Never had an issue with oil in the brushes. So glad to hear your shaves are becoming more of a "get to" rather than a "have to."
I have to agree with @swarden43 that the oil won't hurt your brush, as you are after all filling it with soap on a daily basis, and soap is good at getting rid of oil. I still don't like the thought of oil on my brushes.
30 Jan 2023. 2nd last day of Jan, 2nd last day of sticking with the Merkur Progress. Growth: 24 hours. Face prep: 3 x Hot Water Soaks (HWS), Proraso Blue pre shave cream, rinsed this off, then more HWS. Soap: the hand-made Shaving Soap I bought on the weekend. Nice and lemony. Straight onto the face. Face lathered, first time I tried this. Too watery, too bubbly, back to the bowl, added some TOBS Jermyn street cream, hmm average. Merkur Progress @3 then @2 then @1 Astra SP(1), not corked. It all seemed a bit rough. Bailed out with an average shave, but no damage, so I was happy with that. More of a rescued shave than a satisfactory one. Something in there does not agree with my lips: burning for a while. Lesson of the day: this soap will need to be tried again on another day. Maybe only good for cartridge users. Else relegate to hand washing duties only. Smells nice though. I still like this razor and the fact I can use the adjustable settings on the touch ups. Maybe this is compensating for lack of technique, time will tell. Can't wait to try out my Gillette Slims in Feb.
31 Jan 2023 The last day of Jan, last day of the month dedicated to the Merkur Progress. Growth: 24 hours. Face Prep: HWS x 1 for 30 seconds, Proraso Blue pre shave cream, massaged in well. HWS for another 30 seconds. Rinsed off. Shaving bowl: None. Soap: Wilkinson Sword, a blue stick. Wet end of stick first. Then straight to the face. Brush: Puro Tasso soaking in water, dunked off most of the water, onto the end of the blue stick around 30 seconds, then on to the face, adding water as we go. >>> super thick and slick! Wow this lathers up thick. Spent more time on lathering this than previously. Razor: Merkur Progress at 2+ WTG, then 2+ XTG, then down to 1+ for a number of touch ups. Blade: Astra SP (day 2). Post shave: Warm Water rinse, Cold water rinse, dry, Thayer's unscented. After Shave: Old Spice. Damage: slight weeper in Pass 1 right side of chin, going East to West, silly, this is against the grain with the Progress on 2+. Result: really happy with this shave, and this shave stick. Lesson for today: Face lathering with this stuff is super thick and slick. Was difficult to feel the blade through this thick lather with the Progress on lower settings. The blade feels fine after day 2. I will take this through to Day 3 tomorrow. Question of the day: Can it be that thicker lather reduces blunting of the blade? One Happy Koala:
Exposure to moisture and air does more damage to the blade's edge than your whiskers do. That's less of an issue with modern stainless steels, but it was a big deal back when carbon steel was the main blade material. Thicker lather may have more of a softening effect on your whiskers, which would make the blade *appear* sharper than it actually is.
Thicker lather doesn't do that, if anything, the opposite. Better lather does. Practice makes perfect.
Right, (I think.) Better lather. How do we define that? Is that a feel thing, or something we can measure? I see words like slickeriness and so on bandied about, implying this is hard to define. For me the lather is too dry on the one hand, if it starts crusting up before I get to the end of the 1st pass and clearly needs more water: and on the other hand it is too loose if it runs off my face and does not provide any cushioning. Two extreme ends of the spectrum. Will have to work on finding the middle way.
It's February: it is time to try a few different things 1st February 2023. First test run with the Gillette Slim K3. 24 hours growth. Astra (3) The Slim feels different in the hand compared to the Merkur Progress. Also the shape of the cap is different. Blade felt a bit draggy on day 3. Face feeling a bit tender. 2 days rest is called for. 2nd February 2023. Gillette Slim K3. Fresh Astra SP (1) corked. 48 hours growth. TOBS Aloe Vera and Old Vulfix. Better lather today. Better how? not too dry, not too wet, somewhere in the middle, not clogging the razor. Pass 1: WTG Slim on #3. Pass 2: XTG Slim on #2. Pass 3: WTG and XTG Slim on #1. Feels like it is not taking off much grass. Set the mower lower. Touch ups and buffing: Slim back on #2. That's better. Careful near the edges. After shave: Alum, pleasant tingle, Thayers, then Aloe Vera as per suggestions elsewhere. Nice shave, but the Slim does seem a bit more, what shall I say, a bit less 'safe' than the Merkur Progress. I am beginning to see what others mean when they talk about blade feel. No idea how some use this on higher settings! Lessons for today: Still find the convex surface of the chin the hardest. Needs really careful, light and short multi-directional strokes. With the Slim I really need to start by laying the cap flush on the face, and then slowly angle to feel the blade start to bite. Had to really focus on light strokes. Left some stubble for tomorrow. Day 2 with the Astra is usually better, let's see. Silly Question of the Day: (bit late in the day I guess) Soaps, Croaps and Creams. When does a soap become a croap, and when does a croap become a cream? and does it matter?
A soap will not yield when you press your finger to it. A croap is like cookie dough. You can scoop it and form it. A cream is like a lotion, albeit some are thicker, some are runny. Just my opinions. When does a stream become a creek? When does a creek become a river? Does it matter?
