Great picture, Doug!

Great set of pictures, Jared!

A particular AS that she thought was "funny"? Being cohabitators I can understand having veto power on your partners choices of scent. There's be "Yes! Please!" with goosebumps, "If you must" - meh, & "Not around me" and do your laundry somewhere else grades.

OCtober!!!

October 8



Let's have some FUN!!!!!!

Razor - Pacific DE - the Dollar Tree Special
Blade - (1)
Soap - Dirty Deeds Tobacco
Brush - Semogue 620
Post - Alum

Night two of shenanigan shaves. This one comes courtesy of a thread over on the Mall about a cheapo razor someone located at Dollar Tree. Here's the little gem right here.

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Notice you're buying the tuck of blades and getting a FREE HANDLE!!! YAY!!!!!! A move stolen right out of Gillette's playbook. The packaging claims a stainless steel handle and very high quality stainless blades. Please note on the back - made in China. Call me skeptical. When I first unpackaged this thing I noticed the head was extremely lightweight metal and the handle felt, well, more like plastic. I put the razor in the freezer for a few minutes and when I pulled it out the handle and head were evenly cold so.......it's metal. But is it stainless? Put a magnet to it and the head did respond, the handle did not, except for the little knob at the very bottom of the razor, then only mildly. I'm not buying the "stainless handle". At least not fully stainless but hey, it's cheap, it's from China, so the bar is low.

The razor actually looks a lot like a Weishi. I pulled out my Weishi and compared. This one is shorter than the Weishi (VDH branded) and not as well built. The TTO mechanism sticks but it does operate fully. It's possible Weishi makes this as a cheaper alternative to their normal cheap razor (and that's getting cheap!) or someone knocked off the design. In China, well, you know.

The blades were my main concern. I'm confident I can handle the razor, but will the blades be the usual Chinese crap, or will they be more like the rare decent Chinese blade that surprises you (or perhaps is a second off of a Gillette or Schick line in China)? Only one way to find out. Semogue 620 with Dirty Deeds Tobacco soap for a nice slick lather and off we go.

I made sure the blade was properly secured. It was bending properly and the doors were shut tight. On the first stroke I noticed the audible nature of this thing. Very noisy but....pretty smooth. Much smoother than I was expecting. I finished the first pass without incident, added lather and went again. Once again, audible but smooth and after some touch up following that pass I'm DFS. Alum was quiet other than three or four little pinpoints and all was well. I have to say.....a pleasant ending to what I expected to be less than pleasant.

The only question remaining is durability of the blades. I'll probably give it at least one more night, maybe two, just to see how it holds up. So what's my preliminary verdict on this razor and blade? Well, for the price of $1......yes, $1, I'd say it would make a good camping razor. You could use it for a week and if you lost it or a racoon stole it who cares! As a travel option it's not bad at all. Would I want this to be my daily shaver? Well, honestly, it would work for that but there are better razors out there that give smoother and more satisfying shaves. This is a utility item. It does the job, does it effectively, and doesn't put you off of shaving forever. As a starter razor I could see it getting some people started and lead them to us where we can enable them into so many other options.

Thanks to @John Ruschmeyer for sending this one to me as I couldn't locate one at any Dollar Tree near me.

Oh, and by the way......the new hockey season has arrived and the Blues are 2-0!!!!!

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The Pacific razor and blades are definitely a cut or two above the YingJili razor and TianFu blade from the One Dollar Zone.

I haven't been posting much because it has been a particularly busy month thus far, but I have been rotating my open combs. I have used:

Joris
Gillette Ball end OC
Gillette 3pc OC Frankenrazor
Kampfe Bros Star lather catcher
GEM Micromatic OC

I have been rotating between Tabac and Stirling soaps.

I've been getting mostly DFS shaves, but not without some irritation as I haven't used my OC razors in a while. They are getting better, though. So far the Joris has given the best shave of the bunch, but followed very closely by the Gillette Frankenrazor. The Joris is quite aggressive but not in a bad way. If you shave with an adjustable wide open, you'll have no issue. I have started preferring more aggressive razors of late.

