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SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 1, 2022
Just a great shave for the first day of May. The Genco 35 5/8 was the first straight razor I ever acquired after 5 years of Dovo Special ownership. I traded a couple of beat up Gillette old types to one of my former hunting buddies for it. It was his grandfather’s. It had been well maintained as the sole straight razor in his knife collection, but never used. I learned one basic lesson from this razor. There's a reason new straight shavers are encouraged to start with a round Dutch point.
The racing stripe I experienced on my first down stroke taught me to routinely blunt the blade tip on my square points. Of course, my technique has greatly improved since those days, and I suppose I could get away with no longer doing so, but my Parkinson’s coupled with the women in my family looking for any excuse to pry this old man away from his few remaining pleasures argues otherwise. In any case two and a half mug passes left me oh-so-smooth!
I own many vintage and a few modern artisan safety razors, but as time has passed find myself shaving with mostly my vintage ones. Many in this hobby collect widely produced Gillette or Schick models, at least when getting started. I did as well, but being more of a user than a collector, never worried too much about cased models. Do I have a few? Of course, but most of my safety razors are uncased. One of my absolute favorite vintage SE’s is the Mk1 Bakelite handled G.E. Jones Shake Sharp.
Shake Sharp razors were initially developed at the end of 1930’s to provide the thrifty souls of that era with a tool that would dramatically extend the blade life of the carbon steel DE blades then prevalent. However, WWII delayed their introduction until the mid 1940’s. There are three models, the original Bakelite handle, and two cased metal handles - one gold and the other nickel plated. Both Bakelite and metal handles shine with two stacked DE blades.
And no, I’m not senile yet! I did describe these razors as SE’s. They are quite unique in that this is the only SE that I’m aware of that was designed to use DE blades. Since one only uses one edge at a time, the benefits are obvious, but really only for single blades, and not for stacked doubles. But at this point in my life I don’t really worry about economy. All I know is that Shake Sharps are my best noggin shavers followed closely by my Speed Shavers. Two ATG passes left me glassine smooth from noggin to neck.
RAZOR: Genco 35 5/8 (Mug), Shake Sharp Mk1 (Dome)
BLADE: 2 Stacked Feather DE
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a heavy scrub with Argan Oil
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T400 Rubberset Homage w/ 26mm Silvertip Badger Ferrule
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by a rinse with Humphreys WH. Finished with Chiseled Face Natural AS Splash.
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