@NCoxSTL

Personna

Different wrappers, coatings and oils. Same stock and bevel grind on all blades?

When the water ratio is right, La Toja makes great lather. I used it today because of your post and enjoyed it a lot.

No water on the mountain means no shave. Heavy rain this evening should restart the springs and the creek should flow again. Both means that the reservoir will refill.

September 18, 2016
Gem 1912
Gem PTFE (6)
WDC-6 with Sunrise Synthetic
Mystic Water Eucalyptus & Spearmint
Witch Hazel
Myrsol F/Extra

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Mystic Water Soap in shave stick form and synthetic brushes are a wonderful match. The WDC-6 whipped up the MW Eucalyptus & Spearmint in to a wonderful slick lather. The scent reminds me of Wrigley's Doublemint gum and my childhood. I decided to stick with a traditional 3 pass shave and with minimal clean up ended with a near BBS. Dang, that spot on my lower right neck. Overall another great shave with the 1912. I finished off with a splash of Myrsol F/Extra. I hope everyone as a wonderful Sunday.

9/17/16 SOTN
Razor: Jacob Ray 7/8 Square Point Quarter Hollow with Bone scales
Strop: Drygulch Chromexcel Horsehide/ Linen
Brush: Dubl Duck M-2/ Omega 10066 knot
Soap: Soap of the Gods, Kansas City Meet Up 2016
Post: Cold Water, Alum, Thayers
Aftershave: Lucky Tiger Aspen with Menthol

Rematch shave. This dog bit me several times on Thursday. Today, I needed to establish dominance. I started by muting both tips so they were still square, but not spikes. Was very careful with skin stretching, using Alum on my fingertips, and did three passes. I had a very solid CCS after the first pass going N/S. Second pass, S/N, went nice and smooth. Still no cuts. For my third pass, I added a little more water, and the lather just collapsed. I used it anyway. Did my XTG pass, and checked it over. No cuts, and BBS to boot.

I wasn't really impressed with this soap when I used it the first few times. It has a very narrow window for water. I nailed it tonight on the first two passes. The scent is citrus, and unfortunately was causing my skin to sting tonight. I'm hoping that was a fluke, because the post shave feel in this stuff is awesome. My Lucky Tiger Aspen aftershave hasn't been one of my favorites. I added about 10 menthol crystals to this five oz bottle, and it just became one of my favorites.

SEptember 18 SOTD:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
Cella
Robeson ShurEdge
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stetson AS

I got a nice straight shave in this morning. @Drygulch touched this edge up for me while he had the razor, and what a difference. I only did one pass but got a CCS quality shave. Very nice. I have the day off, so I am looking forward to spending the day at church and with my family. I hope everyone has a great day!

I had a wonderful SE shave this morning with one of the prettiest setups in my den
Route 66 Sweeney Todd Soap
B-400 by Tom Brush
Bunny Razor
Chick Blade (3)
Alum
Lucky Tiger AS
Have a blessed Sunday!

Razor: Ever-Ready SE 1914.
Blade: GEM by Personna PTFE (4)
Brush: Muhle Chrome Plated Handle 31 M 89 w/ New V2.0 Silvertip Fibre Synthetic.
Soap: Captain's Choice Bay Rum
Aftershave: Captain's Bay Rum

Fantastic Picture Doug.

Thanks very much Clint.

Smells like a Drug Store SEptember!!

September 18

Grand Blade Trial
Razor - 1962 (H1) Gillette Slim (9)
Blade - (3)
Soap - Arko
Brush - Wolf Whiskers Custom Silvertip
Post - Alum, Stetson

After taking a day off yesterday I finished up with the Qball this morning and gave it the extra challenge of two days growth. Yeah, yeah, I know, kind of breaks the "rule" part of the thing but I figured one extra test wouldn't hurt. This blade and its twin/close cousin/clone/amazingly similar mate the Crystal both delivered fantastic shaves at 6. BBS all the way. So a wide open 9 on the Slim should work, right? The Crystal was great at that setting so I have high hopes.

The only real problem I had was the start of the shave. Wet my face down nicely, rubbed the Arko stick all over it as usual then grabbed the razor and took a stroke. Oh, yeah, probably need to lather that soap don't I. Well, for what it's worth, that stroke was very smooth and effective. I took the blade out of the razor, cleaned the soap off of the edge and out of the scupper that was well stuck there then grabbed the Wolf and made lather. Wow! What a concept. Don't ask me how my brain short-circuited that.

