30 Day Rule/Focus; February 2025. All Are Welcome.

04 Feb 2025

1 Days growth

Soap = Sterling Bergamot Lavender
Brush = Omega big boar
Bowl = White
Razor = Gillette No 66
Blade = Personna Platinum Chrome (1) Made in Germany
Passes = 3
Post = Usual CWR, Alum, rinse, pat dry, Thayers rose petal, Nivea Balm
ASL = Imperial Leather
Scent = TBS Black Musk
Score = 9.9/ 10
Damage = None, but fair amount of Alum feedback…

Superb shave with the Sterling soap. WTG, XTG and ATG as needed. No hint of damage, but the blade certainly felt somewhat crisper than the Bolzano

Back to the Fat for the next shave!

MWF 0
Sterling 2

Have a Great Tuesday one and all

 

thank you Joe.

 

thank you Chris

 

A rather "educational" shave this morning. What do I mean by that. With the "fixed" version of the Gillette DisposeABLE razor, I learned that it will be pretty tough to manage North Porcupine(area above upper lip) and about as tricky,(but not as much as North)on South Porcupine(chin). Again, I managed to do well along the cheeks&sideburns, but I had a cut at the border of S. Porcupine and Cactus Nation(neck). The Boar brush got me a fine amount of the Stoylin soap. I'd like to think I am improving in the loading dept(course I'll never match the speed of Don Youngner at Wet The Face, or other video freax I see, but all I can do is the best with what I have). Back to the razors, another thing I learned is that I might flip'em sooner than later and return to the comfortable Pivots. Yeah, more $$$, but worth it for me to get better shaves along Porcupine. Kinda Outstanding.

 

thank you Joe.

 

thank you Joe.

 

fine tuesday affairs gents.

 

-Tuesday-
french market new rfb
opal
le pere lucien
armani



good morning gents
oud shave today
fine lucien lather built with the opal badger
smooth 2 passer with the french market new rfb
thayers and armani to finish
awesome
have a fine day everyone

​

 

Thank you Gary.

 

SRS # 1231

Rating: 5 / 5

Razor: C V Heljestrand 14. 7/8” Camel Bone Scales
Brush: Classic Shaving Silver Blue
Lather: Wholly Kaw King of Oud
Aftershave: Wholly Kaw King of Oud
Additional Care:
Omega Alum
Dickenson’s Original Witch Hazel
Stirling Unscented Glacial Balm

superb shaved this morning. I am definitely going to miss this soap once it meets to Edmund Fitzgerald. I have approximately 15 shades left with this tub. This soap and splash will definitely be a re-purchase, however, most likely in 2026 or 2027.

The straight razor easily cleared away this morning‘s growth with my customary three passes. The post shave a long report was silent and my face feels phenomenal.

I hope you all have a fabulous day.

 

cool oud shave and pic Joe

 

Sorry about the typo.

 

Love the setup Barry.

 

Thanks Chris.

 

Thank you Joe.

 

February 4, 2025

Freedom February

Razor - CJB Greager Artist Club (Pain Stick)
Blade -
Soap - Stirling Black Ice (3017 Sample)
Brush - Stirling synthetic

Changing up today to revisit my Artist Club razors, aka Pain Sticks. I first encountered this style razor early on with the 30DC in its first year thanks to @Keithmax . He ran a PIF for a CJB Artist Club and I was lucky enough to be the winner. The original CJB was a great razor to learn with, but had one weakness...the spring in the head. When that broke the razor became a paper weight. However, CJB came out with a second generation known as the Greager and fixed that problem. For those who are interested in trying out this style of razor the CJB is the bargain buy. Inexpensive and does a great job of shaving.

So, I picked up my CJB Greager today, added a Feather Pro blade and went with my Stirling Black Ice sample puck I'm finishing up along with the Stirling synthetic brush. Made a huge batch of lather, further opening up the ring of death in the sample puck and went to work. It's been awhile since I've used these so I took a minute to reacclimate. Got the angle figured out, went for the set down and first pull and everything went well. My muscle memory came back fairly quickly and I was able to get things going smoothly and effectively. The Feathe Pro blade is definitely a sharp blade and does a great job. Finished my first pass and went for another, watching angle and pressure. Finished with an acceptable shave. Not perfect, but not all that far off.

No blood or pain today. That's a good thing. Have a great Tuesday!

​

 

Awesome open blade razor shave Neal.

 

thanks Gary

 

5 Feb 2025

Usual hot water prep and T&H No 10 as preshave
Soap = MWF
Brush = Omega Boar 10049 ---- 28 mm knot --- 65 loft helped load the MWF
Bowl >>> straight to the face
Razor = Gillette No 66
Blade = Personna Platinum Chrome (2) Made in Germany
Passes = 2 +
Post = Usual CWR, Alum, rinse, pat dry, Thayer’s Rose Petal, dry time, more MWF for a minute or two then rinsed.
ASL = Felt like treating myself today = Stirling Bay Rum
Scent = TBS Black Musk
Score = 9.9 / 10
Damage = none

MWF 0+0+1
Sterling 1+1

The Fat was better today, I would class this is good but not earth shatteringly so

Soaked the brush in RO water for 10 + minutes. Shook dry. Squeezed dry. Rolled in up in the towel to dry this further
Straight to the MWF puck with the barely damp brush: loaded this with around 100 swirls for around 100 seconds or what seemed like ages
Removed the facial prep: reapplied water to the face
Straight to the face with the brush, adding a few drops of water into the brush each time. Then finally lightly dipped the tip of the brush into the water and reapplied to the face a few times to get a really nice slick shiny sustainable lather, filling the brush nicely. Shiny, slick, not runny, only dried a little towards the end of the first pass. More water in Pass 2 and pickups improved things further

Really good feel during and after the shave

Is it worth the extra time and effort? Too early to tell. Next time I will try the same but with the bowl. I suspect that adding too much water too early causes all the bubbles; and doesn’t give the water enough time to get taken up by the non-fat components of the shave. I was surprised how little water the MWF actually needed.

Have a great Wednesday lads and ladies

 

Well, I HOPE to get back to Pivot disposeABLES tomorrow. I decided this is it...fixed razors don't work for me. This was about the same result as yesterday-nice job along the cheeks&sideburns, and OK at the neck, but another tough ride at both ends of Porcupine. Enough of this nonsense. Time to return to what works best for me(course as I sais, the purchase of the fixed razors was a fluke). But I don't want to discredit he fine work at the cheeks, sideburns, and neck. 2 passes. Kinda Outstanding.