Tonight I decided to give my face a break and went with the following:

Gillette Black Beauty adjustable (set on 9)
Rapira Platinum Lux blade
Barrister & Mann Seville
30DC brush
PAA Al Fin aftershave

This combo gave me one of my best shaves in a very long while. Even wide open, the Black Beauty with the Rapira was super smooth and took out some fairly heavy stubble like it wasn't even there. The Seville and Al Fin paired up very nicely.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Nice to see you post. Glad to see you having a nice shave.

Monday Shave:

Last time I used this razor it was just after I refreshed and it gave a rough shave. I took this to CrOx and it improved but up the level this blade used to be, the edge was a bit rough. I finished with a nick, a weeper and some feedback from the alum. I will take this back to the finishing stone and get it back to it's prior glory.

Irritation A- Closeness A- Smoothness A- Sharpness A

Razor: Silverloaf 7/8 western grind kami
Strop: Mastro Livi
Brush: Rooney Silver tip
Pre: Nivea
Soap: Razorock P.160
AS: Joris Osage, Speick ASB
Scent: Dior Amber Nuit

Thanks very much. It's been a very mild Fall so far. We've been lucky.

SOTD October 9, 2017

Prep: Stirling mentholated pre-shave soap
Blade: Feather Pro
Razor: RazoRock Black Hawk
Brush: Jayaruh boar
Lather: C.O. Bigelow shave cream
Post: Witch hazel, Barbasol Pacific Rush aftershave
WTG, touch up

I've used the Bigelow cream off and on for a few years. I used it back before the full switch to DE shaving but would just rub it in with my hands and not with a brush. Boy, I was missing out! This is good stuff and it's inexpensive and easy to obtain at Bath and Body Works. Easy, slick lather and the Black Hawk mowed down the whiskers with ease. Nice shave to start off the work week.

Have a great day!

9 OCtober
Menthol Monday


Pre-Shave: Hot Shower
Brush: 24mm Silvertip Frank Shaving (FS)
Soap: C.O. Bigelow
Razor: Valet VC2, Autostrop
Blade: Feather FAS-10 Carbon Steel(CS), Feather Seikan (7)
Post-Shave: Cold Water rinse and "Teddy" Wild Country After Shave, Avon
Photo:


Seeing how it's Menthol Monday I went with the only menthol like soap I have, C.O. Bigelow. Whipped up a unsatisfying lather in the little glass bowl I use to soak my brush in. Luckily I was still able to get some decent lather after face lathering. I continued with the short strokes on today's shave and minded the spots from yesterday. That being behind my jaw and below my ear. I only did two passes today and it shows, I should have done the third. If I don't get another good shave from the blade tomorrow it will be done. Though 8 shaves off of the blade isn't bad, it ain't great, but isn't bad. It is also a base line/ bench mark for the next blade when I strop. Finished the shave with a little Teddy AS. The Wild Country After Shave has a scent of baby powder to me, not to strong but a slight hint. All in all an okay shave for a Monday.

That is a terrific decanter!

Good setup and picture Perry.

Great looking picture and decanter.

Today, I decided to go DE while I let my epidermis regenerate after yesterday's overly ambitious straight shave. In between shave reviews I decided to try a couple of soaps to "thin out" the den. I pitted Stirling Almond Creme against Cella and Razorock Classic. Since they all have the same scent, I figured the second two would end up on the trading block. As expected, the Razorock was a good all around soap, but the scent strength was low and I find the performance "average" so it missed the cut. Cella, however, surprised me. There is a reason this soap has been around for over 100 years with no change to the formula. Good scent, whips up lather like a champ, good slickness and glide. It's just good stuff. I had planned to bin this one as well, but just couldn't do it. Cella will be staying in the den.

This shave is as a great way to start the week. I’m smooth and smelling good.
Route 66 Bay Lime Twist Soap
Wolf Whiskers Brush
Portland Razor Company Siren
Lucky Tiger
St. John’s Bay Rum
Have a great week!

Good looking setup and photograph Brian.

Thank you gentlemen. I think it's interesting that the plastic head has changed color with time