Opinions are always good and welcomed! Nice analogy about the water, Steve. I take your point. Dried up streams, flowing streams, creeks, rivers, estuaries, dams, tidal waves, tsunami etc are all water, but with different effects/outcomes and different uses. So with shaving products it is consistency and not the constituents that lead to these names, would that be correct? and I assuming this has nothing to do with contents, glycerine, tallow, etc. As a producer I could package my product anyway I like and, without clear boundaries and within reason, call it anything I like? The above image is of a TOBS cream, but is actually thicker than for example the other T&H creams or other TOBS. I recently dumped all my bottled shampoos and got some locally made Bar Shampoo. No preservatives or chemicals, I really like the feel, texture, lathering and results of this hand made soap, and allegedly no scum in the shower. Now, I don't really want to get into the science of soap making or indeed do the soap making course, but am just trying to get my head around which ingredients to look at for best lathering. One way is to try them all, but there are waaaaaay too many on the market for that, and already my years are numbered! Internet "education" invariable leads to Best of blah blah and the inevitable commercial links, but I will troll through these anyway. Having said that, I have some others on order and more in mind! Can't wait.
I've never studied the ingredients list, but a good soap is a good soap, regardless of having tallow or being all vegetable. There are bad soaps out there that just refuse to give up a good lather. I've found TSD and Sterling soaps to be outstanding, with plenty of scents to choose from. For me, why go any place else? My only other soaps are Tabac and Van der Hagen. Oh, and a puck of Fine that I picked up not too long ago.
The old barber manuals said that one shouldn't use hot water for lather making, since it dries out the lather. They recommended medium warm water, so it would dry out slower. One method to tell when lather is at the right consistency is by lifting the brush straight out of the lather. The lather in the bowl will form a stiff peak, without slumping down, if it is at the proper consistency.
Generally as far as ingredients go, there are ingredients that form a lather, ingredients that moisturize, and ingredients that add slickness. In the highly commercialized soaps, there are also ingredients to increase bubbles, and ingredients to reduce bubbles, and ingredients to preserve all the other ingredients. fragrance is a non-entity for performance. Most popular shave soaps are pretty good. A few are outstanding. Some popular shave soaps are over-hyped, imo. (For example, I find Stirling to be a mediocre shave soap, good but not as good as people say it is. Granted, I haven't tried every type (and they make more than a few) of shave soap they make.) Go search out a recent thread for "your favorite/top 3 shave soaps" on a bigger forum. If you see the same name repeated a bunch of times by people that have been shaving for over 5 years, it's probably an excellent soap. My personal favorite is Saponifico Verisino, and it's a deep regret of mine that I only like two of their scents. All their scents are well crafted, but I don't go for citrus or flowery scents, which most of them seem to be, regardless of the scent description. Avoid the same lists on Facebook. Those lists seem to be a marketing exposure breakdown, with the biggest advertisers nailing the top slots. The very best soaps usually have added ingredients the other regular soaps don't have, to add slickness, moisture, or post shave skin care. They also tend to have higher quality fragrances, but not always. Sometimes you really are just paying extra for the name and the nice packaging.
Is that from the old barber manual you posted a pic of earlier? Should have read this before this morning's shave. There is always tomorrow! Will try tepid water or even cold. Stiff peaks in the lathering bowl, like stalagmites and then? Can't say I have quite got there yet. Yet Another challenge. 4th Feb 2023. Same set up as yesterday. Hot water face wash x3, including proraso blue pre-shave, rinsed off. Hot water in the lathering bowl, and cup soaking the brush, only noted your comment above after my shave! Second day with the Gillette Slim, this time set on #2 for all 3 passes, still needed two extra pickup passes and left it at that for the day. Still early days with this razor, still prefer my Merkur Progress at this stage. Got to watch out for that exposed tabs around the nose and ears! Chin area is going to be my final Mt Everest, I think. (I am thinking of a concave spoke shave maybe lol).
I use hot water for creating my lather. Never an issue with drying out. Mug and brush soak in hot water for a few minutes while I'm grabbing the razor and soap. I do soak my badgers, boars and synthetics, fully aware that badger and synthetic don't need the soak like boar does, but I like a hot brush and a hot mug from hot water to create a nice warm lather. But that's me. Ask all the scuttle users about warm lather.
Yes, I was thinking of that as I was typing my reply: both the modern scuttles with the double wall, and the old fashioned scuttles with the warm water under the puck holder. Maybe a good thing for the colder climates? Mind you, it is warm here in Perth atm running around 38C during the day, and although the A/C brings the room down to around 25C overnight it does dry the air with RH of around 33% to 40%, not sure if that is a factor. More water and more elbow grease
I suspect hot water doesn't really effect veg based soaps all that much. For myself, I always use piping hot water for my lathers. If it does start to dry out, I can always add water. ...and yes, that recommendation came from that 80+ years old book. Soap making has come a long way since then, and for the barber, time spent walking back and forth to add water to the lather equalled money not being made. You got to take those old time recommendations with a grain of salt sometimes. Edit: the lather forming peaks as a way to judge a correct lather is a modern thing, a theory formulated by expert latherers. It's not the only way to gauge a correct lather, but it's simple, easy, and mostly foolproof.
I will be mixing up this month. Bad Idea, I know, but fun to test drive new stuff. 5th Feb, 2023. Wilkinson shave stick, warm not hot water, Boar brush, no bowl, face full of lather. Feels like it has more cushion than some of the TOBS and T&H i have tried. Razor was my little lightweight aluminium Gillette Tech, I like this. Feels 'safer'. Managed a better shave than with the Slims Despite day 3 with Astra SP. Needed only 2 passes and some touch ups to get to where I want to be. It's pretty good for under the nose and around the chin, more manoeuvrable for me at this stage.
Forgot to mention. The old scuttles with the water reservoir for the brush and the soap on top are relics of a time when there was no hot water on tap in most American homes. You heated the kettle on the wood fired stove, poured the boiling water into your scuttle and made your way to the water closet or wherever else you kept your shaving mirror. You shaved with a straight razor, wiped the lather off with a towel, and did the same for your face. Always remember to put the tools and how they were used in the proper context of the time they were used in.
