Synthetic Days 5 & 6:



Yesterday, when I was using the Chubby, I was telling myself that I was probably mistaken when I said the Duke synthetic would be my desert island brush, and that this had to be the best synthetic ever made. It is mega dense, and it has that wall of badger feel. Or at least it is close enough to believe you are using something that isn't synthetic. When you load it up full, the issue of a tough splay pretty much resolves itself, and it has a wonderful scrub to it. But when it all came down to adding up the points, at least for the sake of this contest, it falls a bit short of the Duke. While the ivory handle is classic Simpson, and a looker on the shelf, I prefer a little something more to grip on such a fat handle. I took just a little off in the loading; not because it is hard to load, but to really saturate it for a good multi pass face lather it takes a little time. Honestly, I like this brush more than it actually scores in points.






The Maggard synthetic is another low cost workhorse of a brush; good enough to be in a rotation at home, great for a traveler that doesn't make you feel like you are giving up anything. The handle is a handle. Nothing to complain about, nothing to get excited about. It is fairly comfortable in it's size and grip, so scores well in function, but comes up pretty short for me in the looks department. The color is supposed to be a bronze or copper or something, but all I see is brown with a little metal flake. The fibers look very similar to the v1 Muhle black fiber, which means the exaggerated kinkiness shows when looking at it. The fibers are springy, when loaded lightly or used with a bowl it can be a bit of a flinger. When it is stuffed full for a big ole face lather, it wants to birdnest when splayed, and while it provides a decent scrub, it almost needs a reset between "splays". I do not know if it is because of the kinked fibers, but it does not seem to want to give up its lather quite as easily as other synthetics. It doesn't hog it badly, but coupled with its small size, you will end up completely painting out your last passes and cleanups. Despite its shortcomings, for the price Maggards charges for these, it is still a worthwhile purchase. This is my main travel brush, and I am quite happy with it for that purpose.



This finishes up my synthetics, and I am really looking forward to using my silvertips. I normally mix up lathering between bowl and face, so I am going to be mixing up some big ole bowls of lather next week.

The photos are taken with a iPhone 7+ and uploaded to the Mac. No filters but I do use the standard adjustments on the Mac to optimize color, light and definition. Some of the ones like today are making the razor come out funky.

Great write up. I was curious how the CH2 Synthetic would fair against the Duke 3 Synthetic. If I had to pick one brush it would be the CH2 Synthetic but I have never tried the Duke 3. Who knows I might pick up a Duke 3 at some point. You have certainly got me interested.

I know the Duke scored higher in this little game, but boy would I have a heck of a time picking one over the other. The Chubby is such a giant lather machine, and the Duke is a perfect smaller brush. If I was a minimalist (hah!), the Duke would be awesome for work day mornings, because it is quicker to fill with soap, but the Chubby would be the relaxing weekend brush.

I am probably partly enamored with the Duke because I got it right before this started, and all I do is get to look at it. Same thing with that Rudy Vey Shavemac. I am ready to put this competition on hold for a week.

Adam, I am so very sorry for your loss. You are very much in my prayers and will remain so in the days to come.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Fantastic result. That's two no blood shaves with these fine razors and I'm about to add the third one. We hope. Pushing aside common sense? That's just being bold and courageous and confident and brave and proving your manhood. Ok, ok, so it's pushing aside common sense. Nice shave!

Your concentration on the carriage bolt may have kept you from turning your head. Irony incarnate.

Ironically, or not, I didn't drink quite as much coffee as normal today due to a heightened pain level with my pancreatitis. So I'm a little heavy on pain meds today. Well, heavier than usual. Jitters shouldn't be a problem. Falling asleep might.

Very likely true.

March 15 (Wednesday ) - EverReady 1914 SE focus
EverReady 1914 / Gem PTFE ( 1)
Kent woodhandled boar brush
TOBS Lavender Cream
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Original Astringent

The TOBS Lavender provided gobs of creamy, protective lather with a great, soothing scent. The Kent boar brush loaded quickly and bowl and then face lathered excellently with this cream. I would say this brush is now perfectly broken in.

Then I went from the sublime lather to the actual shave itself... Oh well, it IS the Ides of March right? So I suppose some small blood sacrifice to the ancient Roman god of shaving was in order...

Since I am now shaving well with the adjusted 1912s, I switched to a new Gem-blade SE tonight -- the next one chronologically, the 1914.

The 1914 fixed two problems with the 1912. First, no problems with bendy backplates with this razor, as the backplate was made from metal twice as thick with a load-bearing curved shape built into the design. Second, the second time I shaved with the EverReady 1912, I sliced up my cheek, because the topcap spring had slipped and allowed the blade to drift loose of the stops and project one corner in front of the safety guard. Not good if you forget to doublecheck your blade retention before starting to shave... This must have been a problem back then too, because the 1914 uses tension catches on the sides to lock the topcap down positively in place.

