January 2020 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Fantastic shave report, scent description, and photo, Jim. That Prismatic is a beautiful razor

 

Now that's a fine job of color matching!
Terrific report and good find. It would be nice have a local artisan.

 

Great shave, Jeff. Sorry to hear the Rex is giving you trouble, but I'm certain you'll quickly become its master (though, honestly, why bother--that Gibbs #17 is gorgeous )

 

Thanks, Patrick!

Thanks, Jeff!

Excellent shave and post, Jason!

 

Great pic and report, Clint. I thought that gem blades needed to be punched out at the sides when using the V2. Glad to hear that's not the case after all

 

I get the same feeling with my Rex. It's a good razor, but it doesn't beat the 6S in terms of smoothness. I've tested a multitude of blades and experimented with angles, yet it "bites", like you mentioned; With some drag to boot. I still get a DFS, but my face ends up being a bit more sore afterwards.
Nice shave!

 

Awesome report and photo, Jason. It's nice to hear when small local artisans are doing things right.

 

I’ve read a good bit lately on the Rex Ambassador. The general accepted consensus is that manufacturing issues were mostly cleared on the N date codes and beyond. And while the M date code did have a percentage of issues, but those would be/were fixed at no cost. Always some that can’t be pleased though.

There are many comparisons of it to the 6s, even a thread devoted to this very subject over at B&B.

https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/how-smooth-is-the-rex-ambassador.548636/

For what it’s worth, I also have both the 6s and RA. The 6s (plate 6) is my latest travel gear, and the RA (also on 6) for when I use a DE at home. I’m only a handful of shaves into using each, both give me smooth shaves with a brand new Feather Hi-Stainless. More reports soon....

 

cool shave and pic Jason.i f i see it i might try it out..i would like to use more local (bc) ..without spending big$$ like t and s..

 

Jan 18th
SR Saturday

Rasor: Dovo Inox & Feather DX
Blade: Dovo & Feather Super Professional
Brush: Razorock Plisoft Barber 24
PS: Proraso Red
SS: Chiseled Face Bay Rum
AS: Proraso Red

I decided to do a side-by-side between the Dovo and the Feather. The Dovo has about 5 shaves since arriving and being refreshed with .3 micron lapping film. I strop with 25 strokes on canvas and 50 strokes on leather. The Dovo's performance in the hanging hair test was indistinguishable from the Feather with the new Super Professional blade. Both blades are extremely sharp.

I shaved one side of my face with each which isn't completely fair. Perhaps I will reverse it next week. The final result was a very close BBS shave with a couple small nicks.

I have to say both tools performed well. The feel in hand is very similar. In my opinion there are several plusses and minuses to both. I found I liked the Feather's shorter cutting surface for shaving the curves of my neck. It felt very natural in my hand, not requiring any conscious adjustment from my Dovo trained muscle memory. However, the less visible edge and lack of audible feedback had me shaving on faith in a few areas. I nicked myself twice with the Feather in places I never have issues with my Dovo.

Initially the Dovo's full hollow audible feedback made me think the Dovo wasn't doing as well, but inspection between passes suggested the Dovo was shaving just as close or even a little closer. I found myself buffing certain areas with the Dovo and just plowing through areas with the Feather due to differences in the feedback I was getting from each blade. The unbuffed areas were not as close and required some touchup.

In the end I like the Feather DX well enough to use it more often. It's performance is close enough to almost scratch the SR itch, but there is just a slight performance gap. Yes, I acknowledge that coolness is a factor and it's fine to do thinks I think are cool.

 

Great looking photo and shave Jason. I agree with you on shave soaps at craft fairs. You might have found the only good shave soap in history to be sold at a craft fair.

 

Those Gibbs razors are awesome lookers

 

Thank you Joe.

 

Thank you Tim. It depends on the individual V2 razor. One of mine has to have the blades punched and this one is tight enough without punching.

 

January Focus

Murphy & McNeil~~Mondial~~Portland 1905
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I decided to give M&M a second chance.
You might recall, that my first tub was...once again...riddled with granules.
I returned the soap.
Before the second purchase, I emailed the company and they assured me that with this new tallow/duck fat
formation, there was no more granule issues.
Now, this new soap is also much darker than the original. It concerns me that it might stain my
badger brushes.
With that in mind, I used my Mondial boar.
Spent a long time with the lather. It was bit airy for my liking, but the slickness was there.

The Portland is a pretty small blade, but still it's the edge that cuts, so it shouldn't matter;
and it didn't. Smooth, three-pass shave for a very good results.
Finished the shave with the matching AS. It's potent, too, so I wet my hands and then
put a few drops into my palms before application.​

​

 

Watching you straight and shavette shavers is giving me the itch--can't wait for summer when I won't feel so rushed to try that as a 30DC.

One way or the other, fantastic shave and comparison.

 

Excellent photo Evan. That is a great comparison report.

 

cool shave and pic Evan..

 

Great report, Evan!

Nice, Joseph!
I'm surprised you gave the soap another shot. Glad it worked out for you.

 

There is that enabling brush again....Wonderful shave report and photo Joseph.