May 2015 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic-Discussion Thread

05/10/2015
Razor – Mongoose B2 with Jürgen Hempel Ti
Blade –Feather Super Pro (12)
Brush –Rubberset 400-3 with WSP HMW
Lather – TSD Signature
Post - Witch Hazel and Captain’s Choice Bay Rum



Excellent near BBS Shave this morning. Finished up with CC Bay Rum which pairs well with the TSD Signature Scent.

 

Day#9 of the 30-Day focus
Day 2 using the Otto. EARLY morning shave (pre-dawn) and all is quiet in the house except for the 'fffit-fffit-fffit' sound of someone diligently stropping a razor. About 30 on linen, followed by 50 on leather.
Speaking of stropping, this morning I used my vintage Red Imp Certifyd Strop, a heavy strop that is slightly stiff and requires a good amount of palm rubbing to warm up and make it supple. It has ample draw to it and continues to improve with each use. I tend to rotate my four strops—each has a slightly different feel and amount of draw—and test the razor's edge post stropping to gauge the effect. I'm no expert on leathers (DryGulch? ), but I do know what I prefer in a strop. In the photo below you can the variation on the grain and smoothness of each of the strops I use.
Right to Left: Fromm (Illinois) 'Russian Leather' —per the sales copy: "Russian" style made from the flesh side of the leather - best for blunt and heavy razors." (from Amazon) Rough cowhide. I tend to use this for pretty much all razors initially off the hones. Next is a vintage 'BROKE IN' horsehide strop I picked up from a flea market for cheap. Soft, supple with a slight draw. Probably my most used strop for daily use. Next to this is a vintage Russian Leather C.C.C.P. (Certifyd-made) cowhide cordovan horsehide?; über-slick, almost glasslike. I tend to use this more of 'delicate' full-hollow razors. Far left is the vintage Red Imp—another Certifyd 'professional' strop with smooth texture but more draw than the Russian. Still being broke in….


The Shave: A darn-near indistinguishable shave from yesterday's excellent shave. One thing I did notice a few shaves ago was I was tending to raise the razor's angle when starting my initial downward pass at the sideburn, nearly to a 90° angle to ensure a clean firm edge on the sideburn. I am retraining myself to keep the angle much more shallower (less than 30°) or 2x the blade spine width. The lower angle makes for a smoother glide and 'cut', I've discovered. It's the little things one discovers—and the bad habits that can form—when one get lazy in ones' daily routine.

 

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MAYhem & Mercy
May 10, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Soap - C.O. Bigelow
Razor - RazoRock TTO
Blade - (1)
Post - Alum, Nivea Replenishing Post Shave Balm, The Veg

Day 3 of the Baili - Nope. Threw that blade away yesterday. Dropped it into my used blade container and all of the other blades jumped out to avoid being near it. Calling a one day time out in the middle of awfulness. Besides, I got my new RazoRock TTO on Friday and it needs test driven. Got my head shave out of the way with the Merkur 23c and grabbed the RR. It's a beauty, all brass which I love...heavy, shiny, really a great looking razor. Loaded it up with a Voskhod....yes blessed Voskhod after the three previous blades. This razor is a bit more aggressive than my other TTO's and provided a great shave. Three passes and put the baby to bed! This could easily become a go-to razor for me based on today.

Finished with alum, very nice and quiet, Nivea balm to recondition from a week of hell and added the Veg as a body splash. SWMBO loves it so hey, I'll tie a ribbon around me and call it a Mother's Day gift.

I also started breaking in the Vie Long 12705. Got it out last night and yes, it did have a mild odor. Got it wet and whoa......what a smell. Lathered with VDH and rinsed last night. Lathered it with C.O. Bigelow today and it's sitting and hopefully soaking up the menthol goodness. Hope to get it ready to go in time for Mercy next week.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone. It's back to terrible tomorrow. Two blades left and both with worse reputations than the Baili. Should be a fun few days.

