DEC 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic & Discussion Thread

This is heroic stuff.

 

Thirty weight motor oil as a pre shave?

 

This.

 

Since the razor is Soviet era, 1960s, it's appropriate to play this version of the fight song. The Soviet and Russian Federation versions are the same tune, different words. So, here you go.

​

 

I'm thinking Valvoline full synthetic.

 

Well dates were hard to come by then too you know.

 

This looks great to me.

 

12/17/2015
Razor – Cobra Classic
Blade – Feather Pro (1)
Brush – Romera Olivewood Synthetic
Lather – MdC Fougere
Post - Witch Hazel and Fine Platinum



I received a package from Mark, @Boojum1 , that in addition to a brush restoration project included a Cobra Classic for me to test drive with a purchase option. Accordingly, I am taking at least a day off from my December focus on vintage razor to give this razor a try.

Knowing I wanted a foolproof lather, I went with MdC Fougere and my Romera Olivewood Synthetic brush. As usual the MdC proved easy to lather and when properly hydrated provided the quality lather that was expected.

Looking at the Cobra’s blade exposure, I thought it would be more aggressive than Mongoose. That’s not the case but it is more efficient. A 2 pass shave, XTG & ATG, with touch ups around my chin provided an effortless BBS. With a Feather Pro Blade the Cobra shaves as close as or closer than the Mongoose with a Super Pro while being smoother. I finished off the superb shave with a splash of Fine Platinum. I hope everyone has a great Thursday.

 

Pain Stick Focus December 17:

Homemade PS Oil
VDH Boar Brush
Latha SS
CJB Pain Stick
Stirling Unscented PSB
Latha Post Shave

Today's results were very similar to yesterday's. This was a nice CCS, verging on DFS, and it was simply comfortable. No post shave irritation, and my skin feels great.

I will say the Latha scent is not my favorite, although I don't find it to be bad either, but the performance is top notch. It looks like the have released some other scents in this line, and I may have look at them in the future.

 

Great picture! The tree reflecting off the razor really makes the picture.

 

Your thoughts on Latha mirror mine. Great performance but the scent while not bad was not good either.

 

Thank you. I was just trying to keep my ugly mug from reflecting in the razor.

 

Take care of yourself, we'll shave for you.

 

I'm still having a grand time with my Ikon 102 Slant. Every shave has been very close and issue-free. That is, except today. I think I took the blade one day to many and the resulting mildness caused me to be a little over-aggressive. OK, I got cocky. I was thinking I was the Master of the Slant. My face is OK, and I got a close shave, but the skin on my neck is pretty red (but, then I look good for Christmas).

Back to the drawing board. Tomorrow a new blade and a change in handle.

 

Since everyone has been talking about Sterling soaps and how hard they were to lather I pulled out Margaritas in the Arctic. Paired up with the 20mm WD synthetic I face lathered a smooth creamy lather by slowly adding water to the thick dry paste I smeared on after a 30sec load with a mostly dry brush. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and pull off 2full passes with the parker style shavette and a feather blade. I did a NS and a SN pass. It was mostly WTG and then mostly ATG. It went pretty well and I did only very minor touch up around my chin with the SuperSpeed and GSB. I did a warm rinse, noticed some redness did a cold rinse and against my better judgement smeared the Alum stick all over. I braced myself, bite my lip and. . . Nothing happened. No burn, no sting, nothing. I cleaned up my stuff did a final rinse to get the alum off and smeared on the Axe Shield. I feel like its a bit thick so a splash of water with it helps it soak in. I ended with a good chill from the MitA, no sting but some minor redness. Now a half hour after I feel like it could be the baby coming home to me today.

 

I've seen it all now.

 

I couldn't agree more. It's almost like watching a train wreck you know is coming.

 

OK, I'm ready for the Feather Pro Super on Friday.

 

Will it fit in this Cobra Classic?

 

I plan on joining @NCoxSTL l in his descent into madness by shaving with my own Soviet straight. With all of my focus on straights, the Russian Blade Cartel was having some doubts about my reliability. To prove my loyalty, I did a quick search on Etsy for Russian straight razors. There were a bunch of them. If anyone is interested in joining Neal and me in our madness, check out this store:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FoundinUSSR?section_id=17188634&ref=shopsection_leftnav_10

The razors are very reasonable, but shipping takes a while. If I had just been purchasing this for myself, I would have honed it myself, but since I knew Neal was going to try straights for the first time, I wanted make sure they were honed correctly, so I asked @HolyRollah about honing them. Plans were made. Neal’s razor was listed by the seller as a “YACHT” razor, and mine is a “Raketa.” Both made in the USSR. The Raketa has some hone wear, but is lacking the same geometry issues as the YACHT. Picture is from the seller.

Kevin hadn’t honed a Russian razor before, and had heard they can be challenging to get to hold an edge. He was willing to try. As Neal mentioned, these aren’t the greatest quality of steal, but the Raketa at least has potential. Neal, my biggest worry about sending the YACHT to you is that with all the issues of that razor, you might never want to use a straight razor again. Glad to see you are going to use the Sheffield W.B. Rabbit for a week first. I will start shaving with my example of Fine Soviet Engineering on December 21st, but will be using a German Razor on Christmas. Since I only shave 3-4 times a week, this will give me four or five shaves with the Raketa.

The Cartel approves of these plans.