October Focus Summary

I used this set up for the month:

Gillette New LC
Feather blade (3 shaves and out)
Kent BK4 and BK8 brushes
Tabac shave stick
Alum (sometimes), Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, and unrefined shea butter

For variety, I rotated through my aftershaves, which consisted of Alt Innsbruck, Captain's Choice Bay Rum, Fine L’Orange Noir, Fine Platinum, Floid Vigoroso, and Pinaud Clubman. I love my aftershaves, but I only have six, and there are seven days in a week.

Most days, I went with two passes and no touch-ups. Results were generally near-BBS with an occasional weeper if I lost focus. Otherwise, the shaves were generally the best I've achieved over the span of a month. A one-pass shave on two days of growth gives me the best overall result, although I enjoy the daily routine too much to shave every other day. The New LC is still my favorite DE razor.

I face lather exclusively, and Tabac is a near perfect soap for me. It has the best combination of protection and slickness for my skin. I enjoy the scent, particularly as the days gets cooler. This is definitely one of my favorites.

For November, I plan to stick with the same basic set up using Astra SP instead of Feather blades. A month of shaves with Astra SP's will allow me to fairly compare them to Feathers. I plan to include a few shaves with the Pain Stick for variety. As you can see, I'm all loaded up and ready to go.

​

I've enjoyed following everyone's progress this month. Thanks for letting me ride along. And a hearty благодаря to Comrade Neal for leading the way, organizing our group hugs, and making this a place where everyone can learn and have fun!

See you next month!

I've always liked your haircut.

Big smile. Thanks!

I've resisted committing to a Rule. Took me a while lurking to Focus.
I'm getting better. I can almost do a couple weeks with the gear locked in. Then along comes another shiny thing.
So am I in?

You gotta get in to get out. And I'm already in! I'll continue using the Fatip/Muhle Hybrid with Generic Personna Reds. Let's see how far I can endure. No-Variation is my goal. But only the razor and blade. I've almost made a full rotation of my soaps. That was fun so I might do it again. Aftershaves I choose to suit the soap I just used.
Gotta keep some flibberdegibbet to my style.

You're definitely in. Anyone who says flibberdegibbet is automatically in for life.

Flibberdegibbet

Shave 20

Shave was just so so today. But the JR 90 rocked. This is one soft brush. The shave was smooth but I did not get a real even shave. I will try again tomorrow.

Tom


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Uh-oh....I may have started a new Cinco de Julio moment.

They'll let anyone in theses days!

OCtober-een!

October 31

Grand Blade Trials - OCtober shave

Razor - Durham Duplex Safety
Blade - (1)
Soap - C.O. Bigelow
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Post - Alum

​

FINAL SHAVE OF OCtober! And I hope you had a Blessed Samhain/Happy Halloween! No trick or treats here this year as we're a bit isolated where we live from the main traffic. That's fine. If I buy candy it's mine, all mine. However, I decided to do a trick or treat shave with the Durham Duplex Safety razor. It's related to the DD straight that I've used a couple of times, most recently in MAYhem. I've always found it to be less than totally effective but that may be due to the blade more than the razor. The only blades around are Personna blades from tryablade.com and they aren't exactly Russian steel.

I decided to go all out on today's shave grabbing a cream I love but rarely use, C.O. Bigelow. Of course, it's Proraso in a different wrapper but it lathers fantastically. And I used my Omega Pro 48 brush that has been sitting on SWMBO's side of the den for the past year. Turns out she hasn't used it in a very long time so I reclaimed it. I whipped up the lather with the big 48 in my Burma Shave mug and man oh man....I could have sent lather to everyone here.

So, loaded that fantastic new blade into the Durham and figured out the angle. You need to hold the handle out at about an 85 degree angle, so almost straight out. Then, as you begin the first pass, you need to relax, stretch the skin tight...no tighter. No, seriously, you want it tight because when you start shaving you are going to also start cussing and wondering why in the world you thought this was a good idea. Pulling, painful pulling. Yet, it's cutting so there is a bit of reduction going on. It's a bit like the Tiger....only it works. Just feels like it isn't. Ouch. This sucks. This is OCtober.......or is it MAYhem revisited?

Got the entire first pass done and only the menthol in the Bigelow was keeping me sane. No more from this thing. Grabbed my New that still has a Voskhod in it and did a second pass to get a nice DFS finish and then enjoyed the Alum burn letting me know that the Durham Duplex...at least this one....is a fun item to own....but not necessarily to use.

Well, that's it for OCtober. For me, anyway. Another fantastic month on here boys and girls....loved all the great gear on display and had a ton of fun. NOVember should be a great month as well and I think I've figured out what I'm going to do. I'll make it official on that thread a bit later. Thanks for making this thread what it is....because without all of you this would just be me pretending to be a fake Russian Cartel Czar with a bunch of imaginary friends running around drunk on vodka in my head.......or is it real?! The pain of the first pass has me confused. Soooooo confused.

I fit the description, I think. What was the description?

"Silly, irresponsible, scatterbrained".....yeah if that's part of the definition of those deserving the title/membership.....gonna be a crowded room around here.

Flibbertigibbet

I don't think your avatar is odd or terrible.....

.... well.....

I did at first but now I have grown fond of it.

"You gotta get up to get down"

-Bootsy Collins

Sometimes I think one might solve the mystery of the universe whilst pondering 70s soul lyrics.

Edge? Angle? Both?

You haven't heard anything about some Eastern Bloc types hijacking a truck load of carpet blades down in Jefferson City recently?

Me neither. Just saying.

I'll get Yuri right on that.

So many blades, maybe the cartel should muscle in on the home improvement market. So many blades...