Recovery and play with soap week!
May 27, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Soap - Saint Charles Shave Sandalwood
Razor - EJ DE89L
Blade - (3)
Post - Alum, Clubman

Day three on the 7 o'clock blue and I've gotta say, if this blade was in production I would have ordered in bulk. Great performance by the blade. I'm moving on tomorrow but only because I want to test a blade before the 1st. Yes, I have a plan. As far as the rest of the shave I went to the St. Charles soap and it is still giving me some problems. I have found it much more difficult to lather than MWF and I'm thinking it's just a matter of finding the right soap/water ratio. I'm not sure the high loft Pro 48 is right for it either. Tomorrow I'm going to switch to the VDH Boar and see if I can have a bit better luck. If not then I'm really afraid I'll have to put St. Charles Shave in the second tier. I want very badly for it to perform. Locally made and I really would love to support them. But....it's all performance in the end. I did feel like today's shave was a bit less comfortable than the last two but I'm going to blame the three day old blade very slightly. I think, though, that the lather issue was the major issue. Great scent though. Another reason to keep at it for a bit.

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The other thing that helps is posting about it. When I had a wedge blade suction to my face while saving I had to figure out how to describe what was going on. Just playing that close of attention to my shaves has helped me.

Blade Focus Day 28:

Homemade PS Oil
WD High Mountain Badger 30 mm
Stirling Electric Sheep SS
EJ Chatsworth Barley
Gillette 7 o'clock Super Stainless
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stirling Glacial Lemon Chill AS

I must have some Russian in me I am unaware of, as I seem to like most of the Russian made blades I have tried. The Gillette provided a nice, smooth shave this morning, just like most of the other Russian blades I tried this month. My go to blade had been the Rapira PL. I may follow @NCoxSTL and do a Russian based focus sometime.

Badger Brush Focus - Completed!

Today was shave #30 using my badger brushes and learning a bit more about this hair. My brushes are an Omega 6214 silvertip and a TGN finest badger in a Made Rite handle. Just a little over a month ago I did not own a badger, now I have 2. I was ready to throw in the towel and ditch these brushes after about 10 days of bowl lathering because I was convinced they would be too floppy to face lather with. I'm glad I didn't quit. I did put the bowl away and go right to face lathering and discovered that these brushes do a great job of face lathering. I soak them for about a minute while I wash my face and then shake most of the water out before I load them directly on the soap. 10-30 seconds is long enough to pick up enough soap to get started. I used TSD Wheat cream/croap, Dusy Kabinett soap and an unknown hard puck from IanS and all three provided a slick and shiny lather with a little water added to the tips of the hairs a couple of times. Within a minute or so I was always ready to shave.

If you don't have a good badger brush, you might want to get one. However, I don't find these much better or worse than my Vie-Long 13061M or my TGN synthetic.

Part of my Mayhem this month was changing my brush for every shave, going through my 2 boar, synthetic, horse, and badger brushes. (I now have two as well, got a new one this month.) I think one of my big take aways from the month is that I am not going to keep any brushes unless I truly enjoy using them. One of my boars and my horse are going to be up for adoption shortly. I used my old badger brush in last month's focus, and I am glad I did. It does a great job working the soap onto my face, and building a good slick lather. I really enjoy using them as well.

May 27th, SOTD (Shave 16 of this focus)
One days’ growth
Prep: Hot Shower
Razor: Dubl Duck Satin Wedge with obnoxious orange scales
Strop: Drygulch Chromexcel Horsehide and Linen (20 Linen/50 Leather)
Soap: Barrister & Mann's Fireside (Brandy scented)
Brush: 22mm Hand turned Tulip Wood with TGN Badger
Post Shave: Cold Water Rinse, Alum Block, Thayer’s Witch Hazel
Aftershave: Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods

I don’t typically shave every day. I did last night’s shave with just under 22 hours of whisker growth. The reason I normally wait for two days’ growth is that the whiskers on my chin are very tough the first day, and soften up some if allowed to grow for a second day. I think this is a hold over from my catridge days. Usually, I do a N/S pass, a S/N pass, and some touch up. Last night I did a sideways pass, followed by the S/N pass, which is mostly ATG. Since I skipped the N/S pass, there was enough stubble to make the sideways pass comfortable. Nice straight lines on my facial hair, even if the bottom of the horseshoe is getting very thin.
Since I wasn’t planning on doing three passes, I did a lot less brush loading today. I couldn’t get a lather to build much in my bowl, but the badger face lathered very nicely, and gave a really good lather. I think I have gotten to the point where I can get a good lather with these B&M soaps every time, but I am looking forward to getting back to some of my other soaps. Almost no sting on the alum, and very little with the aftershave. I will call this one a DFS, since I still have a couple of trouble spots on my neck, but my chin, jaw, and cheeks are BBS. This razor seems to cut short stubble easier than the Sheffield steel on my other ones. I wonder if that is due to it being a wedge, rather than hollow ground, or if the blade has just been better maintained, (I just touched this one up on a pasted strop.) I should have about two shaves left for this focus, and then I can figure out what I am doing next month.

Welcome comrade! Glorious Russian steel can always use another fan or two.

