Excellent setup there. My first rule was a year ago and Proraso was my choice as well. The VDH brush is a great choice as well. Still use mine for all my head shaves and for some others as well. Happy New Year!

Congratulations to @PLAla our December NGA winner!! Thank you @Seabs @Boojum1 @youngunn @Marverel @pvtbanks for your generous donations.

I'll take my guys over their guys. No kidding anyone. :ahem:

congrats PLAla

Merry new year! Beef jerky time

I want to experiment with prep and routine. I want to see how my shaves are after 30 days of...... Hot towel cold shave.
Start with hot towel, cold lather, cold water 1st pass followed with cold water splash. Begin each pass with fresh hot towel and repeat for 3 passes. I think it's more time consuming than part of my technique, I also think it could have interesting results

Evening shaves found their way into my schedule as I stayed focusing on straights.

*if* I can hone this beast a wee bit more this blade will be my Jan focus. It's close...so close and I have right arm that is missing plenty of hair to prove the effort!
Eric

What stones are you using?

Wow! How did we get over 100 posts so quickly? Thank you Chis for continuing to setup these 30 day rule/focus threads, we appreciate it! Maybe I can catch up on my reading sometime tomorrow.

This month, I plan to focus on the razor my wife gave me for Christmas: the Phoenix Double Open Comb. I will try my top 4 blades and use feather blades for the first time in an effort to find ones that gives me close and comfortable shaves with this razor. Once I've done that, I'll stick with what appears to be the best blade for the remainder of the month. I'll mostly use Michael's Wool Fat, but I may use other soaps for variety later in the month. I’ll also be traveling for a few days and haven’t decided what soap or cream I’ll take along.

The blades I will use are:

• Astra Superior Platinum
• Lord Platinum Class
• Gillette Silver Blue
• Rapira Super Stainless
• Feather

Happy New Year everyone!

January 2016 focus;

Today I took out my two finishing stones, a Shapton 12k and J Nat (Nakayam Aisa) and my different pastes to prepare for my Jan focus. This month focus will be on different ways to finish my SR edges, similar to @Drygulch

I have two different stones, the J Nat is new and I am still not sure if I have figured it out. I took all my razors to my Naniwa 8K super stone so everyone started from the same point. Then 7 razors were finished on the Shapton and 2 on the J Nat.

I have several different pasted strops:
Dovo red and green from tubes plus CrOx
Dovo little bricks, these are red and black and come in the little box. They are wrapped in foil and what I have used the most in the past.
CrOx and Iron Oxide.
I recently added a 200,000 grit diamond paste.

I will be trying different combination of stones with pastes and with and without the diamond paste.

So I did allot different stroping today, so tomorrow let the games begin.

Technique is everything. I am getting A+++ shaves from a $15 plastic TTO. We discuss results and improve our skills... ask anybody here on this thread , we don't really care one way or another what tools you use. What we are after is mastering the tools, and sharing knowledge, and sometimes some good natured taunting about said results. We judge shaves, not gear.

Don't view razor collecting and traditional wet shaves as the same thing. Many guys here do this as a singular hobby (like coin collections), and many have been at it for years. If you wait and slowly make changes or additions, your ability to appreciate and differentiate will increase over time.

And besides, a better race car only makes sense if you truly know how to drive it.

You're doing this the right way.

The important things to me, in my marriage, is being wise in how I am the leader of my family. Part of that is knowing my wife very well. Right or wrong, she would interpret my wearing it as ignoring her at best, and antagonizing her at the worst. I would never want her to think either of those things about me. Reason:I don't wanna abdicate control over the big picture over a contrived fight regarding AS.

That's what "happy wife, happy life" means to me.

Welcome! I hope you have a fun and possibly insightful time doing this exercise.

That doesn't run contrary to Rule guidelines. Prep and AS are not covered in the intro...

But mostly, it's your month! Do whatever you feel you need to.

Welcome back! I think you'll have about 29 great shaves. The first one will just be ok, but then you'll have it! It's one of the best modern DE razors.

I am trying out the Aust Friday.

Ymmv....

The way you use your brush dictates the need for bristle type. Badgers are too soft for me. Since I face lather, I rate boar and synthetic as tops. Many bowl latherers think Badger reigns supreme.

Brushes are just another tool.

Finishing, I'm using an eschter water stone. If I need to set an edge, I am using norton quarters 1000/2000/4000/8000.

Good morning folks - and a Happy New Year to you all.

My first shave in 2016, first day of 2-band-badger and OC focus:



- Stirling Barbershop
- WD High Mountain Badger
- Merkur 15c
- Polsilver SI
- Tüff sensitiv After Shave

I have to admit: I'm a little out of practice with these badger brushes, because I used boars almost exclusively the last few months. I think the boars are just very convenient for my approach to lathering: I let them soak in warm water for a few minutes, give them just one little shake, load a good amount of soap and lather away on my face. 95% of the time it works without adding any more water and I get very nice lather for about 3 passes.

With the badger today I took a different road: I did not soak the brush (first mistake) and tried the dry loading method (second mistake). The brush was very prickly on the first pass and the amount of lather I produced was barely sufficient for 2 passes. The soap itself is really good - though the scent is just a little too sweet and intense for my liking. But slickness and especially post-shave feel ist excellent.

The Merkur 15c is a VERY mild razor. While I loved that at the beginning of my wet shaving career, I guess I prefer a little more aggressiveness now. You don't have to worry about hurting yourself with the Merkur, but at the same time I think the stubble reduction on the first pass is not quite as good as with many of the other razors I own. Which results in a slightly more rough second pass X/ATG. And in much more cleanup work after the second pass, which effectively turned this into a 4-5-pass-shave in some areas of my face and neck.

On the plus side: no cuts, nicks or anything - the Aftershave did not burn at all. Final verdict: a DFS, closeness B+, irritation A+

I'll try to concentrate on razor handling more tomorrow, maybe I can get a closer shave with a less narrow angle. And I will definitely soak the brush before use and switch to the wet loading method. I'll stick to the Polsilver blade for now, but maybe I'll try a feather for the second half of the week.