July 2017 - Time to straighten up!

July 3

Razor - Feather SS Artist Club - Pain Stick
Blade - (1)
Soap - Dirty Deeds Tobacco
Brush - WCS Synthetic
Post - Alum

Switching pain sticks to the Feather SS tonight. And, sharpening up to the Feather Pro to let it all fly. We've discussed before the difference in the construction of the SS vs. the Kai. The SS has the slight lip on it to supposedly make it a bit less lethal to use. I have noted before that it changes the angle just a bit to compensate for it, and I have preferred the Kai design (also CJB) which copies the Feather DX in the design of the head. No lip on the Kai, just a nice smooth angle down to the blade. I will say that I honestly didn't notice much of a difference tonight in the SS after using the Kai for two shaves. Was the angle different? Slightly, but once set it was intuitive and I had no difficulties with it, save for a bad set down on my right jawline while trying to go with a diagonal path on my neck. That wasn't as much an angle problem as it was a problem in setting down the tip slightly ahead of the main blade. It caught, did a small 1/8" slice on the jaw and as it caught, the center of the blade skipped on the jaw causing two very small nicks. Nothing that a little cold water and alum couldn't handle. I've caught the tip of the Feather Pro blades before in the SS from the same basic technique fail. This was nothing compared to a few I've had.

The Dirty Deeds soap did extremely well. I just love the texture of the lather. Whipped cream and slick as it can be. Of course, coming from one of our Kings of Straights, @Drygulch , I was confident it would work well with the Feather. The alum was a bit hot which I expected. The Pro blades are sharp and can be very harsh. I had a number of hot spots scattered about but nothing to get upset about. All in all a quite enjoyable shave with a razor I thought I was crazy for trying back in the day. I still think I could convert to pain sticks as my primary shaving method with just a little prodding and work.

Hope your 4th is happy and fun! I'll be in my place ready to sell!

(no shave day for me, third one this year)

Third one in a year?! Awfully lazy if you ask me. Sheesh! At this pace you'll miss almost a full week of shaving?!?!?!?! Insanity!!!!!

Now THAT'S a stunt shave.

I feel like shavette edges punish angle more the SR. Once the shave angle goes out of the sweet spot, minute errors will cause the thin bevel to grab anything available. Sounds like your blade might be skipping. Stretch harder!

On aesthetic alone, without prejudice yo performance:

Flat top.

Looks cool.

Always nice to see a Gillette Old. Eight on a PL - Russian Steel showing off!

AC blades are similar in how they react to angle errors. Not quite as grabby due to being a bit thicker, but their sharpness and stiffness make them want to skip if you don't watch what you're doing.

Adam-

My brother, there's a name for this.

"winning"

Carry on

SE's have a healthy showing as well! It's those butter knife people I wonder about.

You know I'm in. Already have the razor built and ready to go!

One of the great advantage of Cinco de Julio - you're allowed to eat popsicles until you find the right two sticks. Because, you know, perfection in the sticks is important. Right?

That badger would make it even more unique. That has my vote.

I'd say the AC platform is closer, still a different beast, but closer to SR than DE saloons. Knowing what I now know- people who learn on shavette/DX have what is described as "heart" in sport. They are really tools intended for professionals, but deliver killer shaves in well-practiced hands.

Love the look of that. Has that "old time barber" thing going on.

Sounds like she's adapting. Slowly but surely. Resistance is futile. Either that or she figures she'll collect on the insurance faster from a shaving accident than a heart attack.

Oh no argument. AC is the next best thing to SR but yes, still different. I was a skeptic that TSR's are less likely to cut you than an AC.......until I tried both. I'll get to my TSR's in a few days and I'm looking forward to them. First, I need to pull off another head shave with the Feather or Kai then move on to the TSR's to get my mojo back with one of those before trying the head shave next week.

(general discussion)

SR shaving is more tedious and intimidating than "hard." it's a perfect example of a task that can only be perfected through much repititon. I've never attempted SR head shave, sounds intimidating actually!

Ah, well....what's the worst that can happen?

I know. Isn't that cool? Personalized LE