January 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Whipped Dog 30mm silver tip next round:

Pulled out the Castle Forbes and stropped my Koraat and prepared for thank god tomorrow starts the Lunar New Year holiday. For some reason unknown to me the CF was not as awesome as usually just merely very good. The Koraat did not disappoint with a smooth edge but getting close to time to refresh the edge.

Four passes and just a tiny weeper but no feedback from the alum. A solid BBS and looking forward to the long holiday. Wishing all of my TSN brothers an abundance of good luck in the year of the rooster.

Irritation A+ Closeness A Smoothness A Sharpness A

 

Good setup and picture Keith.

 

Beautiful picture and brush, Doug!

 

Class act setup, Sir!

 

Frosty!

 

I have been super slack about shaving these last few days. This is partly due to this past week being crazy busy, and partly because, due to busyness, shaves have been quick and largely uneventful. The bright side of this is that due to this focus month I can now shave quickly and uneventfully with a shavette.

I picked up a Classic Samurai shavette super cheap online last week, and have been pleasantly surprised with the quality, although I wish the business end of it were a bit longer. I can see where it would be awkward for someone with large hands. It has delivered good shaves and will stay in the rotation.

I received a nice PIF in the mail today thanks to the exceeding generosity of @Keithmax. After reading about my struggles with the Feather SS, he very kindly sent me a CJB all the way from South Korea to compare. Let me say, mail from South Korea was surprisingly fast. So the CJB got the honorary shave of the night. Coupled with the Barrister and Mann Bay Rum that Charlie so kindly PIF'd me, today was a very benevolent shave, and one I am very thankful for.

Razor: CJB Kamisori
Blade: Feather Pro
Soap: Barrister & Mann Bay Rum
Aftercare: A home brew aftershave with witch hazel, vitamin E, The Veg, Pinaud Family Dollar Old Spice copy of and remnants of various other aftershaves I keep adding to it.

The CJB lacks the looks of the Feather, but functionally I think it is superior. It is slightly shorter than the Feather, but the grip is solid and the clip is thankfully missing that hump around the blade that was giving me such grief. It allows for a much better blade angle.
The B&M Bay Rum is a great soap. I find myself enjoying the scent. I know it has its lovers and haters, but I tend to enjoy those scents. Together they made for a very satisfying shave. I think my shavette usage will continue to be a large part of my rotation.

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That is excellently cool.

 

Back atcha

 

Thank you

 

Thursday, January 26, 2017

B&B Essential Boar
Panna Crema Nuavia Blu
The General with Stork Aristocrat 2
Feather Pro #3
Fine L’Orange Noir
Terre d’Hermes


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Mark I always enjoy the eye candy you shave with but what is the egg in the background?

 

Happy Anniversary January!!

January 25

Mostly Shavettes

Razor - Magic Shavette
Blade - (2)
Soap - Route 66 Rum Runner
Brush - Wolf Whiskers Custom Silvertip
Post - Alum

Final shave on the shavette and it started with another fine lather. Learned my lesson about not changing what works on that front. The Rum Rummer sample is pretty much a goner at this point and I liked it a lot. Definitely on my list of possibles to get a full tub as I said last night.

Two passes again tonight and again no issues and the blade didn't seem to be giving me any problems. I was trying to determine if it would be less smooth like it did in the DE, but from what I could tell it was just as nice as the first shave. Since I've noticed this in all of the ones I've tried, but particularly this one with the difference in the two DE shaves, I'm pretty sure it has to do with two things. First of all, the pressure allowed with a DE is greater without any injury. Shavettes are light, but it's mostly angle that creates the shave, not pressure. Too much pressure on a shavette gets the same results as with any straight type razor - Blood! Also, the full angle availability allows for minute adjustments that can reduce drag or simply align better for the cut. Clearly a advantage over any DE razor that will keep you locked into a relatively small arc of angles.

Whatever the exact reason or reasons using a shavette can produce just as good or better a result in the same number of passes as a DE. And it's pretty cool to do as well. Gives you that "steely eyed straight razor man" feel without having to strop! Or change an AC blade, whichever.

My weeks is started and was a pretty good day overall. Temperature is falling again as we are headed back to traditional STL winter weather. Cold, wind, no snow. Lucky us.

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Thank you very much.

 

This has to be one of your best photographs yet Mark. What a unique and beautiful brush.

 

Mark, I have the same brush except with a plain purple handle. I got mine slightly used from a B+B member and don't know much about it. I used mine in my Focus shave a couple days ago (I just called it a B+B special edition) and thought it was a wonderful brush.

I think it's made for B+B by Omega but am not sure. The knot looks similar to the 1000 series, for example, but the handle style doesn't look like any of Omega's. Do you know anything more about it? Is it by Omega, and if so, what model is it based on or close to?

 

January 26 (Thursday) - on focus
Gillette Black Beauty on 3
PAL Gold Thin Hollow Ground carbon (22)
Kent woodhandled "badger effect" boar brush - unknown model number
The Eternal Tub of TOBS Avocado Cream ( croap )
Alum and plain cold water rinse

What a difference a day can make! After yesterday's less than stellar performance by the small Kent boar brush, at the end of the shave, I re-lathered with the brush and left it to dry soapy. In the afternoon, I rinsed it out and then did that again. I think the two extra test latherings did the trick.

Today, the brush seemed nicely broken in. Yesterday, I overdid the bowl lathering and ended up with a lather bowl filled with meringue-like lather but an empty brush. Today, I started the lather in a bowl briefly but then finished by face lathering. I ended up with a nice thick even coating of lather on my face and enough left in the brush for several more passes. And the brush was still firm but not in the least bit prickly.

This Kent boar brush has now definitely joined the keeper pile as well.

Tomorrow I will revisit the eBay artisan badger, which I am still somewhat on the fence about. Although, to be honest, what I mainly like about it is the turned ivory-like handle and the sentiment attached to the fact that it was my first "good" (badger) brush rather than anything to do with its performance.

Otherwise, I started this brush focus month with 17 brushes and am ending with a rotation of 10: 6 synthetic, 3 boar and 1 badger. Not a bad result, all things considered.

As for today's actual shave, after the lather got onto my face, it was entirely uneventful. The carbon blade on shave 22 gave a smooth close shave with no irritation. I didn't bother with any post shave products after the alum rub.

 

Mark, that's a classy set up!

 

I started my Blackbird and Feather focus on December 24 and have used that combo for every shave since then. I had 26 shaves in total and used 4 blades for an average of just over 6 shaves per blade. The longest 1 blade lasted was 8 shaves. I'm pleased with this combination. Focus/rule for February will be the Gillette NEW SC and Feather blades as well.

 

SOTD January 26, 2017

Blade: Chinese Schick
Razor: Schick G8 injector
Brush: Artisan badger
Lather: Route 66 Sweeney Todd
Post: Witch hazel splash enhanced with TSD Energy, Nivea sensitive balm
WTG, touch-up

Really smooth shave this morning with Sweeney Todd. The G8 injector just rolls along. Great razor. One pass with touch-up is all I need on a workday morning. Easy, comfortable shave.

Have a great day!

 

The B&B Essential Boar was made by Omega as an exclusive limited edition item. The brush was only available through West Coast Shaving and was part of of their Badger and Blade items. Different color handles were released at various times. There is a huge thread on Badger and Blade with all the info and colors.