FEB 2015 30 Day Rule/30 Day Focus Pic and Discussion Thread

Chris, I am so sorry to hear of your hand injury. May you heal quickly!

Thanks very much for hosting our Focused February. You did a great job, and it was wonderful seeing you use your dad's razor!

Take care of your hand, my friend!

 

Chris, I hope your hand heals quickly. Thank you for hosting February and kicking off the entire parade in January.

 

I hope your hand feels better soon!

 

I agree! I'm glad I was apart of both the January and February groups I think it sped up my learning curve quite a bit. It's been a busy month for me so I wasn't as involved this month as I had hoped but I still enjoyed it.

 

Focused February Learnings

Today was my last shave for awhile with my Feather Artist Club Razor. It was the best shave of the month - two passes, very close and comfortable. It was a far cry from my first shave of the month! In my opinion, these month-long runs can yield benefits for most any shaver.

I decided to use my Ever-Ready boar brush today, and it really worked well with the Stirling soap. I also added some D.R. Harris Almond cream and glycerin to create a nice uberlather. The boar brush was scritchy compared to the two-band badger that I've been using, but it is a lather machine!

I'm glad that I used the Feather Artist Club razor this month. I think it will help my technique, even as I switch over to the Merkur 37C in March. I look forward to some great shaves with the slant bar razor and boar brush. I ordered two containers of MdC this week, so I may use one of my badger brushes with this during the month as well.

Thanks again, everyone, for the encouragement this month. You guys are great!

 

Chris, take care and let that hand heal up.

 

february 2015 focus ... blades ... still in pre-"30 day rule" mode ... final post

every-other-day shaves, two shaves per blade, two pass, ...

pre: n/a
brush: EJ best badger medium
lather: proraso green soap
razor: EJ89lbl
post: ***alum block***

02/25/15
blade: (1)

a nice overall shave with the lab blue. no nicks and very little stinging from the alum.

02/27/15
blade: (1)

the derby provided another nice shave. i did have a couple of small nicks/weepers near the bottom of the neck ... that a cold water splash sealed-up.

given my newbie status and technique, i think for the first time, i may have realized some sharpness difference. after the first pass of the derb, i didn't feel as close as the past couple of blades (astraSP, personna lab blue). after the second pass, though, things seemed to be all evened out. reduction and not removal, right?!

so, the astraSP, personna lab blue, and derby extra made it to the final three for my february blade focus. i think i could pick any of three for my march 2015 30 day rule. sometime between now and tomorrow morning, i'll flip a coin to see who wins ... provided i can find a three-sided coin ... ;-)

aug ... february '15 ... out

 

02/28/15 February Focus on Blades
Prep – MR GLO
Razor - Mongoose Satin B2
Blade – Kai Mild (5)
Brush – RV with Shavemac Finest
Lather – MdC
Post - Witch Hazel and Dove AS Balm



Fantastic 3 pass shave this morning. Chased the baby and caught it. Love the MdC so easy to use and a real guilty pleasure. Finished up the February focus on blades for the Mongoose. After having tried all the available blades, I can say there were no really bad ones. The Feather Super Pro did not work for me. Just made the razor too aggressive even though it was the closest shave I've ever had.

What a great month to experiment with a razor I used for the January 30 day rule.

Recap of the month's shaves for the February Focus on Blades

 

Shave 27 Feb Focus Slim Adjustable
Close comfortable shave today. Will bump it up to 9 WTG tomorrow for last 3 shaves of 30 day Feb. focus. Will be mixing it up in March but will be back at it with a new focus for April!

 

February Focus - Blades
2/28/15 - Day 29
Brush - VDH Boar
Soap - Arko
Razor - 1959 Gillette Tech (birth year)
Blade -
Post - Aqua Velva Ice Blue

This was my day off between the blade trials and the start of my vintage month. Decided to use my 59 Gillette Tech with a Treet Platinum, Arko and my VDH boar brush to just have a fun shave. This setup is quite good, smooth, and produced an easy two pass DFS. Perfectly acceptable for a Saturday at work. I didn't even worry about the alum and just went with the AS and had no burn or irritation. Nice relaxing way to start the day.

