FEB 2015 30 Day Rule/30 Day Focus Pic and Discussion Thread

Troy, I agree with your assessment of the Weber PH. It is my favorite razor. I like everything about it. I look forward to keeping up with your posts this month. Best of luck!

 

Thanks Charlie. I also want to add that I am going to exclusively face lather this month. I got away from face lathering back in the fall when I received a new lather bowl and it is about time to get back to some simplicity.

 

And it begins......

February Focus - Blades
1/31/15 - Day 1

Brush - Omega Pro 48
Cream - C.O. Bigelow
Razor - EJ89L
Blade - (1)
Post - RazoRock Alum and A/V Ice Blue

First of all thanks to Chris (Bama) for getting me started on this focus. Before we started the January 30 day Rule he asked me to do a comparison between the GSB and Voskhod when January ended. He even supplied the GSB blades and some Voskhods since my shipment was floating somewhere between Russia and here. I decided if I was going to compare one blade why not more.

Second, for the curious and extremely bored I have written out the rules for this focus. If you're interested let me know and I'll email it to you. If not then I will tell you that my grading scale is A-F and 1-5. So, A1 is best, F5 the worst. I graded my last 4 Voskhod shaves an A1, so everything will compare to that.

Now, on to the first day.

Very nice shave this morning, three passes, DFS with a near BBS just as I've been getting with the Voskhod. Alum produced one sharp bite directly under my chin at the goatee line. Can't blame the blade, though, as I did make an angle error on the XTG there. I was hoping it wouldn't show up but it did. Aqua Velva, however, produced no sting so it was apparently very minor. No blood.

Grade - A1. As to how it compares to Voskhod, my intitial impression is they are identical. We'll see how it plays out over two more shaves.

For today's picture I know you've seen my gear so I thought I'd share my breakfast instead - in honor of the Russian Silver Blue. Have a great day!

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2/1/15 - Blade Focus/Face Lather February

I really like my Weber PH. It is the only razor that has supplanted my Gillette New SC for extended daily use. So I want to put it through its paces with a variety of blades this month. I don't have a dedicated sampler pack set up just yet, but will be putting together a little envelope/baggy of blades to give a try from my plethora of blades in a box. I intend to treat each blade the same way. Prior to the first use, I will palm strop each edge of the blade 30 times. I will also palm strop after each shave. I hope to get at least 4 shaves per blade, but I guess that is the point of this focus, to see what works and what doesn't. I won't tolerate a poor performing blade and will readily change out of the shave is not good.

First up is a Derby Extra. I recall having pretty good luck with this blade in the past with the Weber, so time will tell. Today's shave was a 3 pass shave with a new blade. It turned out okay, not great, not bad. I also face lathered the small sample of B&M Solstice and the soap offered no surprises. It was just a little difficult to get much soap on my face when I rubbed the wet wedge on my cheeks and neck. I left the sample wet so hopefully it will be a little easier to use tomorrow.

Fo

 

Good luck gents! Did my 30 for January. Now back to razor, brush and soap rotating. It was fun doing it again!

 

02/01/15

Prep - Hot Shower
Razor - Mongoose Satin B2
Blade – Feather Pro (1)
Brush – Every-Ready 100T with TGN Finest
Lather – Strop Shoppe SE Baker Street
Post - Witch Hazel, Dove AS balm and CC Sandalwood AS



The focus for this month will be the evaluation of blades available for the Mongoose Razor. I have on hand the Feather Pro, Feather Guard, Kai Captain Sharpblade, and Feather Super Pro. The first 3 blades have the same blade exposure. The Super Pro has more blade exposure thus should make the razor more aggressive. I will be rotating brushes and soaps throughout the month.

The Ever-Ready brush used today is one that I restored late last year. I had forgotten how nice this brush is to use. The Strop Shoppe proved very easy to lather proving to be very slick with good cushion.

The Feather Pro felt much sharper than the Kai Milds I used last month. Today’s shave was 2 passes with touch ups around my chin yielding a near BBS shave with no irritation or weepers.

 

February Focus Day 1
Focus - 1966 3rd quarter Slim Adjustable
Overall purpose - Gain confidence in using the Slim. Results have normally been very good when used, but i need to fine tune my technique with it to be as confident with it as I am with my Merkur 34C.
Overall good shave today to start off.

 

I am doing a focus for February. I have a '52 Gillette Super Speed Black Tip (X2)- Steel Handle and Baseplate that I picked up over a year ago, and haven’t shaved with. I had just discovered vintage razors, and bought about 20 in a month. There are some other ones I will be using in the next few months. The rest of my set up is wide open, because I enjoy changing stuff in my shaves.

February 1st SOTD (Shave 1 of the challenge)
Two Day's growth
Prep: Hot shower
Razor: '52 Gillette Super Speed Black Tip (X2)- Steel Handle and Baseplate
Blade: Rapira PlatinumLux, First shave on this blade
Soap: Homestead Ranch Goat Butter Shaving Soap- Naked in the Woods Scent- Bowl lathered
Brush: Vie Long Horsehair
Post Shave: Cold Water Rinse, Alum Block
Aftershave: Theyer’s Witch Hazel, Cucumber scent


So for this shave, this was the first time I had ever used this razor, the blade, and the brush. Start with the brush. It smelled like a wet horse half way through a medicated bath. I am sure that will improve. It worked very similar to my boar brushes. The soap is a different beast than some of my other soaps, it has to be made thin and extra watery for best results. I got it pretty much perfect. Slick lather, although it seems thin, it cushioned well.
The razor was more aggressive than I was expecting. I was thinking it would be like my ’54 SS, but was closer to my Red Tip. The blades were very smooth. I didn’t strop the blade, because I wanted to see how smooth it was. I did two and half pass shave, plus buffing. WTG/NS, ATG/SN, ATG and buffing on neck. Got some feedback on the neck from the alum block, but overall it was a DFS.

 

February Focus - Blades
2/1/15 - Day 2

Prep - Hot Shower, Towel soak
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Cream - C.O. Bigelow
Razor - EJ89L
Blade - (2)
Post - RazoRock Alum and The Veg

Well an interesting experience. After yesterday's performance I fully expected to sit back, enjoy the ride and report that yep, the GSB is still giving me no drag, no irritation, smooth as silk and no alum bite. That's what I expected. That's not what I got.

First pass I noticed a hint of drag but nothing worrisome. Actually stopped for a second, rechecked angle, and went back to work to make sure it wasn't me. Nope, still just that hint. Result of the first pass also a bit surprising as it didn't seem quite as close as yesterday but hey, I'm getting old, maybe my memory is bad.

Second pass, XTG, that drag showed up a bit more. Stopped again, checked lather, ok this can't be right, rinse, reapply lather to make sure it wasn't my error. Went back to work, and the drag continued to be noticeable. Result of the second pass, wow, I need to make sure the third goes well.

Third pass, ATG, drag about the same as XTG but the worst part was the amount of touch up it took to get DFS. It's not like it was everywhere, but definitely more than I expected from the blade.

Face felt good until the Alum hit it. Yep, the neck is irritated. Let the alum set, rinsed, then applied the Veg. Hmmmmm....now my cheeks have a bit of sting too that the alum didn't find.

Today's grade - Have to give it an A-/2. By the criteria I set it should be a B2, but I don't want to drop that low. It's not like the drag was horrible nor were there any weepers etc. And I did get the DFS in the end. Just had to work for it a bit.

Overall a bit surprising and disappointing, but still better than taking your chances with a Russian mail order bride.

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Second Blade in the Ten Blade Focus which I expect to go well over 30 days.

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/ten-blades-how-long-will-they-last.42857/page-2#post-783718

 

February 1

Stirling Sheep Soap
Feather Artist Club razor
Feather Professional blade (day 7)
Two-band silvertip
Stirling Naked and Smooth soap plus a few bits of leftover soap & glycerin
Two-pass plus touch-ups
Alum, Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, & unrefined shea butter

This is the first day of my February Focus to improve my skills using a shavette. I started today with a tamed Feather Pro blade and ended up with a close shave. It reminded me of operating a snow plow on my face! I experienced some irritation on my lower neck and a couple of weepers on my upper lip. This is a rather unforgiving set up compared to the Mongoose. Everything from prep to post needs to be right in order to get the shave I'm looking for. I hope to make steady progress this month.

I hope you all have a great week, and I look forward to to reading about your February adventures!

 

@wristwatchb You're a braver man than I am. I am looking forward to your comments on the the new brush.

 

Now this I have to follow. I know nothing about the Feather Artist Club so very interested to learn and follow how you do.

 

Thanks Clint! Maybe denser is a better word choice. I'm looking forward to using the new brush. I think it will get better as the month unfolds. I look forward to reading your posts this month as well! It will be interesting to read about your blade evaluation with the Mongoose. I've never used the Feather Professional Super blade before, but something tells me it was made for the Mongoose!

 

I just hope it doesn't turn into a blood bath.

 

Thanks for the encouragement! I used this razor for a six-month stretch last year, and it was a steep learning curve for me. Some days it seems I still know nothing about using it. It can be quite humbling. All kidding aside, I do think it helped me improve my shaving skills in general. I have great respect and admiration for our TSD Comrades that use conventional straights on a daily basis.

 

Today is so different a shave from the last month. No auditory feedback, no sense of aggression that can bite, and much lighter razor itself. I had to keep on reminding myself that this razor CAN bite, but it just seems tamer. I ended up with two passes and touch-ups, to get a DFS - BBS shave. I ended up with some irritation under the jaw line, due to me pressing too hard. The witch hazel did not bite too much, and the Hugo Boss balm soothed just fine. I need to get rid of the subconscious cart shave mentality when I use the I.... I don't have it with the G, or the SE's I have used the last two months. Brain retrain time. Shave one of the month.

 

So it begins: DAY 1


Pre-Shave: Aveeno Face Wash
Razor: Merkur 38
Brush: Plisson pour L'Occitane
Blade: Feather
Soap: Proraso Green
Aftershave: Whoostheman Disposition

 

Welcome aboard!



Hi everyone and welcome to February! Let's have some fun...I will post my plan tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great Monday!

 

2/2/15 - Blade Focus/Face Lather February

Prep: Warm wash
Lather: TSD Grey Vetiver type
Brush: Vie-Long 13061M horsehair
Razor: Weber PH
Blade: Derby Extra (2)
Post: proraso green aftershave lotion

I think my standards have changed since I started DE shaving or perhaps I've not used the Derby blade much in my Weber. Today's shave, while resulting in a Socially Acceptable Shave, just wasn't as close as I would like. It may be that I skipped my Cornhusker's Lotion prep step. I'll report back in tomorrow.