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SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 4, 2020
After my great mug shave yesterday with my Manhattan Cutlery Sheffield razor, I just couldn’t help myself. I reached for an even older Sheffield, my Frederick Reynolds which I’d touched up last night on the ILR. I decided to use my TOBS Peppermint shave cream to complement the PAA Frost Byte AS’s peppermint.
Part of the benefit of having a son who’s been straight shaving for close to two decades is their user experience. Ben steered me towards both these Sheffield’s and towards a third, an early Boker arriving back from Glen Mercurio tomorrow from a restoration. Apparently, Boker used to import Sheffield steel before a German Trade Act halting such imports in the early 1890s.
I expect after Glen’s beauty treatment and honing it will shave as beautifully as it’s predecessors and the two Japanese razors Ben selected for me as well.
The lather was well-generated with my new MrEE Monster Synth, but like all TOBS creams was severely lacking in the post-shave skin feel department. Nancy Boy and MWF have set a very high bar, and I’ve yet to find a cream or soap that comes close to meeting it. Then again, I should take the crotchety curmudgeon factor into account. The three pass (WTG, ATG, XTG) mug shave with the Reynolds razor was buttery smooth and left my face clean and velveteen.
For the dome shave I pulled out my early production (1920) Gillette Big Fellow OC with the large Old Type head, I loaded a Wizamet Iridium on its second and last shave and proceeded to have an exemplary two pass (ATG, ATG) velveteen noggin shave. I really like the longer handle on this particular Big Fellow. I suspect I would enjoy the later model with the New Standard head more, but that’s an issue for another day! All in all a splendid shave to match this bright sunny day here in the Philadelphia suburbs.
RAZOR: Frederick Reynolds 5/8 Bovine Scale (Mug), Gillette Big Fellow [1920] (Dome)
BLADE: Wizamet Iridium (2)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by Argan Oil
BRUSH: MrEE Monster Aluminum Tuxedo Synth
CREAM: TOBS Peppermint
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys WH. Finished with PAA Frost Byte AS Splash.
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