As for the blade trials, I'm including my summary of the month for those interested. If not you may stop reading now. Thank you for your attention.

Blade Trial Summary

February was a productive month of trying blades, and quite interesting and informative too. I had the chance to try blades I had never used and compare them against my favorite, the Voskhod. Here are the rankings of the blades based on my scoring system, with ties being broken by notes on overall feel and satisfaction. Again, yes it’s subjective, but blades are that way.


1. Super Max Super Platinum (Vidyut Metallics, India)

2. Gillette Super Platinum Black (Gillette, India)

3. Polsilver Super Iridium (Gillette, Russia)

4. Gillette Silver Blue (Gillette, Russia)

5. Gillette Nacet (Gillette, Russia)

6. Sputnik (Gillette, Russia)

7. Gillette Sharpedge Yellow (Gillette, Russia)

8. Gillette Super Stainless Green (Gillette, Russia)

9. Feather (Japan)

10. Gillette Rubie (Gillette, Russia)


The biggest surprise to me was the fact that the first PTFE blade on my list is all the way at number 4. The second biggest surprise was how well the Super Max SP performed. I’m definitely going back and trying more of the Super Max blades at some point. The third biggest surprise was how much I hated the Rubie. I am a big fan of the Rapira Platinum Lux and the Rubie is touted as Gillette’s answer to that blade. Not even close. And finally, not so much a surprise as a discovery, there is clearly a difference in blades between Gillette, Vidyut and Mostochlegmash. Platinums from Vidyut and Mostochlegmash are quite comfortable with little to no irritation. Platinums from Gillette in Russia are quite irritating to my skin and not at all enjoyable. The Gillette Black, however, is the exception but it is made in India, not Russia. It’s something about Saint Petersburg that creates the problem.


The burning question is whether or not any of these blades surpassed Voskhod for my all time number one spot. The answer is…….no….. but the Super Max lost out by a hair. I would need to do more comparison with the Voskhod as well as the Rapira PL, Rapira Swedish Supersteel, the Ladas and Astra SP to really get all of my favorites in the right order. So many choices, only one face to experiment on.


The most interesting result really shouldn’t be a surprise. Because my technique was solid coming out of the 30 day rule in January I found it possible to get an acceptable shave with all of the blades except for the Rubie. While I enjoyed some more than others, and there was a difference in quality, I could pick up all of these (except the Rubie) and accomplish at least a DFS and be ready for the day. As @GDCarrington says in the Rule, “Technique Trumps Tools”!


Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions about any of these blades. Going to enjoy some fun with vintage and carbon this month and I may then return to another month of trials with more of the Mostochlegmash Russians as well as Vidyut products from India.

 

I had 33 head or face shaves in February. I used 9 different blade brands this month. Here are the blades and number of shaves per each:

Derby3
Ladas3
Schick2
Rapira Lux3
Shark5
GSB3
Perma Sharp2
Blue Bird5
Feather7

A total of 11 blades were used during the month. Blades for head shaving last 2 shaves. Face blades average around 3 uses per blade. The longest use was with a Shark blade for 4 and 1/2 shaves. Razors used during the month were the Weber, a Gillette New SC, a Gillette New LC and a Schick injector.

 

Shave 28 Feb Focus Slim Adjustable
Although March, I am sticking to the 30 day focus rule, will complete March 3. Bumped up to 9 on the adjustable with no issues and paired with Personna 74* very close and comfortable shave was had.

 

It is interesting to see what everyone learned in one month either using the Rule approach or the Focus approach.

Well done!

​

 

Shave 29 Feb Focus Slim Adj
Very good shave overall. the 9 setting for the first WTG pass is ok. I would say my sweet spot on this razor is 7 WTG, 5 XTG and 3ATG. Will use those setting tomorrow to confirm.

 

Shave 30 Feb focus Slim Adjustable
Finishing up my 30 day focus and I must say that I am very comfortable now with my slim. I also found the sweet spot for me. Just like the initial 30 day rule, the focus is HIGHLY recommended. See you all in the April Focus challenge!