11 OCtober Williams Wednesday Pre-Shave: Hot Shower Brush: 22mm Badger, JR #180 Soap: Williams Razor: Valet VC2, Autostrop Blade: Feather FAS-10 Carbon Steel(CS), Feather Seikan (1) Post-Shave: Cold Water rinse and Stetson After Shave Photo: Last Night I modified and than stropped a fresh CS blade. Afterwards I got to thinking about how the blade broke on me. That the top of the E was missing and it allowed the blade to move around a bit. So I figured I would try again. I started off by taking the glue off the new blade with an old GEM blade. Because all good stories start with "Here hold my beer", Here hold my beer. I was at my bathroom vanity, I had three blades on the vanity: the GEM, the Feather that I had already modified earlier in the evening and the new Feather that I was going to try and modify in hopes of getting a better break. I had scraped one side of the blade off then turned it over to get the other side. Not paying as much attention as I should have I picked up the first Feather blade to use on the second Feather. This in it's self would not have been that bad except subconsciously I didn't want to ruin the cutting edge so I turned it around so that the sharp edge was were I placed my finger to push the blade across the other. I now have a nice cut on the end of my finger. Sorry no pics of my finger. This morning I stropped the blade five more times before the shave as the blade was able to move around when I stropped it the night before. The Williams and JR #180 whipped up a nice lather. Now if you remember the first shave with the last CS blade it was rough. It was okay at best. OMG! Today's shave was hands down better than any shave I got from the un-stropped CS blade. It was smoother and gave me a closer shave. Three passes and it my not be BBS but damn near it. If this is a example of what is to come I will strop all the CS blades from here on. At least for the Valet. Finished off the shave with some Stetson AS and I am ready for anything the world my throw at me today.
Love the blue theme. Great black and white photo. I love the story behind the brush. Jeff's Soap was my first CSRW soap as well. It impressed me. Beautiful Old Type. Love the photo Mark. I enjoy reading your blade experiments. Congrats on an experiment working out so well.
Wednesday morning October 11 - dithering Tarnished Gillette BallEnd Old Type / Topaz Platinum (1) Semogue Owners Club cherrywood boar brush My Red Green Duct Tape Special frankensoap Alum and Lucky Tiger After selecting my razor this morning, I found myself standing before my stash of soaps and creams in a total paralysis about what to use. I finally just grabbed my big tub of Italian frankensoap. The next choices were brush and postshave products and I settled on those by choosing at random with half-closed eyes. After that, the shave went as normal. For some reason, the Ball End Old Type feels a bit lighter and more nimble in my hand than the Single Ring Old Type, even though a comparison of the two suggests their overall weights are nearly identical. Maybe the distribution of weight is just slightly different. I did notice that the Ball End felt slightly less aggressive - not as much blade presence and less of a sense that it was just waiting to bite me. I was in a hurry today, so I did just a single diagonal pass and called it good enough. The one-pass result is somewhere in DFS territory actually. My face feels nearly perfectly smooth as does my neck but there is some slight roughness on the underside of my jaw. It is certainly good enough for any normal social interaction and the alum was perfectly silent. The Lucky Tiger gave a pleasant orange finish to the shave. It's nice to know that while not all scents would complement each other perfectly, I can grab any combination of stuff in my den and expect a good shave now. I can make any razor or brush in my rotation work, the blades are mostly known quantities, and all the soaps, creams and postshave products left in my stash work well for me. The only unknowns are a couple of tucks of blades and about a dozen soap and cream samples that I have not yet tried.
I liked it a lot. It will be awhile before I buy more soap, but it’s on my list for when I need more soap in 2021
Thank you Charlie. I love using it and think of my Dad every time. And I love telling the story of the brush and the ship
OCtober Focus Old School Vintage Williams Stick soap Omega Pro #10098 Boar brush Osaka Suribachi & cool water Fatip Piccolo, Personna LB blade Alum, Three Leathers AS No better day than Wednesday for a Williams lather. Moistened the old Omega brush in my bowl, dumped the tap water, and scrubbed the stick of soap across the textured surface. Poof! Lather happened. Three careful passes that are becoming comfortable procedure followed by chin buffing took care of two days of stubble. Alum was quiet as I could ask for, and the blend of Vintage Avon & English Leather boosted by the power of Pinaud S.R. went on smooth. Good Shaves Y'all!
Thank you Clint, but the experiment continues. The point of this was to see if stropping would prolong the life of the blade not just make it better. Making it better was just an added plus.
Congrats. It is a nice feeling to know that you've mastered the process enough to expect a good shave with all your hardware and software. Great photo. Bravo.
Razor: Blackbird OC Delta Echo Razor Finish Blade: Personna Tungsten 74 (3) Brush: 30 Day Crew w/ LS 2 Band Soap: Cold River Soap Works Jeff's Soap A/S: Folsom & Co. Shambala The TSD 30 DC brush is working perfectly, along with the CRSW Jeff's Soap. Blackland Blackbird (Blue Bird ) provides an excellent close comfortable after the Delta Echo Razor finishing. Folsom & Company Shambala is a great finish.
Thanks Jason! I'm not sure what originally came in the bottle. Made by J.R.Watkins, it could have possibly been made as far back as 1920. When I see these type for a buck or less I buy them if they look like they can be cleaned and used again. The screw cap is from Addams Extracts - food flavoring. This one holds about 1-1/2 ounces (50ml).
I enhanced it with witch hazel, aloe and some vitamin I enhanced it with witch hazel, aloe and vitamin E, plus added some extra menthol.
My grandmother always kept 3 Watkins products on hand. Vanilla extract, lemon extract, and liniment. A Watkins salesman made the rounds door to door every couple of months.
