March 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Day 3 with Dovo Master's, Shavemac 2 band and R66 setup.

Now that I load the brush a little in the tub and scoop some out and put it into the lather bowl the soap is performing great and making tons of lather. The lather was wet and slick as always, great for straight razor shaving. 4 passes and no blood, no irritation and smooth. The razor was just off my the Dovo red-black pasted strop and was smooth and sharp.

Irritation A+ Closeness A Smoothness A+ Sharpness A

 

Then put me back to my original
92/100. I like that number

 

1.) mrchick - #8, 92/100
2.) keithmax - #16 Kent BK12 87/100
3.) hodge - #5, 88/100 (#5 was an obvious pick for me.....see avatar)
4.) jtspartan - #4, 93/100
5.) clint64 - #5, 88/100
6.) ryx - #22, 90/100
7.) norcalnewb - #9, 88/100
8.) Fly2High - #3. Rudy Vey 28 mm Shavemac, 88/100
9.) NCoxSTL - #13 Maggard Synth 82
10.) Ob1page - # 11 Manhandled Woods Ubersoft II, 64

 

You are changed.

 

I'm actually liking it. I'm a little surprised.
My wife likes it a lot

 

Thank you!

 

Razor: AoM branded Edwin Jagger DE89
Blade: Astra SP
Brush: Jayaruh #25 with Whipped Dog Synthetic Knot
Soap: No soap. This time I am trying a cream, TSD's Monkey Farts
Post Shave: Alum, Thayers Lemon Witch Hazel, and Conk's Desert Breeze Lotion

So the first true shave of March (this morning I did use an electric) went OK. I'm trying a cream this time, and feel like I need to relearn how to make lather. I was using a mug. But I'll get there. The brush looks great, but wasn't really splaying that much. I was more like painting my face. Not a bad thing I don't think. I don't know how much is brush and how much is due to the cream if any. But to keep this an experiment, I am going to go back to my Maggard's Synthetic for the next shave. The jawline is still a problem, but I just need to work on pulling the skin. The alum still set my face on fire, but it didn't last and I don't have any redness or bumps.

The big positive from this shave is that I did not need to use the nick stick. Looked like there might have been a few spots, but nothing was there.

If I had to rate it, I would say DFS. I could probably have done some more touching up, but they weren't in big spots and I didn't want to press my luck We will see what next time brings.

 

My grandfather wore Skin Bracer, and let me splash some on when I "shaved" with him, so I keep a bottle around for nostalgic purposes. I can splash some on and, for a while, I'm 9 years old again.

 

My wife originally upset me by saying it reminded her of her grandpa

 

Thursday, March 3, 2017

Simpson '58 Manchurian
Mike's Natural Soap Barbershop
Asylum Evolution
Gillette Silver Blue #1
Stirling Soap Co. Barbershop Aftershave
Brooks Brothers 1818


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Thank you Frank! I swapped some hardware with Tom @twhite a while back. He got straight razors, I received DE's. There may have been a Bunny involved. The Aristocrat is User Grade for the gold worn off the cap. The nickle plating is still intact underneath. It's a heavy razor. I don't know the weight, but similar to a Fat Boy.

 

Can you change me to 82?

 

First shave of the month and I am almost 30 pages behind. I think another record is in the works.

My package of mixed Russian blades arrived today and I grabbed a couple to start off my tournament of blades. It is going to be fast, brutal and ruthless. Each day one blade will get cut until one reigns supreme. I will be grabbing them in no particular order and making them face off gladiator style. Each one gets all passes on half of the face. Winner of the face shave gets head shave honors for the day for some extra scrutiny.

The set for the shaves:

Each will be used in the same razor on the same day. I will alternate blades between sides of the face. I decided to use my Tech for today's test. It is a somewhat mild and very smooth shaver. For soap I chose Stirling Baker St. I can lather this stuff with my eyes closed and not having to worry about the lather lets me focus on the blade. Maggards Plissoft brush, Thayer's Witch Hazel and Florida Water rounded out the setup.

Today's blade shootout was between the Rapira Platinum Lux and the Sputnik Teflon coated. I have to admit that I had expected the Rapira to be the superior blade. The packaging was nicer, and I had not heard anything about Sputnik blades. I had a couple of days growth so there was plenty there to test the blades. Without drawing it out, the Sputnik was the hands down winner. I would go so far as to say it was the best performance I have ever had out of a blade. It was sharp and smooth. No tugging whatsoever. I have never been so smooth after one pass. The final results on the Rapira Platinum Lux side were also good, but it didn't get there as easily as the Sputnik did. I also did my head shave with the Sputnik and it is by far the closest head shave I have had. The Sputnik Teflon has set the bar high for this month.

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Very nice! Seems like you get a little better each time.

 

My money is on the Jayaruh handle synthetic. #8, 86 aggregate

 

Major shenanigans last night, we've died down a bit! Sputnik is a solid stand in for an blade.

 

This has me hankering for a late night burger. There are several really good options in town.

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Route 66 and Stirling is going to be a tough matchup. Two of my top 5 there.

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1.) mrchick - #8, 92/100
2.) keithmax - #16 Kent BK12 87/100
3.) hodge - #5, 88/100 (#5 was an obvious pick for me.....see avatar)
4.) jtspartan - #4, 93/100
5.) clint64 - #5, 88/100
6.) ryx - #22, 90/100
7.) norcalnewb - #9, 82/100
8.) Fly2High - #3. Rudy Vey 28 mm Shavemac, 88/100
9.) NCoxSTL - #13 Maggard Synth 82
10.) Ob1page - # 11 Manhandled Woods Ubersoft II, 64
11.) Bama Samurai - #8 Jayaruh synthetic, 86/100
12.) Screwtape - #4 Nathan Clark Envy White, 80/100

 

Man, that Sputnik REALLY surprised me. The closeness and comfort were stellar.

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