March Madness!!
March 6
Razor - 1920's Gillette Travel Razor, Stirling Silver by William B. Kerr & Co.
Blade -
![[IMG]](https://theshaveden.com/forums/attachments/bic-5-chrome-platinum-jpg.188321/)
(3)
Soap - Truefitt & Hill 1805
Brush - Stirling 24mm Badger fan knot
Post - Alum
Final shave for now with the Gillette Travel Razor and Bic CP blade. I'll start with thoughts on the blade on day three. As usual, the Bic blade performed perfectly. I remember a couple of years ago I was emptying out a small blade bank into my main disposal bucket and counted each of the blades by brand. Of course, the number one blade was Voskhod. Surprisingly, the number two blade was the Bic CP. Well, surprising only because everyone figured it would be another Russian. I've stopped going to the Bic as often but this three days has reminded me that I should keep some around, just to have another fantastic option should I decide I want to change up for a bit. My thoughts on this razor. What a cool little razor this one is. I'm going to dig into the serial numbers on the baseplate just to try and learn more about it, but this is a very functional, if very different to hold, little razor that shaves just like any good vintage Gillette. I'm glad I overpaid to acquire this one. Being an unusual piece it was more than worth the money in any case.
Now, to the soap. T&H 1805. It has received many negative, and strongly negative, reviews. I've used it before with some success. Last night - it lived up to its terrible reviews. So, let's give it a shot to redeem itself. Two comments were made. Joseph
@Primotenore suggested a 1/4 to 3/4 ratio hot water soak prior to shaving. I'm pretty sure he is really suggesting "blooming" the soap. Ok, I don't use the term but I do "soak" a few soaps, and this one got basically that treatment since last night. There was reason for hope according to Andrew
@Linuxguile because, yes, it isn't Marvy. There has to be some hope. I went to the Stirling badger given its density and thought that might give me an edge as well. So how did it go?
I shook the badger mostly dry before hitting the wet puck for the load. And, I loaded for probably twice as long as usual. The brush seemed fully ready to go. Wet my face, and started the face lather. After a fairly short time it looked like I had good coverage. So, on to the first pass. I made it through the entire shave without the lather completely dissipating. Definitely better than last night but not impressive. Maybe that's as good as it gets. I rinsed my face and went back for another face lather. Looked good again until I picked up the razor and I noticed a big round spot on my left cheek with absolutely no lather. Clearly the brush pulled all the lather off my face. I looked at the brush, saw plenty of lather in it, so I changed from lathering to painting on my face. NOW things started improve. Greatly. By painting on the lather I got not only solid coverage over my entire face but I also got some cushion and the slickness was at least 50% improved. Second pass was quite comfortable, slick, and ended with a near-BBS. The soap lasted without any problems during that pass. Nice.
Now my mind started to wonder. Maybe face lathering isn't the way to use this soap. So, without loading it any further, I grabbed one of my VDH green bowls and started to work up a bowl lather. I added a little water, worked it, got it going, added a bit more water and - BANG - a bowl full of quite nice looking and feeling lather. I swirled it up on the brush and painted my hand. Great cushion, coverage, feel, all the right ingredients including slickness. I stood there looking at my hand for a good five minutes and barely any had dissipated. Now we're definitely talking.
Obviously this is a soap that can be very nice and useful. My recommendation - get the puck super wet, keep the brush mostly dry and load up. Then bowl lather and paint your face with it. I'm a happy camper. Have a great Thursday night and a better Friday!
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