Thank you, Clint!

I have ordered a time or two from there. I'll check it out. I need more SC about as much as I need more razors, but that hasn't seemed to stop me yet.

Great picture, Rick!

Thank you Jim! This was the maiden voyage with the Ascension. It does like a steeper angle, at least when its fully tightened down. The shave itself was smooth and comfortable, I will be trying it again opened up a little next shave.

I agree.


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Thank you Jim.

A whole bunch of great photos and reports today, gentlemen! Too many for me to Shavette Fu them all with this wretchedly slow digital brick of mine.

Adam @Drygulch and Andrew @Linuxguile, thanks for the mini-reviews of the new razors. It’s always nice to have an opinion from a reliable source about how the latest wonder machines are in truth.

Clint @clint64, glad to hear Mocha is improving. Do keep us updated.

After my success in cleaning and polishing my OC razors, I dumped all the others from my "uncleaned odds and ends" box into the Dawn dishwater last night and went to work. Overnight soak, scrub with toothbrush, squirt of Scrubbing Bubbles and further scrub, then rinse and inspect. I found I have a total of 16 (?!!) razors in the mix, all Gillettes and mostly Techs or SuperSpeed TTOs. Condition ranges now from Like New to User Grade but almost all work now and are shave ready.

The exception is a Blue Tip with a TTO mechanism that seems clogged with grease. It is now sitting in a mix of Dawn and boiling hot water in a little ultrasonic cleaner. Let's see how that works... If not, I have read a suggestion of alternating soaks in mineral oil and then Dawn in the ultrasonic. Anybody have any other ideas?

In the meantime, I now appear ready for No No Variation November. That is the version where one shaves for the entire month without ever repeating a soap or a razor (or a brush or postshave product, but I don’t have enough of those not to repeat...)

Edit: After a first half hour treatment in the ultrasonic cleaner, the BlueTip's mechanism is now working and doing so fairly smoothly although not easily. Back in for another half hour... Still open to any other suggestions.

Impressive. That will be fun to watch. I could do the no repeat with soaps and aftershaves but not even close with razors or brushes.

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I'm not even close with either brushes or aftershaves -- and I would like to keep it that way! Razors and soaps are a lost cause, but I would like to hold the line on something...

Thanks, John. For the Blue Tip, after you get the gunk cleaned out, put a heavy amount of light oil down the barrel to soak in over night. I use a sewing machine oil most of the time. Sometimes it takes a couple of soakings to get everything freed up, but I don't use an ultrasonic cleaner, so that might speed up the process. Just be sure to give it some kind of oil when you're done. As far as No No Variation November, I think I finally have enough brushes that I could do it, knowing that I don't shave every day. If I took brushes out of the mix, I could do at least two months with soaps, razors, and aftershaves...

Nice to see Proraso featured so prominently. One of the "standards" that never gets old. Just ignored too often.

Just a note to say No No Variation November has been officially seen and filed. The Cartel sees everything and steals most of it. So don't be surprised if.....

Wednesday October 3

Fatip Grande / Astra SP (3)
APShaveCo U-Brush with 24mm SynBad fan knot
Hendrix Classics Barbershop soap
Alum and Hendrix Classics balm test sample



For today's shave, it was The Usual Suspects plus the Fatip Grande for the razor. Either this razor has become milder in the year since I last used it or else my technique has improved -- two passes, near BBS, no bites, alum only a little warm in a couple spots.

I think the Fatip Grande has a bit more blade presence than the Probak I used for the last couple shaves but is also slightly smoother and definitely less noisy. I don't know that I would really want to use either razor as a daily driver, but if I had to, I could do it more easily with the Fatip Grande. A bit more aggressive perhaps but a shade less harsh.

Thanks for the tip, Adam. I'll do that.

It's your improved technique that tamed the Fatip. That razor will never get milder. Kind of like the OCMM on the SE side. Biters one and all. Nice shave!

