March 14th Shavettes Razor: Feather Artist Club DX Pearl Blade: Feather Super Professional (3) Brush: DSCosmetic Galaxy Silvertip PS: Proraso Green SS & AS Stirling Sharp Dressed Man Same shave as Thursday really. Had a family dinner with my parents and siblings and wanted to smell good. All of us are in roughly the same situation and will be isolating ourselves from our parents as much as possible for the next month or more. We're not really worried, but its not that hard to isolate for a few weeks just to be safe. I'd rather be safe than know I caused problems for others. The shave was good. I still nick myself a little more with the shavette than I do with a straight but I am getting better. It may be due to the weight and balance as @wristwatchb suggested. Still a fun process and a small weeper that barely bleeds isn't an attitude changer for me.
Excellent shave Evan! You need to have a lighter touch using a shavette. Let the weight of the razor do the work. I know that you know this maxim. Shavettes are notorious for being unforgiving and some are worse than others.
Once you dial in shavette shaving, you will notice that your traditional straight shaves will be much easier and more efficient.
I've loosely followed some of the Shakesharp chitchat over time. Your experience today intrigues me. Are both blades active in the shaving process?
Awesome shave, Evan! I'm not 100% up on the AC platform, but are the Super Pros the crazy-sharp blades that feather offers in AC? If so, kudos for going full-out with the shavette. We actually share a backyard fence with my parents and cut a gate in the fence. Isolation is going to be tough
Max Headroom has decreed that even in the learning stages of shavettism, a Feather blade may be used for more than a single shave. It may be found toothy on #1, quite pleasant on #2 and #3, beginning to wane on #4, comparable to a Personna at #5. Rock and Roll with Feathaah!
Nothin woyse than them lousy sapperfonation grammmulins in ya tchruck parts. Smiles as he leans and spits the chaw.
Lots of catching-up to do! Discharged from hospital on Wednesday and back to work in Thursday, I’ve been awfully busy and distracted. Kinda disconnected from my fora and getting back connected slowly. Thanks all for great feedback and comments from my last post. Excited to catch up on abundant shavette activity! 3/12 Shave #13 was refreshing and encouraging. I had looked forward to this, having spent the previous 5 days in the hospital. DFS results with my usual patches of slight courseness on either side of the neck. Still getting a few weepers around the mouth. I’m still working on skin stretching at the upper lip. Open mouth is working great for the corners of the mouth in moustache area but under the nose is evading my tactics for comfort improvements. 3/13 Shave #14(*Edit to correct count) was a bit of a let-down. I attribute this to excessive tinkering with my edge. I hone too much. I have resolved to focus honing technique development and experimentation on the razors I’m precluded from using. This is tough. I am maintaining discipline but absolutely aching to try out a new frameback I received and honed recently. The shave was a bit uncomfortable and I think my edge was a touch sloppy because I was working in a different finishing progression. HHT testing reflected great results but keenness faded quickly in the 2nd pass so I think I may have had a foil edge. I stropped before the 3rd pass and accomplished a passable ATG but was left with a bit extra irritation. 3/14 Shave #15 (*Edit to correct count) was a rebound session. I reset my bevel due to my admittedly amateur diagnosis from the last shave. Took my time and went back to an older progression that gave good results in the past. I had a bit of an unfortunate nick under the nose due to a misstep at the moment of blade contact. The edge landed sort of parallel to the apex and at a very steep angle. Persistent bleeder but not too messy. Slowed me down tremendously and I decided to finish up with a partial ATG pass. Reflections I am glad I decided to endeavor in this exercise. The logic and affect of the 30DR just makes sense. Isolating variables for newbies is definitely an excellent recipe for successful learning. The support available here is amazing! Great things happening in a healthy and positive environment. Sincere thanks to all! I still have a lot of work to do. Day 30 of my journey is just around the corner. I am comfortable introducing some variables soon, given my current (albeit relatively low) proficiency. I have some new hardware and software that I’m just nearly foaming at the mouth to use! It will be a nice treat when I’m released to use a different soap and rotate in my boar brush. I use the boar for preshave scrub and really enjoy the springiness and splay if the knot. Moving forward I need to find a better way to minimize tinkering and especially to isolate my changes in honing progressions. Organized notes are the way to go. I’m deciding on a best system to track my data; I want to work in a notebook but electronic data storage might be smarter. I have a hunch old-school will prevail and I’ll end up with a handwritten honing journal. Just thinking of an efficient format that’ll be easy enough to reference and organize without becoming too much of a chore. Anyone else keeping a honing journal that is willing to share methods? Looking forward to the next endeavor. I expect I’ll be a better participant, having one “session” under my belt.
Awesome recap of the week, Andrew! Great to hear you're back at it (and out of the hospital), and that you've got a plan of attack for isolating honing variables. The greatest thing keeping me from straights has been the honing, but I think I'm over that now. I'll see if I can tackle that over the summer. Definitely following your adventures with interest.
Nice shave Neil! Stirling, any Stirling is good stuff. I'm told it's quite in the city, out in the woods other than the rain and freezing rain, nothing's happening here. But it's always quiet here. Heard that people are a little nuts. If you live far out like me, having a few weeks of food and supplies is necessary. The last time we were stuck here was after an ice storm. 10 days couldn't get out, even the snow plows with chains were sliding off the road. 2 weeks, no power, but we were prepared. Mom and dad always had enough food for the winter, clear through spring, it's a habit that works out in a pinch. Enjoy the quiet while it lasts is all I can say. tp
Great shave Evan! So far the nicks have been rare for me, so far. We are staying away from the wife's mom and dad. They're older, fragile, and don't need anything like the 19. tp
Nice that your out and about again Andrew! Really nice write up, I like your reflections. The shaves descriptions were nice to know too. Stay healthy, keep up the good work. Someday I hope to have a straight that works too, well, after I get the hang of open blades. tp tp
