January 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Love seeing everyone's kit. Some really great things here.

So far this week, my shaves have been pretty good. CC London Skies lathers up nicely and leaves a nice lingering scent through the morning. The Treet blade hasn't been grabbing or sticking, though it doesn't seem to get quite as close as some other blades without additional passes. I'm finding that the Envy knot only lathers lightly in the bowl, but when put to the face the lather explodes. I have a colony of ants hanging out having run to escape the rain. I'm working to remedy that, but for now they're sharing my morning routine and are holding my razor for me.

This morning I got up early to give myself time before work to shave with a straight. I just received this one and it has a 5/8" blade and jimps, plus its quite a bit nicer looking. The shave was amazing - much different from the smaller razors I started out using. I found the razor was easier to handle and the jimps on both sides of the tang gave a nice stable grip. I could really hear the whiskers get sliced with this one, it gives all sorts of feedback. In the end, no nicks and only a mild amount of razor burn. I rubbed alum on to help and at first thought the shave wasn't very close, but soon realized the alum was what made it feel that way. Driving to work people probably thought I was some psycho constantly rubbing my face too feel how smooth it was as I flew down the road like a maniac. Halfway through my day now and it still feels pretty smooth.

One thing I've noticed is a few spots on my neck seem impossible to get clean of whiskers. The bottom of my neck at my shirt line always seems to have stubble no matter how much I shave it and right down the center from my chin down, a section about one or two inches wide. I can go over it as much as I want, but I never seem to get it free of the whisker. The straight this morning seemed to do a better job, but nothing like the rest of my face.

 

Welcome @leitmotiv ! So many new members to the 30 Day Crew, if this isn't your Premier Post, blame it on my OldTimers disease.
With the resurgence of straight shavers, and lots of interest in shavettes, plenty of current open blade shavers to offer tip and tricks to help you develop your best technique.
If you are new to straights, use your previous razor be it DE,SE, or cart to take care of the difficult spots. With perseverance you will get to a full shave soon.

 

I'm a little late to the party, but this month I plan to focus on the process of loading the brush and making great lather from two of my most difficult soaps. Mitchel's Wool Fat & Mystic Waters Vetiver & Oakmoss. Both have been very difficult for me to lather in the past and both are very well known as very good soaps in some circles. I must admit that I followed someone's advice and soaked the MWF for a long period of time and have already gotten a few decent lathers from it, but this month will be all about the lather. I will rotate through some brushes including my Omega 10012, Jayaruh #66 synthetic, Jayaruh #94 with a 24mm high mountain badger & possibly more. I would like to end the month with a commanding feel of how to load various brushes and create great shaving lather from my most difficult to lather soaps. I'll post up my reports as time allows. Great Shaves!

 

Straight razor shaving isn't difficult. Even a stooge can do it.

 

A bit of cooperation helps, team effort!

 

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Thanks for the welcome! I especially considering you're the one who invited me to this thread...

You're forgiven

... what were we just talking about...?

 

Maybe if I can't be heroic, I should aspire to entertaining instead!

 

Entertainment goes over well here, especially if it involves a little blood on steel, skunk spray, or the unintentional, copious application of Osage Rub.

 

Razor: Gillette Aristocrat 1947 (Birth year razor)
Blade: Feather Platinum (6)
Brush: Fendrihen Silvertip Faux Horn Handle
Soap: Route 66 Sea & Citrus
Aftershave: Pinaud Citrus Musk

A very, very close and near BBS shave tonight. Everything worked well together this evening. I kind of wish I was golfing today, but you'd never know.

 

Too funny, Doug. Do you guys have Ice Courses Tourneys or anything up there just for grins?

 

I used to go ice fishing.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202820406617074

 

We used to play Snow Golf when I was in university. I don’t remember all the details anymore but it sometimes required wearing snowshoes and I think we were using something like a tennis ball teed off using a cut down hockey stick or a field hockey stick as the club. Needless to say, beer was also involved (which might be part of the reason I don’t remember the finer points of the game anymore...)

 

Lots of little tourney/fundraiser/city festival type games around. Myself, I tend to prefer the fish house, a deck of cards, and a bottle of brandy.

 

What's a focus without something to distract you? Meet the new guys, courtesy of @Herm 's recent sale. The little Gillette Travel Tech is NOS and the GEM 1912 Damaskeene may as well be. The brush is one I found in a local antique store and cleaned last night. Gonna give it a shot before trying to re-knot it, as I really like the size of the handle. The Tabac puck/bowl and the Clubman Special Reserve are also new to the den.



Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

I join you as a TSD Lanolin soap fan.

 

Always a good performer!

 

I guess anywhere on the snow is "out of bounds", eh?