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SOTD Sunday, April 19, 2020
My wide body cap from Karve Shaving arrived a few days ago. Although I enjoyed my Tech shave yesterday, I wanted a DE shave with a heavier blade holder, and the Karve Christopher Bradley razor at 111 grams with the Wizamet Super Iridium blade fit the bill. I’ve always enjoyed this razor! It was the first modern artisan razor I purchased after 50 years of shaving with my trusty Schick Krona. My only gripe was the exposed blade tabs. Yes, I was one of those spazzes who unerringly would nick his ear with the exposed tabs every couple of shaves. As a result I stopped shaving with it as frequently as I used to, and as I accumulated more razors, the frequency of use diminished even more. With the new wide body cap, my gripe goes away.
For today’s shave I selected Sterling Obsidian soap and AS Splash. I normally shave the Karve with a D-OC baseplate. The look of the razor has changed eith the new top cap, but the shave is still as excellent as ever. This razor is definitely going back in the regular rotation. While not in the same weight class as the brass TAR, it still delivered my desired shave. The Jayaruh #343 Synthetic generated a great cooling Glacial Obsidian lather. The wonderful Anise smell reminded me of the delicious cookies my Italian grandmother used to make when I was a boy. The weight and balance of this razor in hand make its use a delight. That first WTG pass mowed my whiskers right down to the skin line. One more ATG clean-up pass was all she wrote, and as a friend of mine from Atlanta is fond of saying, “put the baby to bed”! The result was an effortless BBS that easily passes the cotton ball test. I feel clean, cool, smooth, and refreshed.
RAZOR: Christopher Bradley w/ D-OC
BLADE: Vintage Polish Wizamet Super Iridium (1)
PREP: Cold water rinse
BRUSH: Jayaruh Synthetic #343
SOAP: Stirling Glacial Obsidian
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with Glyce Glycerin soap followed by Thayers Lavender WH and Glacial Obsidian AS Splash. Finished with Cremo Cooling Post Shave Balm
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