How did I do shaving with it? Uhmm....

The shaving angle was perfect and easy to maintain, making the razor nimble and handy to use. And it cut the stubble cleanly and efficiently. Unfortunately I expected for some reason that the 1914 was a milder razor than the 1912 (going ever milder like the Schick injectors did) -- and it's not. The result was sort of like thinking you were going to shave with a Schick L and getting slipped an E instead. I got careless and the little git bit me. And since the new Gem PTFE blade was so sharp and smooth, I didn't even feel it until the last nick on my Adams apple, when I looked in the mirror and saw blood trickling. In four places on my chin and neck...

Note to self: Ride the cap and light pressure are now well locked into muscle memory, but when using the EverReady 1914, skin stretching is an absolute must...

The alum and cold water removed most of the bleeding. I then used the Thayers because I actually needed it tonight rather than just as part of the ritual. Then, about 20 minutes later, I went back and used a cloth to remove the small dried blood splotches.

And here I thought the guys using the carriage bolts were going to be the ones providing the sacrificial blood tonight...

Thanks Doug!

Thursday, March 16, 2017

B-400 by Tom Romera Manchurian
Fine L'Orange Noir
Asylum Evolution
Gillette Silver Blue
Fine L'Orange Noir
Terre d'Hermes

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We appreciate you chipping in since we seem short of that.

March Madness & Spring Cleaning!!

March 15

Razor - Bulldog Hardware Carriage Bolt
Blade - (1)
Soap - Arko
Brush - Semoge 620
Post - Alum

Beware the Ides of March. And anyone posting stunt shaving YouTube videos. Some of us are dumb enough to try them. However, this time around only three brave souls (that I have seen) built this most awesome of personal shaving tools. And the first two shaved without blood or incident. How? Because they are Technique Masters!

My own foray into this wasn't quite as dramatic as I thought. Not sure why but I wasn't nervous when I picked up the razor after lathering the Arko up. I lined it up and looked and thought to myself that if I'd align the blade by touching the top nut to my face and angle the blade to touch it should be close. And, it was. So, instead of riding the cap, I rode the nut. Go ahead, make your crude remarks, I can take it.

The first pass, WTG, was slow and NOISY. It was also surprisingly effective. Corners, jawline, areas like that were a bit of a challenge but it wasn't terrifying as long as I kept angle adjusted on the top nut. I lathered again, thinking I'd bail to my New LC to finish but decided to do some XTG.

XTG was very nice on the face, actually. Still noisy but less so as I worked the beard down. In my neck it was a bit dicey at first as I adjusted to keep the pressure off. Finished that pass with a passable CCS, but barely. Well, time to grab the New LC and finish.

But......what if......could ATG work? Lathered again and started on the right cheek. Set the angle upside down and worked it up. Then another stroke, then another and finally down to the neck where I completed the ATG without incident. Now, on to the left side and my hopelessly weak left hand. I managed the cheek fine, the neck with a bit of patience and finally called it. A better CCS, something I could go to work with if I had to. Nice!

Grabbed the New LC with Perma-Sharp aboard to do a finishing pass to DFS. Talk about irony. Went XTG on the right side and somehow nicked myself near my ear. With the New. Not with the bolt. Yeah, oops on that eh? That was the only problem with the entire shave.

Alum was quieter than I thought it would be, hotter than usual. But......once again Technique Trumps Tools, as proven by Fools!!! That was fun!!!!

Thanks to the other brave souls who dared to join me!

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@mrchick
@NCoxSTL
@Norcalnewb

You three are the real deal. I am duly impressed.

You were our last hope for bloodshed...congrats to you and our other brave souls who endured this shave, you deserve a nice hearty applause

I always have mixed feelings when I survive one of these things unscathed. Certainly happy not to be in the ER trying to explain how it happened, and yet somewhat disappointed I couldn't be better entertainment. Ah, well, you do what you can.

@Drygulch - Love and prayers to you and yours. I will be thinking of you.

"Just proud to be here and happy to help the Team."

Wouldn't want Mars the God of War to feel dissed on a festival during his name month after all... Bad Things used to happen to mortals who dissed the ancient Greek and Roman gods (although more the Greek than the Roman ones). Very touchy and vindictive they were. I'm not sure who the God of Shaving was, but it was quite possibly Mars, given his predilection for sharp, pointy objects and also the fact that the Roman legions in the Republican and early Imperial eras went cleanshaven...

Anyway, it sounds like I bled more into the sacrificial bowl tonight using my "safety razor" than all of you carriage bolt shavers put together. Ain't life grand?

Switching over and trying all the old style razors has been strange. I got cut way more often with aggressive DE and Injectors than with open blades of any sort.

(If an alum block pass stops the bleeding, it's not a real cut.)