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May 10

Stirling Sheep facial soap
Weber PH
Feather blade (day 3)
Omega Professional 98 boar brush
Kiss My Face unscented
Two passes
Alum, Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, unrefined shea butter

I played another Mayhem card and switched up my brush and soap for the day. I was short on time this morning, so I opted for a simple shave. I "pushed" my Feather blade to day three, and I used Kiss My Face shave cream. It was a really nice shave.

Have a great week!

 

Ah, there are many defective tools in the toolbox of life!

 

I have a puck...I will commit. Or should be committed, something like that!

I will put the razor up for a group vote!

 

I super enjoy your photos of that straight! Beautiful scales!

 

Flare Tips are smooth! Is Lucky Tiger your fave AS?

 

Love it!

 

I would say it is now my go to A/S. I refer to Lucky Tiger (Soothe & Refresh) as truth in advertising.

 

Haven't any of us learned that nothing good comes from asking our wetshaving peers what tools we should use? They don't seem to pick anything nice...

 

I love looking at old strops, love seeing them used even more. BTW, the CCCP strop, does it say cowhide on it anywhere? Shell typicly refers to Shell Cordovan, made from Horsehide. The super slick description and the shiny finish look like Cordovan to me. Cordovan is made from the very fine fibers under the grain of the leather on the shells of the hide. (Shells are the rump of the animal, each one is 1-2 square feet, and can take up to six months to produce.) Part of the processing removes all the grain, and the leather remaining is very dense and slick. It is prized for strops and footwear because you can work skuffs out of it, since there is no grain surface to damage.

"Russian Leather" is often made from cowhide. It involves having the grain surface removed, and smoothing the fibers into a smooth surface. Oils and waxes can be added to change the draw of the leather. I am not sure what type of leather the Red Imp is from the picture alone. Horsehide strops are typicly vegetable tanned leather from the waist area of the animal. Might be neat to do a strop show off thread in the straight razor area.

 

I'm hoping I don't find another defective tool like that one.....but I'm not optimistic. The infamous Flying Eagle is only days away and its reputation is horrid!

 

I have a couple of "mystery" razors on the way. Not saying anything else about them at this point. If we can't figure out the right razor maybe one of those would work. I'd never lead you astray....after all I'm an honest salesman!

 

It's not that they don't pick out nice things...they just prefer to witness a challenge. Yeah, that's it.

 

May 11 Plans

Stirling Sheep facial soap
Weber PH
Feather blade (day 1)
Rudy Vey Shavemac two-band silvertip
MdC scented shave soap
Two passes plus touch-ups
Alum, Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, unrefined shea butter, and Alt-Innsbruck

Back to my normal routine this month using 'high-end' soaps. I switched things up a bit over the past weekend for variety. I have enjoyed and learned from everyone's posts this month.

Blessings!

 

After a day off from shaving ( first day off), I had the most amazing shave! My minor May Mayhem included the first use of Derby menthol shave cream, and the 1951 Canadian fat handled Tech, with the Israeli Red Personna(2). I mug lathered, shaved slow, and ended up with an absolutely irritation free, no weeper, BBS shave..... WOW. Good thing no one is around, as I constantly feel my face while watching hockey.... GOAL!!!!!

 

Awesome! Quite a nice picture of the moment he's closing the deal.

 

You may be right on the CCCP strop being horsehide as it feels nothing like any cowhide strops I've come across. Plus I recently learned that Certifyd did in fact use cordovan on some of their upper tier strops. Whether this CCCP is indeed cordovan, I'll leave to you leather experts! The tail information stamp is difficult to read, but it is in the same styling as the Red Imp strop (see photo at bottom).
The middle picture in the triptych photo below shows the textured back of the CCCP leather component.


Ooooooo…shiney!

The Red IMP strops were the top-of-the-line of a company that made a variety of pro barber strops ... Certifyd. It is a cordovan shell with a linen second component.
Here is the tail of that strop and the backside…A heavy, thick component!