Great work on cleaning up the remaining razors.

Great picture. The brush is really striking.

Thanks, Clint. The razors won't win any prizes as collector specimens but at least they are all cleaned and disinfected and usable now.

The brush is my first with a fan-shaped knot. Also my first of the new SynBad fibre. I like how the fan knot performs and also quite like the feel of the SynBad fibre. I will be using it exclusively along with the Astra SP blade and Hendrix Classics soap and balm while I try out the various OC razors this month.

Since we're doing Open Combs as the theme this month is was the perfect time to get Matthew the "haunted razor" out of hiding and see what I'm really working with. For those of you who have forgotten, I got this razor on an Ebay auction on a dare from @Drygulch . I know. Me getting something because Adam dared me. Shocking. The story behind the razor was quite an interesting one. I think I saved the whole ad somewhere but basically, it's an older NEW SC that was owned by a man named Matthew who died in a war (WWII or maybe Korea) and the razor had never been used since. It was reported to be capable of suddenly moving across tables and even smashing glassware. They had it in a sealed box to contain it.

Ok, believe what you want and I'm not going to go any further into the paranormal aspect. Here are the facts about the razor. It is a NEW SC Deluxe and it still had a blade in it when I got it. The blade dated it to earlier than the mid 1950s, as the particular blade went out of production by then. So it's truly vintage and truly hadn't been used since before then. As a Deluxe, it's a bit rarer than most of the NEW Gillettes whether LC or SC. It is the short comb version though, which makes it even more unique. It seems to me the LC versions have outlived the SC over the years. I haven't looked up manufacturing data yet to see if the LC was produced more.

The razor came to me in rough looking shape. Seemed like a total replate was in order but I cleaned it up and sanitized it well enough for a few shaves with it. Fortunately its inner spirit didn't slash my throat. I contacted Chris and Razorplate about a gold replate but decided to wait a bit. Well, with OCtober here again and a couple of you finding some really awesome razors under some really terrible corrosion, I decided to experiment. Out came Matthew and here's what I did today. I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures (focus was off a bit).




Pretty dull and dirty looking. Seems like a lot of plate loss. So how to determine better what's really there? A little online research and I decided a mild acid treatment would be best. Fortunately, I happen to have a bottle of mild acid solution in my refrigerator. I normally save it for fries and burgers and such. Some ketchup should work. A light coating of ketchup was applied and the pieces left to sit for about an hour. Then the rinse/brush took place. Here are the comparisons.




While a bit difficult to see in the pictures, the difference was amazing. The smooth brassy areas are fairly stunning. The end of the handle is a very shiny brass. The baseplate is in great condition. The cap appears to have suffered nearly full plate loss, but the brass looks to be in good shape. It's smooth and not at all pitted. I'm tempted to go back to my Army training and try polishing the cap and handle with some good brass polish and see ir I can get a military shine to it. I see nothing structurally wrong with the razor and it makes me even more interested in getting it replated back to something resembling its original look. Probably gold.

I'll be using this razor during OCtober, obviously and I'm looking even more forward to it now. And, of course, it will be the razor I'll use last during the month. After all, when the final shave of the month falls on Halloween, using a haunted razor if you happen to have one is mandatory!

Joining in the theme

Not wanting to be left out I went with open comb DE for today, a DOC Evolution. I loaded it with a Sharp Star courtesy of Neal @NCoxSTL. It looks Neal has forgiven me for the Flying Eagle blade I sent him, what an outstanding blade. I broke my consecutive epic shave record of 4, today was 5 days in a row of epic shaves. This streak was obtained using various types of razors, Cobra Classic, straights and DE.

Irritation A+ Closeness A+

Razor: DOC Evolution (Sharp Star 1)
Brush: Rooney
Soap: MdC
AS: Speick AS, Stirling ASB
Scent: MDCI Chypre Palatin

Stunning picture, Keith!

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