March '16 - 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix and Discussion Thread

Thank you!

Here it is:

Join the Darkside/Sight Unseen PIF

 

It worked!

 

March 31 - Straight Shave 30
Wade & Butcher French Point
PSO, hot shower, Nivia face wash
Jayaruh #40 Synthetic
Route 66 Casablanca soap
Alum, Nivia Balm,Pinuad Clubmas AS and talc

Another DFS shave. Great lather from the Rt66 as always, Casablanca is becoming one of my favorites for Rt66. I just found the Clubman talc at Bed, Bath and Beyond of all places. I use the Nivia first and let it dry. Then the Clubman AS and let it dry, then the talc. Seems to leave a nice skin feel all day.


Month end:
I still can get much better with a straight, and have a whole lot to learn honing. But it's been a truly great focus this month. Just a bit over two months ago I had my first wet shave, and now I feel fairly comfortable with a straight. I would never have thought I would enjoy a straight so much. I picked up my safety quickly too, and could get a pretty consistent BBS. I'm still quite a way from that with a straight, but I also think it takes longer to start coming in. The areas I do get BBS, feel BBS longer. Even in the evening it still feels lighter than I ever got with a cartridge. I have got one BBS recently, and DFS often.

I plan to continue the same focus for April, rotating at least the four straights I have. If I can get a good edge on the fifth, I will add it too.

Hope everyone is having a good evening!

 

Ended up not shaving today and may not be able to shave tomorrow due to travel. But we shall see. It may be about 3-days growth needing to be sheared off on Saturday. Regardless I'll post my focus goals in the new April thread tomorrow. I look forward to lots of good banter and successful shaves next month!

 

Final days of March - Just marking time

March 31

Razor - '46-'47 Gillette Aristocrat
Blade - (3)
Brush - Vie-Long 12601
Soap - TSD Lanolin Bay Rum
Post - Cold water rinse, Alum, Nivea

For the final day of March I decided to end on an easy note. Do the third day on the Ladas, the totally awesome and dependable cousin to the mighty Voskhod, stay with the Aristocrat and use the TSD Lanolin Bay Rum soap that is down to the ring of death and just have a great shave. Boy, does that sound good. Oh, and the pony brush to feel that great scritch.

Well, the brush was good, lather was really good and I used more water to begin with on my face to avoid a dry lather problem. No issues, looks good........so why did this end up feeling like I had a Flying Eagle in the razor?!?!?!?! Seriously.....the first stroke made me check the razor. Yep, it's still the Ladas, no signs of damage, nothing clogged, silo doors battened down and ready for action. Give it another stroke. Still Gassy Goose rough. What the.......well come to think of it I had a rough one yesterday, not this rough, but not the usual Ladas feel either, and blamed it on dry lather, which was a contributing factor. Dipped the brush in my mug and added water as I reworked the lather on my face. Plenty of moisture. Managed to finish the first pass without actually swearing (much) and no tears. But man oh man was it terrible.

Lathered up again and went XTG for the second pass. Are you kidding me? Still a rough ride and not really cutting that well. I'm not stopping now, mostly because I don't have a good enough result to stop. Went ATG for the third pass and touch ups all along the neck and called it good at a CCS. Alum was incredibly hot. Tons of irritation and the Nivea barely cooled it off but finally did the trick. Totally non-typical Ladas shave.

Came home tonight and pulled the blade and looked at it under a bright light and at an angle and, even without high magnification, it appears the grind is a bit off. A couple of spots that don't look quite right. You know that one in a thousand dud you hear about? I think I found it. Apparently it was good enough for day one, yesterday it started to show its true colors, disguised with a bad lather, but today it really proved it should never have been put in a razor.

The one good thing? I don't remember hitting a Ladas dud before so it's probably safe to shave with them for a few years now. Since it is one of the blades I have on the list for April it won't be long before it gets another shot. Not judging it just yet. The dud theory makes more sense.

Hope March was good for all of you. Tomorrow is a whole new month. This year is FLYING by!

 

Day 91 of 90

Intro to SR Completed

Three Month Wrap

Bonus smiley blade shave!





​

For three months, I've been about as quiet as I've ever been with regard to technique discussions, because on 1 January, I became a newbie all over again. The decision to try straights is not one I took lightly. The phrase "I cut myself shaving" meant something entirely different in 1865 than it does now! From observation, straight razor shaving comprised three new skill sets--stropping and maintenance, SR shaving, and honing. For the sake of simplicity and to hold costs down, I have elected to hire professionals (TSD guys) to handle the honing chores for the first year, so my intro was simply stropping and shaving.

The first week was surreal. On day one I actually had a decent shave, but it quickly went downhill for a couple of weeks after that. The grip, blade angles, motions, and sensations were all foreign and tedious. More than once in the first three to four weeks, I relied upon the Charlie Danger Edition™ Gillette 195 to finish what I couldn't do with a straight razor. There was a lot of scraping, weepers, nicks, and to top it all off, I trashed the edge on my Aust during a particularly frustrating session. Luckily, TSD member @gssixgun runs a fine razor service, and had it fixed and back in no time.

