What Straight Razor Did You Use Today?

They certainly catch the eye.

 

Big old C. Friedr. Ern 15
Brush: McPhail shift knob
Suds & Splash: PAA Red Planet
This was a devil of a combo... the brush is very ergonomic - makes sense since it is a shift knob , and I love the feel of this razor.

Enjoy your shave.
Tom

 

Lovely razor - how wide is that blade?

 

I've been chroming the dome since October or possibly September, and always with straights. Lately I've been so overloaded at work that when I get home I just eat and sleep, consequently, I'm often pushing two weeks between shaves for the roof, and occasionally a week between shaves for the rest. Last night was about two weeks growth, and the old wedge sliced through like butter. When shaving that much growth off, you just have to keep reminding yourself to go slowly. When I go too fast, the longer hair wants to push the blade edge down and dig in, so I end up with nicks and irritation. My only issue last night was from a blemish I already had been having problems with. Otherwise no nicks and no irritation.

In order to shave your head with a straight, you have to learn how to shave blind, by feel. I learned that years ago by maintaining my back hairline. I would reach my left hand back, find where the hairline was and lay my finger across it as a guide. Using my right hand, I would reach the razor around, touch the spine to my finger, and gently roll it until I felt the edge touch my neck. You start slow, but in no time, you develop a sense for where the blade is, so eventually I only used the finger across the hairline as a simple reference point, and basically just shaved away without having to touch the blade to my finger at all. The transition to whole head was surprisingly easy. The only place where I routinely find it difficult is a narrow band from right behind one ear and around to right behind the other. The contour of my head there and the awkward-ness of how to best hold and angle the blade has often led to either nicks or less than perfect smoothness in the shave. Other than that, I do get pimples on my scalp sometimes that get opened up, but I can pretty well tell how my shave is going in real time just because of how it feels.

Honestly, I would have a harder time shaving my head with a different kind of razor at this point because I'm well used to it, and I can't think of any advantage I could get with a closed blade system like a DE ora dreaded cartridge razor. The space around the blade gets plugged too easily on either with the volume of hair being removed, and the angles to hold those handles seem a lot more awkward to me. Plus, none of them would give nearly as smooth of a finished product.

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Thank you Karl! A nice 8/8 to back of spine.

 

Wow, you could chop with that razor.

 

Koraat 7/8 with a 1/4 grind


Silverloaf 8/8 smiling near wedge

 

Thanks for the description, still I have some hair on my head. Though it is quite sparsely on top so I use a hair clipper with 6mm distance. Perhaps in a near future I will go your way, not that fun looking like a monk..


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That is exactly what I tell everyone! I was tired of looking like a monk!

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There has been OT to deal with at work so I’m not shaving as often as I’d like.

Today I used:
My fave BIG brush
The mystery soap mug
$17 - 6/8 John Jay, Dust Store find w/MOP inlays.
Intrepid Man - a Stirling interpretation of some Creed scent.



The shave device is recently back from a field trip to the Lone Star State. It was in rough shape when I found it. Probably seldom if ever used, but the pearl tang had me. It still bears the marks of neglectful storage. Very thin grind and light weight. Great shaver.

The good thing about OT is the extra cash to waste on shave goodies I don’t need......like maybe one of those modern Bokers with the Mother of Pearl tang inlays. Hmmm.

Great shave, great day.

 

$17! great buy

 

Sunday shave, J.A. Hellberg, Half hollow. Deadly silent, requires an angle of 15-20 degrees. A little bit to aggressive, cuts off everything....



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You seem to have a different razor nearly every day. Just how many do you have?

I'm starting to suspect that you're the Swedish razor supplier to the world...

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That is astounding for a $17 find! Did you take any before pictures?

I've been pulling a lot of OT lately myself, so I feel ya there. Money is good, but too tired to shave most days.

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+50 I think, if you ask my wife it is to many, 20 if she asks me...


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Robert Williams
Brush: Vie-Long Bullgoose LE 2012 horsehair
Suds & Splash: PAA Red Planet
The blade caught the leaves in a cool way... at least I thought so.


Here is a better pic of Mr. William’s work. Fun spine work and monkey tail.


Enjoy your shave.
Tom

 

Thiers Issard 7/8

 

Continuing to test the new Pierre La Lune, this time with a better razor, a Solingen import that can take the best of edges, a West Side Grinding Company ‘Lucky Strike’. This edge shaved better than the Monkey (no surprise) and smoothness wise felt like a 10k-12k Naniwa, or maybe a 16k Glass Stone. This is backwards a little from the edge that it had on it. The important thing is that both edges so far were not aggressive or ‘bitey’, and they were smooth.

Neither edge was as smooth as the best Jnat edge and I will refinish the Solingen on a Jnat tonight and try again tomorrow for a comparison. My preliminary thoughts after 2 edges that were very good before the La Lune is that it won’t beat the best 1% Jnat or 1% coticule, but may be an ideal maintenance stone for those that aren’t into honing that much. It seems like a barber hone that’s actually fine enough to deliver a comfortable shave. And maybe more strokes will get better edges out of it?

 

Another exceptional shave. The Otto Busch outperformed itself today. And I’m still loving that Old Spice scent

Hot water preparation
Argan Oil PSO
Shavemac 2-Band Silvertip Badger
Castle Forbes 1445 Shaving Cream
Otto Busch Weltmeister Sonderklasse 265 11/16
Old Spice After Shave



Happy shaving - Karl