Hi, My name is Pete and I just joined. I live in Nashville, Tn. My interests are shaving, knives, WW2 and artisan craftsmanship. I've been shaving a while. I love Dovo straights, anything Rockwell, the Merkur 38HD and the R41.
Welcome @Pete123 to TSD. Glad you brought your experience with you. While we suffer no shortage of opinions here, wisdom and knowledge is appreciated. You shared about your choice of sharp things. Got a favorite brush, soap, or post shave product?
to TSD @pete 123 I see we share interests. Do you use cast iron to cook with also or write with a fountain pen on ocasion? I hope you enjoy it here.
Welcome to TSD, Pete! Glad to see you hopping aboard here. This is a fantastic group! For those TSD members who don't know Pete, he runs hendrixclassics.com and makes custom razors, knives, scales, etc. Really great guy who does really impressive work! If you've got a spare minute, check out the cool straights on his site! I've got one of his knives and a straight in the works that I'm really excited about.
Heck, I can't pick a favorite. I'm an artisan, so of course I like my products, though this isn't the time and place for me to go into my products. The big bucks for me go to the straight razors. I really like synthetic brushes. The smaller size Omega S-Brush is a definite winner. It's synthetic boar and has just the right backbone when I'm in the mood. I like 24mm brushes rather than the big 30mm ones. I also like the Maggard synthetics and the Rockwell synthetic. I'm also a hoarse hair guy and love the Vie-Long brushes with a shorter loft. My take on soap is that the popular artisan soaps are very good and that there isn't that much difference between them and soaps like Xpec, Klar Seifen, Castle Forbes, etc... My favorite artisan is Stirling, both because their soap is great and Rod and Mandy are good folks. Rod is a Veteran as well. B&M is really nice. The soap that gives me the very, very best performance is Castle Forbes. With aftershave, I usually make mine. I love the Fine Barbershop and appreciate Pinaud and Aqua Velva. I don't have a preferred aftershave balm and am working on one now with lanolin doing the heavy lifting. I do use cast iron to cook. I'm a southern boy, so cast iron is what I grew up with. Interesting that you bring up fountain pens. I'm left handed and generally have a lot of trouble with any pen. I have a nice Parker fountain pen and have never been able to get good performance with it. I really like artistic craftsman activities like working with leather, making straight razor scales and making knives.