Recovery and play with soap week!
May 28, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - VDH Brush
Soap - Saint Charles Shave Sandalwood
Razor - RazoRock TTO
Blade - (1)
Post - Alum, Nivea Post Shave Balm

A mixed bag today. Changed to the VDH boar to work with the Saint Charles more. Happy to say that a much wetter brush and the short loft helped produce a very decent lather. Nice and slick. Maybe not as much cushion as some but still a very nice lather. I suspect a little more work will produce even better results now that I know which direction to take it. Loaded up a Lord Platinum and that was a mistake. My first time to use this blade and it has a good reputation. Not with me, however. Didn't feel bad but man did it produce some blood. Noticed a very small nick on the right cheek during the first pass, then another one on the left cheek. Hey wait....there's another one under my chin. Lathered up for the second pass and went XTG as usual and all that really did was produce some nice weepers along both sides of my neck. Horrible, just horrible. I could feel the irritation before even putting the razor down. Alum and cold water cleared up the nicks and weepers and the Nivea helped calm down the absolute fire the alum produced. After all that I can only claim a CCS as I refused the third pass. You would think I designed that shave to be bad. Some of my bad gear shaves were better than this. DONE with the Lord Plat. Happy Thursday.

05/28/2015
Razor – Mongoose B2 with Jürgen Hempel Ti
Blade – Feather Super Pro (13)
Brush – Rudy Vey with TGN Finest
Lather – Strop Shoppe Baker Street
Post - Witch Hazel and Myrsol Antesol Sample



Today was the 13th shave with this Super blade. Unlike DE blades there is really no tugging etc as the blade nears the end but it just requires more effort to get the same results. Accordingly today's shave required 3 passes to end up with a near BBS shave. No irritation, nicks or weepers. I am going to try and get one more shave out of this blade tomorrow. The SS Baker Street was very easy to lather. I really enjoy the scent of this soap. Finished off with a splash of Myrsol Antesol from the sample pack.

Tomorrow's shave will be the last for May's focus. I think I want to take the weekend off and enjoy some of my other razors. I have a couple of things that I was able to take away from this month's focus. The biggest is that I have found the blade and razor combo that I will judge others against. Since starting traditional wet shaving last September, I have wanted and searched for a work morning combo. My criteria for the my ideal work morning combo was that the razor be efficient enough to achieve a near BBS shave in 2 pass without any drama or thought. I wanted something that was intuitive to use and forgiving at the same time. The Mongoose with the Super blade has meet and surpassed the above. Unless I am overly stupid or clumsy, the razor/blade combo has proven to be intuitive and produce fantastic results for me. It's a very rare occurrence for me to get a less than a great shave with this set up.

For June, I will be concentrating on several Open Comb DE razors. The rotation will include a New LC, a New Deluxe LC Red and Black set, a Gillette Old Style OC and an Above the Tie M2 or R2 OC on loan. In order to better compare the razors, I will use the same handle on all razors. I know that my current Hempel handle will fit each so that is one option. I do have a Triad handle on the way that if it fits all the razors will be a second option. Looking forward to the June focus.

Love those scales. I had to resist the urge to shave last night since I had such a great experience last shave.

Day#27 of the 30-Day Focus
..and Final Day with the J. A. Henckels Zwillingswerk #472 'Friodur' Straight Razor.

Final consecutive day use with Henckels Friodur. It's been seven days of very comfortable shave with this razor. The Friodur is very easy to navigate despite its wider than normal blade and the square tip is blunted enough to remove the accidental risk of 'cheek gouge.' I anticipate this razor becoming a regular part of my razor rotation.
If I had to 'rank' the four German-made razors I've used the past 28 days in order of overall comfort, ease of use and sheer shaving enjoyment, it'd be a close race. As it stands now, this Friodur is the 'winner' but with all of these razors I had difficulty finding any real flaws or criticisms. ANY I'd be happy to make my daily shaver.

1. Henckel Friodur
2. Böhler Stahl
3. Otto Deutsch 'Hans'
4. H. Böker & Co.



Another potential comparison for a 30-day trial— four vintage razors made by the same company, Bresduck, Inc (1930-1952) : Beau Brummel, Dubl Duck Goldedge, the Otto Deutsch (again), C.S. Bresnick
although the variance between these models may be even less noticeable than my previous 30-day testing. hmmmmmm…..

I had to wait awhile to review todays shave which turned out to be a good thing. At first I wasn't very pleased but the more I thought about it, it was probably one of my better shaves with a straight so far. There are still some rough spots but I not quite as much as usual so that's good. The alum really did help grip the skin and I found myself changing my hand placement the further I shaved which is something I didn't really do before. I was mainly picking a spot in the middle of my face and trying to stretch it there for my entire cheek which probably wasn't helping. With one small nick and fewer rough spots I'll call today a good shave. I don't plan on changing much going into next month so I'll probably continue to switch between the two straights I have and see if I can produce BBS for most of the shaves.

.....doooooo it! It was a blast to have you in the group this time!

Still debating on where to go with the razor selection. Leaning towards the Brit Steel battle....

I always thought of you as a mentor....never as someone who had a mentor...

EVERYONE should have or needs a good mentoring some point....

A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel...
-Proverbs 1:5

Brush Focus: Day 28/30
Brush: Fendrihan Silvertip Badger 22/49
Gillette - K-4 (1965) Slim Adjustable. (5).
Gillette Platinum Blade (7)
Soap: Saint Charles Shave Pumpkin
A/S: Saint Charles Shave Pumpkin
Old Spice Coffee Mug.(soak brush)

The Fendrihan Silvertip is an outstanding brush. Ever though it is Silvertip it has a good backbone and is not floppy at all. Loads lots of lather and is a real good feel on my face. One of my best brushes and a good height for a Silvertip Badger (49mm). The soap is pretty good (like the wooden bowl)and a little different, and the same applies for the A/S. I'll change razors and blades tomorrow along with soap and A/S. This brush is diffidently in the top 5 I'm sure.

Seems like a logical progression. All beautiful razors!

Are you intending to post rankings as a wrap up?

Synthetics have come a long way!