SOTD FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020
Glad to be able to post a shave again after having lost power from a local tornado this past Tuesday in the wake of Hurricane Isaias. We were notified that power wouldn’t be restored until this Sunday. After three days my neighbor called our local Congressman and lo and behold about an hour later a power crew showed up to clear the two trees blocking our neighborhood’s sole access. Power was restored shortly thereafter. The shave was extremely enjoyable. With all the talk lately about Gillette New models, I selected one of the best vintage shavers I own, my New LC for the dome shave and neck cleanup.
Before my shower I soaked the Rooney Badger brush and bloomed the MWF in warm water. The shave began with a cold water rinse and a good scrub of both mug and noggin with the Rabid Banana Preshave Cube. The Rooney brush whipped up a great, cooling, wet lather to the mug and a thick protective lather to the noggin thanks to the 6 drops of M-Bomb added earlier to the shave bowl. My straight razor technique is slowly improving. I can easily achieve a VBBS above the jawline. It’s that danged, saggy, old-man neck that presents issues.
My safety razor technique has improved immeasurably, thanks to the skin-stretching and attention to shave angle learned from using straights. Despite that it seems that I’ll never achieve a VBBS below the neck with the straight razor alone. One thing I have noticed is that Ben’s new 30k grit jnat finishing stone has resulted in incredibly sharp straights. His hair pinging demo yesterday on this Damascus straight used this morning scared the bejeezus out of yours truly. His talk of “velvet, buttery” edges didn’t help! But it did give the notion of ‘negative pressure’ new meaning.
So despite a glasslike finish above the jawline, below is a challenge. There’s my terror about using the scary sharp straights my son is returning to me. His new honemeister guru from up around the Boston area doesn’t believe in stropping. He apparently advocates for a weekly touch up on the 30k stone. I will say that the razors he returns to me are very sharp. It did feel like I was just brushing away the lather above the jawline. The New LC did a tremendous job on my neck cleanup and was a joy to use on the dome. I'm on my 10th shave with the Suneko DE blade, although I think it’s coming to the end of the trail. After three days without a shave I feel cool, clean and amazingly velveteen!
RAZOR: CKA Damascus Koa Wood Scales 6/8 (Mug), Gillette New LC (Dome)
BLADE: Suneko (10)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Rooney Ebony Pure Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Krampert’s Frostbite AS Splash.
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