30 Day Rule/Focus; August 2023. All Are Welcome!

Voskhods ?... For me personally they are an extremely smooth & sharp blade. Like the vast majority of Russian DE blades I've tried I find the Voskhod TC perform & feel smoother on the second outing, in fact, that's something I find with most DE blades that i have tried with a few rules to the exception.
If you are familiar with Polsilver & Gillette Silver Blue then you should get along nicely with them. I like to use them in my slant razors very smooth & efficient. Hope this is some use to you.

 

Chris, that's how Bostonians say it..."AAAAAhhhtisan"

 

thank you Chris.very good.a touch pricey but worth it.imo.

 

awesome august shaves gents.

 

-The-Weekender-
brit fb new/kcg
simpson
palmolive
clubman



good morning gents.
nice and simple saturday shave
awesome
have a fine saturday everyone.
​

 

Not the best of shaves, but it could have been worse. I think I didn't have enough soap on in certain areas. For those certain areas, I had 2 Polka-dots((North Porcupine), one Knick(South Porcupine,) and a long stretch of redness(no bleeding) at the top of Cactus. Elsewhere, things were fine. I should have loaded better to get the proper amount of soap needed. I thik the strength of the Stoylin soap got me through. If I was using Mickey Mouse soap, I wouldn't have had a chance. The Gabels Lime aftershave was refreshing. Scent to me is a more watery version of Skin-Bracer. Closed with Halston cologne. Fairly Outstanding. I know I can do better than this.

 

My "pricey but worth it" item, so far, has been my Bill Neumann products.

 

Thank you Gary.

 

Terrific shave and great info on the Snmirn razor. My concern is that the magnets will eventually lose their forces and therefore, the dreaded mishap will take place. It's like playing Russian roulette.

 

I am not surprised that you got a great shave with that setup Chris.

 

Simply super Saturday shave Gary.

 

Thank you Joe...At the first glimmer of suspicion that the magnets lose their forces then it's curtains for the Snmirn razor...It'll no longer have any Futur.

 

Excellent shave Gary

 

SRS # 939

Rating: 5 / 5

Razor: Taylor Eyewitness 1000
Brush: Shore Shave Cool Mint Water 24 mm Synthetic
Lather: Arko
Aftershave: B & M Sandalwood
Additional Care:
Omega Alum
Dickenson’s Original Witch Hazel
Stirling Unscented Glacial Balm

Fabulous Arko shave this morning. A rare face lather shave as using the stick eliminates the use of the bowl. The Taylor Eyewitness 1000 razor delivered a close three pass shave. The Shore Shave synthetic whipped up a nice slick Arko lather.

Heading to a BBQ, I am not hosting for a change. I will be glad when the summer BBQ season comes to a close so I can get my diet back in order.

 

great Saturday shaves, gents.

Joe, from my knife collecting hobby, I have known of Taylor Eyewitness as a British cutlery firm dating back to the early 19th century. But I didn't know it also made straight razors.

 

Saturday August 12 - Allegedly Adjustable, Artisan, "Canadian Arko" August

Prep: hot shower
Razor: "adjustable" matte black Supply 2.0 injector with usual SE comb plate / Supply Black Label (5?)
Brush: Semogue SOC cherrywood badger re-knotted with APShaveCo 24mm Tuxedo synthetic
Soap: JM Fraser's Shaving Cream
Post: rinse, alum, rinse, Thayer's Alcohol-free Unscented Witch Hazel spray

My last shave was Sunday August 6, so a bit less than a week ago.

I realized I have 30 samples of shaving soaps or creams (mostly creams) that have been sitting around since at least the summer of 2019. It is time I tried them. That will be the project for my next series of shaves. Today I was in a hurry, so I grabbed my handy tub of "Canadian Arko" and a nearby brush and razor.

JM Fraser's Shaving Cream is the Canadian equivalent of Arko - a shaving product dating back to the "golden age" of wetshaving that is (or rather was) decent, cheap and widely available. It was created in 1956 by JM Fraser, a pharmacist in the then-small city of Winnipeg Manitoba. He sold it to other drugstores, gradually becoming mainly a shaving cream manufacturer rather than a drugstore owner. Eventually, as is the way of things, he sold out to a conglomerate based in the much bigger city of Toronto Ontario, which moved the production line to a facility there. At its peak, JM Fraser's was available in almost every drugstore and chain superstore in Canada. As late as 2015, you could still buy a one pound tub of it (enough for about a year of shaving) for ten bucks Canadian - dirt cheap.

The Covid-19 pandemic did it in. The conglomerate had kept making the shaving cream because the facility was long since amortized and therefore returned a small but decent profit without requiring much outlay. The new Covid-era worker safety regulations would have required substantial expensive modifications to the production line, so the conglomerate "temporarily" halted production instead. Then it later announced that it wouldn't be "cost effective" to re-start production, especially since the shaving cream wasn't part of its "core business" anyway.

JM Fraser's is also like Arko in lathering easily and also in having a lemony smell. However, the lemon scent is not as strong as Arko's and is also less "industrial". It is quite pleasant and doesn't linger enough to interfere with any other aftershave or cologne applied.

If I had been a Canadian shaver back in the late 1950s to 1970s, I imagine I would have been quite satisfied to buy myself one or two tubs of JM Fraser's Shaving Cream each year to use with a boar brush and my Gillette Tech or Fatboy and a suitable blade.

Today the shave cream whipped up a decent lather with my modern synthetic brush, then the injector cleaned the stubble off to respectably cleanshaven in one pass. Alum was silent; I did a quick spritz of witch hazel just in case.

Total shave took five minutes, and I was refreshed, respectable and ready to start my shift.

 

Wonderful shave John. Thanks for sharing the history of J M Frasier. It's the first time that I have heard about this product. It sounds like a nice and inexpensive soap a la Arko. Take care.

 

August 12 SOTA

Shavette Shave #475
Parker SRB
Gillette Wilkinson Sword 1/2 DE Blade (5)
Barbury Synthetic Brush
Cryogen SS
Aqua Velva Ice Blue AS
Stirling Alum Block
Modessa Witch Hazel
Beard Growth: 23.5 hrs



Although my last shave with this blade was ok, I decided to use it for the 5th time instead of replacing it. I usually get 5 to 7 shaves on a 1/2 DE blade so it's not unusual for me to get at least 5. Surprisingly, this 3 pass shave was much better than the previous one. I got a close, comfortable shave without any red liquid oozing out of me. However, I must say that the edge was not ultra sharp and so I binned it after this shave.Anyway, I am getting closer to finishing this tub of Cryogen SS which is the main goal for the next few days. Here's today's lather:



I had enough lather to take the opportunity to apply a 4th non-shaving lather pass so as to get an extra menthol kick.

My post shave was excellent. The alum feedback was smooth as ice . Hit the face and neck with witch hazel that was followed with the AQ Ice Blue aftershave. Tomorrow, I think that I will pick up one of my straights for the shave. It may be one of my Dovos or my Henckels Friodur. But then again, it may be something else. Lol! Take care.

 

Yes, indeed I have some GSBs initially wasn't impressed but that was before my skills improved. Good to know, I will try them soon enough.

Thanks again Gary

Paul, if I think I don't have enough soap I just add more, even during a pass. If the lather dries or thins I just mash some more onto the area question, brush or fingers, especially at the time of buffing. I am tired of blades scraping my face with no protection

Thanks Joe

Lovely insight into the history there John, nice write up.
(BTW if you only shave once a week those 30 samples might just outlast you, n'est ce pas? Lol!)