Gong 7/8 B & M Lavender black label Crown King switchback symthetic with the # 2 knot - have not figured out the water ratio yet Floid Blue
The 'Celebrated I Excel!' razor from George Wostenholm & Sons. I have to agree with the maker's label. This lovely old blade certainly excels at giving a truly wonderful, smooth shaving experience! Still going strong at nearly 130+ years old! This and the Fenney Tally Ho used yesterday have managed to creep into my 'Top 5' razors I look forward to using!
Glad you asked Mike - It aint no badger that's for sure. It is very different in that I have not figured out exactly how much water to load into the brush before loading it with soap. It is extremely soft and feels wonderful but so far I have too much water and it tends to stay in the bottom of the knot. Instead of working itself down to the tips when I face lather it drips out at the top of the handle. I really think I may end up liking it if I get past this learning curve. The handle I am in love with. Have not tried the # 1 knot yet
It was fun. The razor shaved beautifully and was downright loud. My wife even noticed the sound and commented on it. I did a one pass shave WTG and only needed to do a little touch up with my Slim on the neck. I did get a weeper in front of my left ear. I'm looking forward to learning this razor. I think a month with my Feather AC did a good job prepping me for it.
Excellent first outing! I've posted a number of times how my first…oh…ten or so SR shaves were pretty rough and rather disappointing. Clean-up with a DE razor for the first month or so.
That's what I did with the Feather. It took a few weeks before I quit cleaning up with a DE. I'll do the same here. Thanks.
Using the Feather AC first let me hit the ground running when I went to straights. I haven't looked back yet!
Those synthetic knots just won't retain water and as a result, if damp at all when trying to apply lather, it just turns into a drippy mess. Next time if your a bowl latherer, after you make your lather pull the lather out of the brush by pulling it across the side of the bowl, shake out all you can from the brush and then apply lather. If a face latherer, shake out brush as much as possible before working the lather on your face. If I don't do this, I wind up with a chest and stomach covered in drippy lather. Glad to hear you're liking the rest of the set up. It's on my short list.
Ali's Blade custom Hoshi Tombo clone 500 layer hand forged Damascus Kanayama Cordovan #8000 Shavemac Plexiglass Silvertip two band Jabonman Rosa De Bourbon Tom Ford Noir Balm Tom Ford Noir Edp
Razor: GEVOSO SS Brush: The Holy Black Soap: The Holy Black Gunpowder Spice Aftershave Tonic: The Holy Black Gunpowder Spice
Hayashi diamond 1000 Baum.be Brushcraft handle, FS 24mm silv tip ex dense Floid Vigoroso... Love my Japanese blades, just got this one back from Glen Mercurio for a scale repair, clean and hone
Mike, I have badger, boar, horse and synthetic brushes and yet my go to brushes are synthetic. I don't soak my brush. I just run some water over it and shake it out. Then I do some swirls on the soap and as needed add drops of water onto the brush and go back to swirling. I think soaking and too much water is overkill. The synthetic works just fine...and you don't lose "hairs" from a synthetic brush. I find my large H.I.S. brush to be plenty soft, though not the same as a soft silvertip, for sure.
