View attachment 222799
SOTD 04/08/2020
A man can definitely become addicted to the delightful velveteen feeling smooth skin arising from a barber close BBS shave. The truth underlying any safety razor is that it really is nothing more than a blade holder. The transition many make from safety razor to shavette to straight arises for a variety of reasons. There’s the danger coupled with the mastery of technique of straight edge open shaving. There’s the connection to our past and the history of shaving dating back to the Egyptians. Then there’s just the feeling of belonging to a small select club. But most importantly, it’s that feeling of shaving mastery, understanding shaving angle and the accompanying skin stretching required for a great shave that contributes to the improvement of safety razor shaving. In my case a neurological condition prohibits my joining the open edge family.
Safety razor designers can attempt to engineer blade angle and blade exposure into their blade holders, but technique still reigns supreme. The safety razor shavers’ acronym, “YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY (YMMV)”, exemplifies the role technique plays. But is that all there is to it? I own a variety of vintage and modern artisan safety razors, and can elicit a decent shave from all of them, but there are certain razors that that just seem to perform better for me within certain blade parameters. For example, my Rex Ambassador shaves beautifully with Wizamets or Voskhods, not so much with Feathers or Nacets. Whereas my AS-D2 and Occam’s DE reform best with Feathers or Nacets, and not so much with Voskhods or Wizamets. When it comes to my SE razors, of which I own many, my favorite DE SE, the G.E. Jones Shake Sharp performs best with any stacked DE blade, but the blades of choice for my smoothest and closest shave are Sunekos.
I can achieve a BBS shave with any of my razors, but have recently discovered that the closest barber-level BBS is best achieved with a Feather Super blade in any of my SE AC blade holders. Today’s one and a half pass BBS was delivered through my newest SE AC razor ordered back in December of 2019, the Colonial General V2. What I most love about this razor is the sense of effortless competence I experience when shaving with it. It truly feels like I’m just sweeping away the lather. The Feather Super blade is incredibly sharp, but the balance and weight of the razor in hand allows for old, shaky me to exert negative pressure with no effort. So much so, in fact, that there is no audible or tactile feel of the blade cutting. I will always insist on Feather Super Blades in future AC SE shaves. I truly enjoy shaving both face and noggin with this razor. I feel clean, velveteen smooth, and refreshed.
RAZOR: Colonial General V2 in 316L SS
BLADE: Feather Super AC
PREP: Cold water rinse
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 with 26mm Silvertip Badger Knot
SOAP: Pannacrema Nuavia Blu
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Fine Fresh Vetiver AS Splash
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