Well everything seemed to come together Saturday and for the first time I found the baby. Followed up with another BBS on Sunday. Today I'm sporting what most people would call a BBS, but I'm hyper critical of what BBS means, so we'll call it a BBS-. In fact, until this weekend, I didn't thinks a TRUE BBS was even theoretically possible to achieve. For me, it means no discernable whisker of any sort can be detected by feel anywhere on the face, even after applying AS. I realized there were two missing elements needed to turn a consistent DFS+ to a consistent BBS- or occasional BBS. First was to use more soap. I was loading long enough to get a good lather, but decided to load the brush for 30 seconds whether I thought I needed to or not. This made no discernable difference to me during the shave, but the end result was better. Second was to use @wchnu's trick of doing the touch up DURING the application of AS. This makes the whiskers stand up more, and allows me to feel stubble on my face that was not previously noticeable. The combination of these two elements appears to be the secret sauce that I've been missing. It's amazing to me that after almost 6 months of doing this everyday, I still am learning things.
Monday morning August 14 - mostly the usual suspect Temporary substitute Gillette Fatboy on 3 / Topaz Platinum ( 2 ) Small Muhle silvertip fiber synthetic brush 19 - 22mm ish Kent / MWF in wooden tub Alum and Clubman VIBR I am still using a slightly hinky Fatboy I pulled out of my collection carton. It has a definite "catch" in the smooth opening and closing of the TTO mechanism, but the placement of the blade while shaving seems unaffected. I used a small Muhle synthetic brush today that has gotten no love since I acquired my brushes from Jason @jtspartan. I think it's maybe a 20 or 21mm. The brush is small but loaded up The Fat quickly and whipped up a good lather. Its small size did make it easy to load from the tub without slopping suds everywhere - the puck still fills the wooden bowl nearly to the brim and loading larger brushes gets messy. This would be a good travel brush if I ever travelled much anywhere. I think for home use I prefer something a bit larger. Two passes to a good shave, no complaints from the alum, and some Island warmth from the VIBR as a pickmeup. Time to hit the week running...
I had no joy finding any locally the last time I purchased it (I was living in kind of an isolated small town at the time) and had to resort to this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00028MLKC/?tag=thshde-20 You may have some luck locally by checking a Whole Foods/Lucky's or someplace similar...(?) Those old OD Hans are sweet shavers. HolyRollah let me use his nice example once for a week or so. Shaves like a 'Duck! VERY nice!
August 14th Gillette Black Beauty w Lord Platinum (1) WD HM Badger/ Cypress Handle TFS Mastro Miche SS Thayers Barrister's Reserve Cool Adjustable August rolls on. First day with the Lord in the Super Adjustable. Hadn't used this soap in a while and got a nice lather. Not quite the same level of rich lather as some of my other soaps, but still very accepable. The razor didn't seem as smooth as it has been with the Nacet (nor was the Lord as smooth as it has been in other razors), but still a nice shave this morning. Had to 'touch up' a few areas on my neck to get to a near BBS after 3 passes plus. I haven't had to do much touching up lately. Went 7,7,5 with this blade for a first go. Will go to setting 'Neal' tomorrow and see how it is. Finished with the great Cool and am off to work. Have a great day, all!
Monday, August 14, 2017 Envy Shave 'Eight Ball' with White Two Band Mike's Natural Soaps Pine and Cedarwood OneBlade Genisis V1 Feather FHS-10 Barrister and Mann Arctique Pino Silvestri
14 August 2017 Menthol Monday Adjustable August Shave Pre: Hot water, soap from the container and a hot towel Razor: 1971 Gillette Super Adjustable 109 Blade: Voskhod Brush: Rubberset 303 Soap: Catie's Bubbles "Sunrise" Post: Hot/Cold rinse, alum block, cold towelx2, Dominello Vitali Calming Post Shave Moisturizer After Shave: Proraso Green Lozione Dopobarba So, my second shave of Adjustable August. The SA-109 set on "8" for the first pass did its thing, reducing my workday stubble. The second pass on "6" was also good. The half pass on my neck was on"4" and with some J hooking it came out great. "Sunrise" provided a slick, great smelling lather via the Rubberset 303. I splashed on some Proraso Green A/S and Monday was off and running. Have a fantastic day!
Thank you Jim. The brush has about as much backbone as I can handle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
August 14, 2017 Razor: M3 Schick Adjustable (3) Blade: Schick Proline B (1) Brush: Razorock Plissoft 22 Cream: KMF fragrance-free Post: Alum, Listerine, WH Friday's shave with the Adjustable was on a setting of 5. I wasn't totally happy with the reduction so I decided to try a higher setting on Saturday; this had a similar disappointing reduction. For today's shave, I decided to go counter-intuitive and drop down to '3'. It was immediately obvious that something was off with the blade, so I loaded a new Proline. The result was a very smooth shave and a near-BBS with no issue until right at the end when a momentary lapse resulted in a nick on the edge of my upper lip. That took a while to stop bleeding. I should be receiving my Schick '500' today so that will probably be tomorrow's razor.
Love the swirling grain pattern in your brush handle. That WD HM badger knot is great stuff, too! @clint64
