MAYhem 2016
May 6
Razor - Soviet 3pc, AKA the Soyuz 1
Blade -
View attachment 102262
(1)
Brush - VDH Boar
Soap - Vie Long 12601 The Pony
Post - Cold Rinse, Alum, Nivea
It's the @
mrchick shave and he picked a doozy. Between him and the shaving gods I got handed a fantastic soap (my favorite), a really good brush (my favorite horse) and.....one of the worst razors I've found and a blade with a bad reputation that I haven't tried. This should be fun.
I haven't used Mitchell's in awhile since we had Arko April and I have a brand new puck just waiting for some love. It got soaked overnight prior to this morning's shave and lathered up with a fantastic lather on the pony. Man oh man I love that scent and the slick feel is just unbeatable. Almost makes me forget what's coming.
The Soyus 1 is my name for this razor. It's a beauty. Uneven blade gap from any angle and the small and short handle makes it hard to keep a grip on. It has hacked and maimed me before and I expect nothing less today. So, let's apply some technique and a bit of knowledge I've gained in the past 16 months. Due to the uneven blade exposure and the reputation the blade has for lacking sharpness, I think the wisest move is to limit exposure to avoid dragging and skipping, especially since the blade can grab due to uneven gap. So, what do we do to insure the right gap and avoid too much exposure? Why I say, let's ride the cap. First pass seemed to bear out my decision as I didn't feel the out of control horribleness that this razor has produced before. I got great audio feedback, and actually something resembling a smooth shave as long as I stayed well up on the cap. I did open a cut just beside my right ear, but this razor has done that before. In that same spot.
Second pass XTG seemed to go better as there were no additional cuts. Oh, wait....yep there's a nice on one my neck, just left of center. I felt it grab and bite. I came off the cap a bit and that ridiculous gap caught me. Nice blood flow. So, after two passes, two cuts and a CCS. Time to quit. Oh, wait a minute, it's MAYhem. We need an ATG pass. So, ATG with no further damage, and even did a Gillette Slide, though a very shallow angled one, to finish DFS. Not a great DFS but it's definitely over the line.
So, for the first time, I've managed to land the Soyuz with only two small cuts, though they will be waiting to be reopened in the morning, and I accomplished a pretty decent shave. I'd like to give the credit to the Dorco 300 and perhaps its mild nature I've heard about helped. But I think staying on the cap was the saving factor here.
One of the interesting things about the real Soyuz 1 failure was that its parachute never deployed. The drag chute did but the main chute was a frozen chunk stuck in the compartment. That ship failed due to too much angle and too much speed. Well, and 203 other known faults with the craft. Too bad they couldn't adjust the angle and ride the cap of that thing back then. Vladimir Komarov might still be with us to talk about it.
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