Thursday morning August 30 - Russian shave kit
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Ukrainian late-Communist Era 3-piece pot metal razor / Rapira Swedish Supersteel (1)
@Vlasta's prototype aluminum Rubberset brush w/ 24mm silvertip badger knot
Renaissance Faire type horn quaich lather bowl
Russian shave cream by Svoboda
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Original Non-Alcoholic and Florida Water
Earlier this month, Alex
@AlDm sent me one of Vlasta's prototype aluminum Rubberset brushes and included a complete kit of Russian shaving products with it (shown in the top photo). Today, I decided to try out the booty.
I've used the brush several times and quite like it. I squirted some of the cream into the lather bowl, added a bit of water, and started to whip it with the damp brush. I found it a bit tricky to get the right hydration at first. When I painted my face for the first pass, I found that by the time I had shaved my left cheek, the lather on the right side of my face had started to dry, and I had to re-wet the lather on my neck, chin and moustache area before I could shave there. I added more product and more water between passes and got a better grade of lather. It still wasn't fabulous though. I can't really describe the scent other than to say it was maybe a bit woodsy or herbal with possibly a hint of lemon in it -- sort of mild, non-descript herbal I suppose. The cream was lubricating but didn't seem to do much in the way of cushion, protection or any of that foofy skin conditioning stuff we Westerners expect in our shaving products.
It was interesting to try, but I don't see this shaving cream becoming a regular part of my shave rotation.
The 3-piece razor is quite light and appears to be cast out of pot metal. I noticed that the baseplate had some tag ends sticking out into the slots of the sort seen on die casting when the cast has not been cleaned up. I loaded it with a new Rapira blade. The blade gap seemed quite wide. Actually, after my shave, I loaded the blade into my Canadian pre-War Tech, and found that the gap didn't look much smaller on it, but the Tech had a more strongly curved top which angles the blade edges down towards the guard, while on the Soviet razor, the blade mostly sticks straight out.
This matched the feel of the razor. It had quite a strong blade presence. Moreover, the blade also felt like it was flexing or vibrating a bit, as though it didn't have enough support. After using it carefully and gingerly for two passes, I was at what I would call a CCS -- a notch below the DFS I usually get with two passes with most razors. I hadn't drawn any blood and chose to quit while I was ahead. I was mildly surprised to find that the alum was mostly silent. Nonetheless my face felt dry or rubbed enough after the razor and the cream that I chose to break out the witch hazel today.
After using the witch hazel to repair any skin dryness or abrasion, the Florida Water went on for the alcohol and the scent.
Bottom line: The razor is an interesting piece of shaving history for my collection but will not be gracing my shave reports again. The shave cream was one that Alex said is very common and cheap in Russian drugstores; I have much better stuff to use. Somehow I also expect that the men in Russia who can find or afford them use the Russian-language packaged Arko Sensitive or Nivea creams (which Alex also said are widely available in Russia) instead of this Svoboda cream. The Rapira, of course, is a first-class blade.
I may have to send the razor and this cream to Neal
@NCoxSTL for an expert appraisal...
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