30 Day Rule/Focus; April 2023. All Are Welcome!

Thank Joe!

and Thank you Joe!

 

Just as I was gettin' used to your barbershop avatar, you proceed right along with Gillette. Ahhhhh, thata's a nice one too,

 

Terrific shave session Danny. Have a great day.

 

Terrific shave Chris. Enjoy your đay.

 

Thanks Joe....hope your day is great one!

 

Wednesday April 12 -- "almost" Arko Adjustable April



Prep: Hot water and soap face wash

Razor: Gillette SuperAdjustable refurbished and cerakoted by Delta Echo Razors (dial 4)
Blade: Israeli Personna Super Platinum (3)
Brush: APShaveCo Elegant Emerald with APLuxury badger/boar mixed knot
Soap: J.M. Fraser's Shaving Cream (croap)

Post: Rinse, alum, rinse, Murray & Lanman Florida Water Cologne

My last shave was on Sunday, so three days ago. Getting better...one day less than the last gap and much better than my usual ten-day average over the last couple years.

I called this an "almost Arko" shave, because J.M.Fraser's shaving cream was Canada's national equivalent of Arko -- a well-made generic commercial shave cream that was cheap and available everywhere. It even smells like lemon, too, though a less "industrial" lemon than Arko. And as late as 2015, a one-pound (450 gram) tub cost about $10 Canadian -- not bad for a year's worth of shaving cream.

J.M Fraser was a druggist in the then-small city of Winnipeg Manitoba who developed the shaving cream in 1956. It quickly became his main business and for several decades was found in nearly every drugstore or barbershop across Canada. Some time in the 1990s or early 2000s, the brand was bought by a national beauty products conglomerate, and at some point production also moved to Toronto. The shaving cream was a niche product for the conglomerate, but with production line capital costs long since amortized, it brought in a respectable addition to the conglomerate's bottom line, so production continued. Until the Covid pandemic hit. Rather than make the changes to the production facility required to meet the new pandemic worker safety regulations, the conglomerate shut down the line "temporarily". And then later announced that it wouldn't be re-starting production because that wouldn't be "cost effective" -- especially for a product that was not part of the "core business". Thus ending a 60-year fixture on the Canadian shaving scene...

The APShaveCo mixed badger/boar brush works very nicely. It has the softness of badger with the backbone of boar, and somehow seems less thirsty than either type of hair alone. I soaked the brush under running hot water for about half a minutes, shook it out a bit, then swirled it in the shaving cream. After about five years in my cupboard, the cream is slightly drier and harder than it used to be but still dents easily. The brush picked up a working layer of cream with two or three swirls, then quickly painted a good coat of lather on my face.

I have mainly used injectors for the last year, but by this second shave with the Gillette SuperAdjustable, I am back to finding the correct angle automatically with this DE. (Isn't muscle memory wonderful?) As I said last time, I set my Gillette adjustables on 4 and then just forget about the adjustment feature.

One pass WTG on my face and ATG on my neck had me cleanshaven again. No blood spots or nicks and the alum was silent.

I am now smooth and smell good thanks to the Florida Water.

(I was going to post a photo, but got a message that the file was too large. Even though last shave's worked fine... Edit: I switched the photo from colour to B&W,which cut the file size in half, and then it uploaded...)

 

working as intended..

 

fabulous midweek additions gents.

 

midweek updated
k-1 brit flaretip/platinum
omega
mwf
clarins



good day gents,
plugging along with the fat shaves..
excellent results.
awesome
have a fine wednesday everyone
​

 

Great selection and nice pic, Gary.

Question: the "platinum" blade you use -- is that an Israeli Personna (IP) Super Platinum or is it something else?

 

Awesome shave and post John. I like the historical info on J. M. Fraser Soaps. I would assume most people south of Canada never heard of it. I sure didn't. As far as taking photos from my phone, I take them far away so that I can crop the picture way below the 1.0 MB max and still get the whole pic. May I suggest you might do the same to keep the color on your pics. Take care.

 

Bravo Gary!

 

April 12 SOTA

Good afternoon.

Rockwell 6C (setting 4)
Wilkinson Sword DE Blade (4)
Semogue OC Super Badger Brush
Stirling Triumph SS
Pinaud-Clubman Classic AS
Stirling Alum Block
Beard Growth: 24.5 hrs



Everything went swimmingly. Two passes without any problems gave me a BBS result. Had some alum feedback, but didn't have much of a burn from the Pinaud-Clubman Classic aftershave. Take care.

 

@JACarbone In answer to your question about Laser Blades, the blades are definitely made in India.

 

thank you John. it's the gillette platinum,new swedes..
.
i usually add the full name if it's non gillette..

 

Great setup and photo, Joe!

I had a Rockwell 6S (I kickstarted it) and quite liked it. I sold it on, however, because I rarely used it and was paring down my razors.

Thanks for the tip about the photos. I will try cropping today's photo and see what happens to the file size.

 

Ah. I don't think I have ever used that particular Gillette blade. But given the stash I still have, I probably won't be buying any more blades anytime soon either...

 

Thanks John. I also have the Rockwell Model T version 1. They are excellent razors and I primarily use them for my headshaves. I hope my tip works out for you and of course, you are welcome.

 

Joe,

I tried that and it worked! Here is the cropped but coloured version of today's photo. Doesn't take much cropping to reduce the file size substantially either.

 

I also had a Rockwell Model T version 1 -- and I absolutely hated it! Compared to my vintage Gillette adjustables, the blade seemed to stick out too much and be far too aggressive. I moved it on too, and from what I heard, the new owner liked it. So it was very much a YMMV situation.

I see Rockwell has now made a stainless steel version of the Model T version 2. Quite expensive, of course, like most stainless steel razors, but if I ever buy another razor, I will probably give that one a shot.