First pass made it clear this blade has exceptional sharpness and can still be super smooth. Wide open razor on two days growth and it wiped it right off. Second pass achieved a high level DFS and the third pass landed the baby again. Tonight it still feels high DFS. Tomorrow's shave may be just for practice at this rate. The blade clearly likes the aggressive Slim setting just like the Crystal and handled the extra day's growth with no problem.

The Qball is clearly equal to the Crystal and I still suspect they're just different brands on the same blade. Best of the Israeli bunch so far, hands down.

With that blade down it's time for my first vacation in two years. Yes, I'm that kind of workaholic but in sales you sometimes gotta do what you gotta do. We're taking off sometime tomorrow for a favorite camping spot and will be back in civilization Friday afternoon. I won't have my laptop but will have my phone so I won't be totally away from here. I'll be checking in to make sure the shenanigans continue and I can sober the boys up and send them out to enforce that if necessary. Your call. I'll be taking a break from the Grand Blade Trial, obviously, and will return to that next Monday. Saturday and Sunday next week I'll be doing some work with the Personnas on "3" on the Slim as has been suggested. A little more science, if you will. In the meantime, I'm going to go old school while on the campsite. I'll be using a 1949 Super Speed, Voskhod blade and Barbasol original shave cream. Oh, and Clubman aftershave for that yesteryear scent for the woods. Hope your weekend was grand and this week is even better!

Good for you Neal @NCoxSTL . Can't know how hard you are working until you stop long enough to relax.
Is someone in charge of The Boys while you're away?

Ivan is supposed to be taking care of everything. He usually has things well under control.



I hope he's up to the task because I plan to start my vacation with a nice relaxing hot tub session tomorrow night.

Glad to see you tamed the beast and removed it's fangs.

September 19, 2016
AlumiGoose V1 with Triad SS
Feather Pro (1)
Simpson CH 2 Synthetic
Reef Point Dragon’s Blood
Witch Hazel
Fine Platinum


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As usual the weekend was to short. At least I had a great shave to start the week. It has been a long time since I used the Reef Point Dragon's Blood soap which was a mistake. The soap was very easy to lather and extremely slick. With a fresh Feather Pro loaded in the AlumiGoose V1 I went with a 2 pass shave, XTG and ATG. After minimal clean up, I ended up the expected near BBS shave. I finished off the shave with a splash of Fine Platinum. I hope everyone has a great Monday.

One more thought on the Geometry of the Slim... on @PLANofMAN's Adjustable thread, he posted an image of the instructions which included the angle diagrams at both '1' and '9'. (Must be foreign instructions, this diagram seems to not be in a lot of variants of the US instructions.) What is immediately noticeable is that the usable range of angles increases with the higher setting. This leads to the obvious question of whether the problem with the Personna in a Slim set at '2' is one of finding the right angle or, worse, a usable angle which is incompatible with the bevel of the blade somehow.

These days, the discussion is usually about how far to up an Adjustable with people chasing the Baby using FatBoys and Slims at '9'. In the past and in the larger world of the present, I wonder how many people actually use the really low settings and, in fact, how usable they really are?

SOTD September 19, 2016

Blade: GEM PTFE Coated
Razor: GEM Pushbutton
Brush: Satin Tip 'The Purest' synthetic
Lather: Proraso Green
Post: Witch hazel splash, TSD SubZero, Nivea sensitive balm
WTG, touch-up

Nice shave this morning. Proraso is so easy to lather. I ended up with beautiful lather that took care of two days growth. The Pushbutton worked very well. One big pass with touch-up and I'm pretty smooth.

Have a great day!

September 19, 2016

Razor: M3 Schick Adjustable (7/6)
Blade: Chick (5)
Brush: VdH Boar
Soap: NeutroMarvy

Saturday's shave with the Generic Israeli Personna was close enough that I decided to skip yesterday's shave and pick it up again today with the Schick Adjustable. I decided to step it up a bit, though, and started with a setting of '7'. A good first pass with nice reduction, but as I got to the area under my nose, I started to really notice the blade. As a precaution, I dialed the razor back to '6' for a very nice DFS.

I think I'm discovering my limits with this razor and it is probably a setting of '6'. A higher setting of '7' seems to be fine on the straightaways, but feels like a bit of a challenge to me in the tight corners. OTOH, '6' sees to work well for me overall.

Monday, September 19, 2016
Birthday Shave

Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic
Krampert's Frostbite
The OneBlade
GEM PTFE #5
Barrister and Mann Arctique

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Great picture, Clint!