Another lazy, no shave day for me today. I may call this a month and start next month's focus on Sunday. After all the encouragement (maybe it is cheering for some entertainment at my expense), I am going to do the pain stick (my last name is Payne, after all) with some clean up using the Repeaters, when necessary.

Now I know you're not accusing us of trying to enable you to try something that might cause you pain, discomfort, disfigurement and even massive blood loss just to entertain ourselves are you? Us? Never! Well, almost never. Oh who am I kidding. I'm just glad it's somebody besides me we're cheering for.

But, aside from the gaping wound in his face, that was still a pretty nice shave!

Does West Coast carry those? I see a focus in the making.

What's a little disfigurement amonst friends?

And besides, what's the worst that could happen?

speaking of disfigurement, I'm about to shave with a quality Russian DE razor and blade. Pictures to come if I survive the blade gap!

Nov 27 Focus shave 27

Today is Haslinger sandalwood, I always had good results with this soap so directly to the SR test. Lots of wet slick lather, I don't know why I don't use this soap more. The first pass was very smooth but on the second pass I nicked myself and there were a couple of weepers. I went ahead and did the rest of my passes. Today I tried and experiment because the shave felt like it was going good and I added another pass but this time with the grain. Sometimes it feels like the ATG pass leaves things rough so I though going the other direction would smooth out the little bumps.

Given the weepers, nick and extra pass I expected to the Alum test to be at least a little painful but just a tingling. Checked for closeness and BBS. I am pleased because tomorrow morning I leave for Macau and then Phuket for some R&R. Inspired by the blood my Shave Den brothers have shed with their pain sticks I am bringing along my CJB pain stick. I won't use it everyday but it should get a couple of shaves. It looks like the final soaps of the months will be my traveling soaps, Arko sticks and puck of QCS Vostok. I may not be posting much the next 10 days.

Irritation A-, closeness A

Haslinger Sandalwood
Rooney Beehive silver tip
Hart Steel 6/8 round tip
Dry Gulch strop
Spieck AS
L'Occitane Cade ASB
Knize Ten

Wow, a new addition. Congratulations and I hope all goes smoothly for a healthy mom and baby.

Congrats Dad! Best wishes to you and your wife.

OK today I used Col Conk's Amber shave soap an Omega Rossini Synthetic brush, Axe Shield ASB and a Spunik blade in this unknown to me Russian face mauler.

Here's a close up of the Cyrillic on the case.

and here is the razor out.

Yes that is an olive drab plastic handle, a large blade gap, lots of blade exposure and allinement issues. I had to work to get the blade even for a few min and when I was satisfied that it was straight I had a more aggressive side and a less aggressive side. FUN!!

I decided to try the Omega I got in a PIF a few weeks ago and I'm not sure if I like it. It seems to have quite a bit of loft and stiffness. Now I like stiffness but when I tried to get this brush to splay I had to check for blood. I ended up slapping it around my face in paintbrush strokes. Now the soap. This is the first real glycerine shaving soap I have tried if you don't count the preshave soap I lathered yesterday. I liked the proformance of the soap it protected, was slick and smelled great. I didn't end up with a lather I was happy with so I'll go back to this and see if the brush was the problem. It worked great but it looked and felt a bit dry and thin. Now on to the blade and razor. I have not used the Spunik blade before but I think I like it. It slid through hair like it wasn't cutting anything at all. The razor was a terrifying thing. It gave me a 3 pass BBS despite that. The topcap bent the blade alot. I was surprised at how much and it made the angle difficult to find. It either wanted to shave flesh from bone or not at all. the sweet spot was very small. Once I hit the sweet spot ( which was different on both sides because of the alinement) It was an effortless shave. I did a standard 3 pass WTG, XTG, ATG and skipped touchups because I didn't need any. The mild side felt like a tech and the aggressive side felt like a fatboy on 8. I finished up and thought "Self, this is a russian razor. If it were human it would be named Yuri and crack skulls and fit people for cement shoes. You might want to check with the alum block before you use the after shave balm." Well I did and it did nothing. I smeared in some of the Axe Sheild and was pleasantly surprised at the light coco butter scent. It soaked in well and seems very hydrating. I'm happy with my shave today.

Tomorrow is Turkey day 2: Revenge of the bird at the other parents house. We at the Ducky house are going up to my mom's house. She put off Thanksgiving until tomorrow because her boyfriend works in the kitchen at the hospital and was stuck working until then.

This shave has received the official cartel seal of approval! You have discovered the joys of using Soviet equipment. Blade gap? Yep got one, actually got several depending on where you are on the razor. Is the blade aligned? Sure, whatever that may mean. Having survived that you're now ready for other Russian razor joys....because while, in my experience, they all suck, they all suck in different and unpredictable ways. But, it takes courage, skill and a little bit of crazy to pick one up. Great review. As for the blade, the Sputnik is similar to Voskhod to me at least. Not as sharp as the Voskhod and not as comfortable for me but close. Both are teflon though, which is my fav. Well done comrade, well done.

That was uncomfortable to watch. I kept thinking he was going to take off part of his ear. Glad he survived the shave. Compared to that, pain sticks and straights should be easy.

Nice review. I looked closely at that razor and decided that I'd rather not mess with it. You're a braver man than me! You did pretty well though. I didn't try Col. Conk, but I was really impressed with the Mama Bear's Soaps Black Code type. Its also a Glycerin soap. Mama Bear seems to have some good reviews. Here's what I ended up with when I tried it:

I'm attempting to try everything. I am shaving at rough 18 hour intervals to get in enough shaves. I'm enjoying it.

It was fun. I dislike Voskhod but I do alright with GSB, Ladas and now Sputnik. I'm gathering a list of go to blades and they seem to be very Russian heavy with some Japanese throw in for flavor. The razor did way better then it looked like it would. The corners of the guard bars are worn making it look more uneven then it was.

We're in the same boat here. My favorite blades are Polsilver, GSB, Sputnik and Feather. I don't actually dislike Voskhod, but I think there are better blades out there (don't tell Yuri I said that).

I dislike feather for the same reason as I do Voskhod. I feel like they are very sharp to the point of harshness. My Japanese blade of choice is Kai.

Kai is my preferred Japanese blade as well.