Around day 30ish, it started to feel like shaving. I was really unsure of pressure at that point, and though the shaves weren't cutting me anymore, but irritation was a bit of a concern. Deciding that wetter was better, I started to mix yogurt lather and go to the @Norcalnewb Baseball Shaving Pattern (NBSP), and the improvements came rapidly. By the end of February, I had it pretty well down. Two spine widths, consistent stroke pattern, wet Route 66 lather, gentle touch and stropping were all working out. The introduction of a Sheffield blade and a CJB provided a diversion, as well as a test of my technique, and both worked out really well! From day 70 on, I could get DFS automatically and near BBS on a good day, and also had acquired enough technique to chase a bit.

The decision to wait 18 months and do every other razor type first was a boon to learning SR. Having SAD and BAD licked long ago allowed me to focus on the steel and not on all the software. All things considered, I was more scared than I should have been, and learning SR isn't all that bad if one commits to simply doing it. I've been told it takes a hundred shaves to get really good, and after 91, I'd say I agree with that assessment. Lather quality is a key factor in a good Straight razor shave. The soaps I used were TSD and Route 66. I chose for simplicity and uniformity to use only Route 66 the first month, and I like to say once again, @Salty Belle --killer soap base! It never failed and I never tired of the Lumberjack scent, and once I figured out how to use a straight, I had a few of my best shaves ever with your product! Kudos, and thanks for your support of our community! Another product I used was "45" Series black strop from @Drygulch Leatherworks. Adam's strop took care of biz. If you need a starter strop, I fully endorse and reccomend his work! He's also a TSD vendor just like Kathleen at R66. Send him a PM, he can get you set up with what you need. The Ralf Aust (courtesy @Keithmax ) was a perfect starter razor, and are readily available online. Thanks for the opportunity to use such a pretty and well done tool!

And yeah, I am hooked. Will be taking a break and doing DE in April, but straight razors will always find their way into my shaves regularly! I'll be working on the April thread shortly! Hope to see all or most of you and some new faces over there!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for being a part of our little community!

 

The Darkside Bakery is now accepting April reservations!

 

Dud. Sorry to hear about it, but you're right, that's super rare in a Rapira group blade.

 

Fantastic write up and thanks for the kudos! So happy you like the soap

 

Wonderful write up sir. Thank you for doing this thread and for the inspiration and encouragement, it is appreciated!

 

Thank you!

 

A great wrap-up Bama, I'm in awe of you and all the straight/pain-stick users who have multiplied here sooo quickly. It's great to see such a great mix of shavers helping each other out.

 

Look HERE!

 

Thank you, kind Sir! I am nominating you as CIO (Chief Injector Operator) for the 30DC. You've really hit a groove on the Schick and Eversharp style injectors! I really enjoyed using the G, I can now say from experience that a good G shave is on par with straights in terms of closeness.

 

I'd like to congratulate @waffen and all of our March Newbies!
Thank you @Boojum1 @PickledNorthern @LuvWetShavin and @Linuxguile for your generous donations, it's your support that makes TSD the best shaving forum on the web and beyond.
Sincerely
Kerry

 

Ha, I still feel like I'm wearing my newbie beanie!

Sooo intense was the RAD for both DEs and injectors that I'll need almost two years of 30 Day Foci to give them all adequate attention. Not being able to do straights (due to a medical condition) is almost a blessing- a natural thinning of my options and one less RAD.

The best part of all, is the depth of appreciation of turning this routine chore into daily gleeful anticipation.

Cheers!
RT

 

My first time to join the group and I do think I achieved my Focus,

"If I had one thing I'd consider focus worthy I'd lay my DE's aside and spend more time with a straight razor."

Kicking off the training wheels by not using a DE to touch up enlightened me to where I really am skill wise.
I fizzled during the last few days. Some times real life and the needs of others takes precedence.
Rather than make a commitment to the next month I shall be revisiting my FatBoy, and spending time learning the intricacies of SE razors. The Bunny will be in my den one day. I also expect a Rocnel to show up. I'll be using mine, not even tempted to Ebay it.

Thank you @Bama Samurai for providing this Safe Place for us to learn and share!

 

For my focus this month, I was going for two pass and touch up. I got at least a DFS on every shave, but some were better than others. Limiting the number of passes forces you to focus on making sure you get the parts you want to shave on the first go. My normal N/S then S/N, then XTG pattern has shifted some to accommodate this. I do the N/S pass, then XTG on the chin, jaw, and neck, and S/N above the jaw. Touch ups on the jaw line will get almost everything after that. My other focus for this month was using a lot of the razors I have had out to have work done on them. I discovered I really, really, really, really like the edge from a Sharpton 30k ceramic on New York/ Pennsylvania steel. I then looked up the cost on a series of these hones, to go up to 30k. It would be over 1200 bucks. I really like them, but I don't see that going over well with SWMBO. I will stick with my three Waterstones, and the few naturals I do have. I am getting better with them. I have also found a few pastes that do really well to fine tune an edge and refine it further. I have enjoyed watching everyone's adventures this month. I even went out and bought some SE and injector blades, I just haven't put the straights down long enough to try them. This closes out 15 consecutive 30 day focuses for me. See everyone in April's!

 

Thanks for the kind words!

In the mood for "Attack Angle April"?

(find optimal angles on your FB and SE?)

Interesting point about adjustable razors: Adjusting the dial setting causes a corresponding marginal change in optimal attack angle in relation to the handle position while shaving.