush, but still got a decent lather. My only problem with this soap was the scent. It was very faint from the puck and nonexistent on the face. Do you have the Italian Citrus and did you experience the same power of the scent from the puck and on lathering the face, Jason?

 

Excellent shave reports and photos gentlemen. I'm still trying to catch up from being gone for five days, it isn't going very well.

 

You might have a better chance to lock your door for a few hours. Lol!