DEC 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic & Discussion Thread

17 DEcember 2015

Planned Shave



Feather Popular TTO
Feather Hi-Stainless (1)
L'Occitane Plisson Synthetic
La Toja Shave Stick
Alum
TSD ISZ AS under the Veg

Have a great afternoon!


​

 

Redneck.

 

All you can do is hide your eyes and keep a safe distance.

 

I did a double take on the name. Trud. Yeah, that's what I'd call it.

 

Well, I was always taught never to pick up a...er....uh...trud.

 

Sorry for the delay my friend. The is a definite aroma of Bourbon wit a hint of vanilla. There is supposed to be a key lime blend, however, I didn't pick that up. In all fairness my nose although large does not pick up scents like it used to do. It is an excellent shave soap that whips up into a great lather. I'm very happy with the results.

 

December 17

My last two shaves with the Super Speed have been very good and quite enjoyable. I stayed with my same setup and two-pass shaves. Yesterday, I used Stirling Naked and Smooth soap. It's good, but nothing exciting, so the remainder of the puck will be used as a pre-shave soap.

To my huge surprise and delight, I received a puck of Route 66 Lumberjack soap in the mail yesterday from our own Douglas Carey. I used it this morning, and I love everything about it. It worked like a charm, and the scent, slickness, and protection were top shelf. A big thanks to Doug for his generosity.

Have a great Thursday!

 

12/17/15

Gillette New LC
Rapira Super Stainless (4)
Vulfix Super Badger (660)
Proraso Sandalwood cream
Georgetown G12 Scuttle
Pinaud Clubman Original

Another busy day. Shaved this morning, but I was just now able to catch up and look through all those wonderful posts. I have a Throwback Thursday. I went back to my usual software by pulling out my Proraso Sandalwood cream, but I continued to use the Rapira Super Stainless in the New LC. I squeezed out the brush, and squeezed out about an inch of the Proraso in my scuttle. Built the lather in the scuttle adding just a few drops of water when it needed it. After a bit I had a nice thick pile of creamy yogurt like lather.


2 full passes: Pass 1 XTG. Very good reduction. Pass 2: ATG. Small amount of touch up using the lather on my face where I could feel stubble. At that point my face was feeling pretty smooth. Did a cool water rinse and then spent some time touching up my trouble spots. The Pinaud Clubman stung a bit, but settled down quickly. The brush still had plenty of lather for another couple of passes.


A nice comfortable BBS from the Proraso Sandalwood cream and the Rapira Super Stainless in the New LC. The Proraso lathered well and was very slick. I wanted to use the Proraso and take some pictures because I'm hoping to encourage my brother to try wet shaving. He's getting a package for Christmas and I thought if I sent some pictures and instructions along, it might help him get off on the right foot. Tomorrow I'll go back to the Pre de Provence.

Hope everyone had a great Thursday!

 

Ill bring the First Aid kit...

 

Dec 18 Shave 2.11

Drives by my fear that I could be missing out on even better shave I acquired a new razor. Since I did not have a stainless steel razor, I had to try one. Well this week my new Dovo Master's 6/8 stainless steel razor arrived. I prefer a 6/8 or 7/8 round point shoulder less design so this fit the bill, while I prefer a thicker grind my other Dovo full hollow shaves great.

So to get a fair reading on this razor I picked one of my top tier for SR shaving creams, L'Occitane Cade. I loaded to much cream again and created tons of lather. Cade did not disappoint, lots of slick, wet lather. The passes all went by smoothly, no blood and the shave felt smooth. So I even did a final 'smoothing' pass. Alum test.... absolutely no reaction. So next try the Clubman to see if the alcohol will reveal any irritation... nope, no irritation. Smoothness, BBS. An awesome shave, the least irritating SR shave ever and while BBS not a SR recored for long lasting BBS. Very satisfied.

Irritation A+ Closeness A

L'Occitane Cade cream
Simpson Tulip 3 super silver tip
Whitehead scuttle
Dove Master's SS 6/8
No strop, it came sharpened and stropped from the vendor.
Pinaud Clubman
L'Occitane Cade ASB
Bill Blass Mr. Blass

 

Might want to bring two.

 

The Twelve Ten Blades of December!

Hard to believe we've almost put this year to bed. Wow. Where did the time go? But, here we are and as a gift to everyone here I'm offering up my shaves with twelve ten blades that have never touched my face, randomly paired with twelve ten of my DE razors. Two shaves with each setup to finish on Xmas Eve December 20th.. So, sit back, get the fire burning and enjoy what I hope is an enjoyable month of further proof Technique Trumps Tools. I hope for that....my expectations aren't as optimistic.

December 17

Razor - Gillette New LC
Blade - (1)
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Soap - Proraso Green Tub
Post - Cold water, Alum, Nivea

Another trip to China today. We'll be staying in China the next four shaves before diverting to the traditional straight for the rest of the month. I'm taking out the two Dorcos to make room for the practice runs on the straight. Today it's time to pull out the New LC, a great razor, and load a very suspect blade in it. The Baili Super Platinum in the green wrapper. I've previously tried the Baili Blue, which is a platinum and teflon blade and it was not a good experience. If I remember correctly I was able to get a shave out of it but not one I'd like to repeat. So the green makes me nervous.

The big Pro 48 made quick work of loading Proraso and the face lather was the normal Proraso great. Very slick and a great cushion and of course the scent is awesome. At least I can cling to that if I need to for something positive. And, here we go. Took the first stroke with the Baili and then another, and then...........another and.........much to my surprise it didn't seem too bad. A bit noisy but that's ok. It wasn't pulling, tugging, slicing, tearing, nothing like that. Hmmmmmmm.......it had just a bit of roughness to it but nothing like I had expected. And, as I continued the pass I managed to adjust a hair to smooth it out more. Second pass was more of the same. Just an effective and comfortable feel overall, if just a tad rough. Did a couple of touch ups on my neck and finished with a two pass DFS. I'm a bit confused. How do I remember the Blue being so bad when the Green is really not a bad blade? Is it the coating difference? Teflon is usually a favorite, though maybe paired with platinum on the Blue it created a problem. I haven't looked back to see which razor I used with the Blue, so maybe this is just a better pairing. Maybe I've just improved technique to the point I am not making mistakes creating problems for myself. The only way to test it would be to shave with a Blue in the New and see what the difference is. Well, there's another focus for the future.....revisit the worst blades I found and try them again to see if things have changed with me, or if better pairings can be found.

For now, I'll follow up with the second shave on the blade tomorrow and see how it compares. You'd think by now I could have found a horrible setup for the month, but still waiting for that to happen. With only one DE blade left, this could end up being the easiest batch of blades I've worked with!

 

December Focus - Ikon 102 Slant

Switched to a new blade, a Gillette 7 O'clock blue, and a new handle from my Edwin Jager DE89. The handle is just for fun. Also switching to the StrongSet brush (WD black badger), and the RazoRock Don Marco soap.

I think I've realized that my neck was red from the Caties Bubbles Ocean Grove soap. I remember that last time I used it my skin was red. Maybe an allergic reaction?

 

Maybe we should do a blood donation drive.

 

I'm O positive.

 

A positive

 

Same

 

What's a few units of blood plasma amongst friends?

 

Tom, there is a lot of good information on cleaning razors available. I found this YouTube video very helpful also: