Nov 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus

Excellent picture, Charlie! Hard to beat CO Bigelow.

 

Wonderful picture, Doug!

 

Thanks Jim. The Soap Destroyer whips up a mighty nice lather with COB. In other words, Frothy the Soapman showed up today.

 

First to everyone in the US or outside the US but celebrating Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving, have some turkey for me. I will be working.

Happy Anniversary!

Both, just look at this avatar

 

Thursday shave:

It is not a holiday here so I had to prepare for work. The Feon is some nice Japanese steel and it was just refreshed on Dovo red/black and 50/100k diamond paste. Very smooth and sharp. Finished without any issues or blood.

Irritation A Closeness A Smoothness A+ Sharpness A

Razor: Takehana Feon 172
Stop: T Miller
Brush: Rooney
Pre: Nivea
Soap: Sample I
AS: Enhanced Florida Water, L’Occitane Cade
Scent: Chanel Egoïst

 

Thank you, sir.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Charlie. Lovely lineup.

 

Great photo Doug. Everything looks so crisp

 

The Feon is a very nice looking razor. Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Thank you, Clint. Likewise, I hope you and your family have a terrific Thanksgiving.

 

NOVember!!!

November 22 - Pot luck shaves with a light Stirling focus


Razor - 1947 Gillette Super Speed
Blade - (3)
Soap - Stirling Mountain Man
Brush - Jayaruh #46
Post - Alum

On to the Mountain Man soap from Stirling and this one was a surprise. Just smelling the sample puck, and having my wife do the same, my impression was "eh, ok". She found it a bit strong and I found it a bit different from my taste and expectation. It's based on the scent of Creed Silver Mountain Water cologne. I was thinking maybe a bit more of a "mountain/forest" scent. But the puck seemed a bit out of my wheelhouse and expectations so, what the heck, a shave with it and then I'll put it on the "no-tub" list. Then.........I lathered it.

Wow. I know that scent from the lather. It's.......it's........a cologne I used to buy about ten years ago. And it's name is..............um.............yeah, well anyway. It's a dead ringer for that scent and I love that scent. It was something aqua, water, something something......on the tip of my tongue.

Anyway, I finished three passes. I was only going to do two since I'm off tomorrow but I just had to get that lather all over my face again. I'm absolutely captivated by the scent of this one in the lather. Got my third BBS in a row with this setup (have I mentioned that the '47 Super Speed is amazing) and hit Google. Did a bit of creative searching (I know the cologne was baby blue in color) and NAUTICA!!!!! That's the scent! Had my wife check out the lather scent and she still thinks it's a bit strong for her (don't tell her I'm going to buy some Nautica now) but she's a trooper. Said if I like it that much get a tub. This one goes to the top of the "get a tub" list.

As for the rest of the setup, again the '47 Super Speed set a standard that lasted nearly 40 years. And the Treet Platinum blade is a great value and performer that too often gets overlooked. And, of course, the Jayaruh brush tonight was its usual version of perfection, just like its cousin was last night. Gotta love shaves like these past three. I almost feel like I cheated and started DECember early!

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I think Rod from Stirling has been brilliant to market his samples the way he does. They are cheap enough you try a ton of them. But they are big enough that you fall in love with a scent before the sample is gone, and then you buy a tub of it. How else does a guy end up with dozens of scents?

 

I agree. It's a great strategy for him and a great value for us. I also have to hand it to him for adding a sample of something to every order. When I ordered a sample of Witchy Woman shaving soap for my wife he included a sample of the bath soap. That was enough to get her to have me order the tub of shaving soap, a couple of bars of the bath soap and.....because she saw it on the website....the body butter. She said last night she wished they would come up with a shampoo. Talk about getting someone as a dedicated customer! (Worked on me with the Mentholated Pre-Shave Soap too. And I'm supposed to be too sharp to fall for some marketing idea)

 

Hello from Wisconsin everyone. It’s a little cold out and my glacial AS told me that very well as I walked out the hotel today. I want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving and tell you all that my first 30 days has been amazing I have learned a lot. But am definitely still learning and more to be learned. I will thank you all so much for your help in my journey so far. My shaving has gotten better and better. Every day seems to be better except after my drive here and had a 2 day grow going on lol that felt weird to shave off. Definitely had more tugging going on. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!!!

 

Jason, congratulations on your progress, and I'm sure your shaves will continue to get even better. Safe travels and Happy Thanksgiving, my friend.

 

Gillette Silver Blue are my faves!

 

Everything Charlie @wristwatchb said. It's great to hear that you're pleased with your progress and think the Crew has helped, but please do expect even more progress in the coming months. And in the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving and drive safely.

 

I prefer Voskhods or PolSilver to GSB by a narrow margin but you really can't go wrong with any of the Russian blades Charlie listed.

 

Great news Jason. You skills will continue to improve with practice. Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Thursday morning November 23 - with the Simpsons

Delta Echo Ink refurbished Gillette Fatboy on #4 / Topaz Platinum (1)
Simpsons Chubby 2 Synthetic brush
Simpsons Vanilla & Rose cream
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Rose Petal

The Simpsons Vanilla & Rose shaving cream smells of rose rather than vanilla. It is not as robust or heavy a rose scent as I got from my sample of TOBS Rose; I don't detect the vanilla as a separate scent but I think it lightens and sweetens the predominant rose. The scent was pleasant but did not seem particularly strong today, possibly because I used very little cream. But then, I also have a bit of a stuffy nose today which is affecting my sense of smell. Overall, I like this scent and am quite happy having a tin of it.

I find the Simpsons Chubby 2 Synthetic holds a surprising amount of water. I dunked it in hot water and then shook it off, but when I started to face lather, for the first few strokes I had water splattering everywhere. This brush needs to be squeezed free of excess water like my boar brush rather than just shaken dry like my badgers or other synthetics. Once the waterworks were done, the brush face lathered the cream very nicely. I just used a miniscule amount of cream - dipped the tips in the tub and had a barely perceptible bit on the centre bristles of the brush, but that was sufficient to give me lather for two passes with another pass or so worth of lather squeezed out of the knot when I was done. I find that Simpsons is truthful about their cream being very concentrated with a tin lasting at least two months.

Since my Rule long since went down the tubes, I ditched the Rockwell 6S today in favour of revisiting one of my refurbished black Gillette adjustables. I think I will finish out the month rotating through the three of them. It was two passes to an error-free DFS today; a bit of chin buffing could have made it a BBS, but with a forecast of a greatly increased chance of razorburn.

Hope all of you in the US are having a good Thanksgiving!