April 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix&Discussion Thread

Happy birthday!

 

Happy birthday!

 

Sweet! Will you try shaving your scalp with it as well?

 

Dude! I hope you feel better soon!

We need to have a cartel safety meeting about burn injuries, apparently.

 

I'll take full responsibility for starting this "HOT" new trend..

 

I know burn safety I was just in a hurry and did something I shouldn't have. Its already stopped hurting but, My painstick grip presses on it. I think I use a painstick like a traditional kamisori. I keep it in the same hand and the same side stays next to my face the whole time. I shave with a regular straight the same way. My grip changes a few times to get the blade to different parts of my face but the same side is always towards skin.

 

I did my right hand big time in late Feb 2015. That's what's so funny, this went on last year too.

 

Burn safety in a nutshell:

Don't touch hot stuff. Carry on.

 

Or let hot stuff splash and cover parts of you.

 

Especially that version of "don't touch hot stuff"!!!

 

Saturday Shower/Shave

Shower- Noxzema facial cleaner, Dr. Bronner's All-One Hemp Peppermint bar soap
Pso- Homemade grapefruit PSO
Brush- RazoRock Plissoft
Razor- Muhle R41 head on a Maggard MR5 handle
Blade- Gillette Silver Blue (3)
Soap- Catie's Bubbles Mile High Menthol
Thayers Witch Hazel with TSD M-Bomb
TSD After Shave Milk Neroli

What a fantastic shave! My first use of a menthol soap and I loved it. @Mr. Freeze93 included the Catie's Bubbles when I purchased this R41 from him...Thank you brother! The cold feeling felt great, especially in combination with the iced water and refrigerated PSO. Two days of growth just vanished tonight. I can't say enough great things about this razor. With 2 days of growth I did my first pass WTG, then XTG, then ATG. I had a tiny spot left for touch up and I'm BBS. The M-Bomb in the Thayers and the TSD AS milk are both great, the Neroli scent smells exactly like orange blossoms. I will definitely be purchasing more.

I figured since I blew my rule by switching razors I'd give this soap a go, boy am I glad I did. Just a great cooling sensation, it lathered easily and protected great. I'm sold! Have a great day folks!

 

ArkoApril in Russia!

April 16


Razor - 1959 Gillette Super Speed
Blade - (2)
Brush - Vie Long 12601 The Pony
Soap - Arko
Post - Cold water rinse, Alum, The Veg

Was running about 5 minutes late this morning so no rush, really, but no time for mistakes either. So what do I do? Why, make a mistake, of course. Now you'd think that there's nothing more automatic than a face lather with an Arko stick, and, almost any day you'd be right. Not today. The brush of the day was the Vie Long 12601 and I have had great lathers with it this month. It is the smaller of my two horses and the stiffer of the two, even though they are both 35/65 brushes. The 12705 is considerably larger, holds more water and is more floppy. My tendency with it has been to leave it a bit too wet and create a roomful of lather that get slung all over the place. The only thing I can think was that I over shook the Pony like I do the Horse in order to dry it more, and ended up with a very thick and pasty lather.

Now, the problem is, there was enough good looking lather that I missed the fact I had laid down basically Arko glue underneath with the drier brush. When did I notice it you ask? When the lather scuppers on the razor clogged and the blade edge was coated with it. After the first pass, which was very smooth and pretty nice in spite of the lather problem, I had to break down the razor, clean all of the soap concrete out of it and then re-wet the brush to get it to lather right with the soap load it had in it. The good news.....I got a perfect lather. The bad news.....I didn't have time for a third pass. However, the two passes I got were smooth and a very near BBS. So, if I hadn't missed on the lather the first time I would have had a three pass BBS. Nice result for this blade again.

My one comparison between this one and the pink blade is the smoothness difference. It's very slight, but this one seems just a bit less smooth. Other than that, great shaves are exploding here this month.

As far as the other cartel news concerning the crew......things are getting strange. I thought the picture from the Chelyabinsk jail was a bit strange yesterday.....but this is getting ridiculous. And I thought Russian jails were tougher than ours.

​

 

Forty mile bike ride this morning followed up by an afternoon shave. I'm exhausted but still smooth
SOTD
Route 66 Cavendish
Vie-Long horsehair brush
Hoffritz Slant
Feather blade (1)
Alum
Thayers Witch Hazel
Ogallala Bay Rum AS
Have fun!

 

Today on the chopping block is a Jacob Ray 5/8 round point. This is a new razor and I bought along with a custom 7/8. The price was good and the shipping cost was the same so why not? I prefer larger blades and figured I can also use it to induce no members to the dark side.

While the blade is smaller than I like it does have some weight to it. The edge was just a little bit rough but OK. I did four passes and finished DFS. I think I will keep and use this razor to work on my honing skills. Once my honing improves I will PIF it since I have the larger version of this razor.

Irritation A Closeness B Smoothness B Keenness B+

Definitely staying:
Genco Easy Aces SR, hard to let go of cool looking, great shaving piece of vintage American steel just because it is smaller than I like. It is also my only vintage American SR.
GEM Junior

Leaning toward staying:
Wade and Butcher will stay in the SR stable until a much nicer specimen can be sourced.

Released after further use:
JR 5/8 round point. I will use this razor to improve my honing skills.

Leaning toward releasing:
Jerry Stark 5/8 SR. Looks great, shaves great just to small a blade. I would prefer to sell this and trade up for a larger blade
GEM Micromatic Open Comb - or in short MMOC (in gold)



Will be released:
Sight unseen Whipped Dog SR. This shaves great but I want to PIF it to someone who wants to get started with SR. (PIFed)
Merkur Vision - despite major coolness she can't compete with an aggressive Futur.
BBS-1 - Give my move to the dark side it is just not aggressive enough to remain in my DE stable. (sold)
Mongoose
Merkur 37C slant
GEM Micromatic Open Comb - or in short MMOC (silver coloured)

 

Yesterday I did, my first pass was with the Fine Slant, it did a nice job on the top and sides of my head, but I was uncomfortable with using in the back because of its lite weight. I don't see this razor replacing my current head shaving setup.

 

Outstanding ride! It was a beautiful day. Your lather looks good enough to eat yes.. I'm hungry.

 

Neal, I just had a flashback to 1980 something..

 

FANTASTIC!! Caties Bubbles soaps are top notch. Look at the mighty R41 in all its glory. Sweet!

 

Straights Focus April 17:

Stirling Synthetic Brush
TSD Lanolin Egyptian Spice
Boker King Cutter
Stirling Unscented PSB
Clubman Vanilla AS

I love starting Sundays with a BBS, and I got one this morning. This razor definitely glides through my stubble. I chased just a bit, but I definitely found the baby, and I am primed for a great Sunday to be spent at church and with my family. I hope everyone has a great day.