Williams Wednesday's OC Shave Proraso Pre Shave Williams Jayaruh #224 Gillette Single Ring Gillette Silver Blue CWR Thayer's Lemon WH Pinaud Clubman I started off with Proraso Pre Shave. The Williams Mug Shaving Soap face-lathered well with the Jayaruh #224 synthetic brush. I did the two passes with the Gillette Single Ring and Gillette Silver Blue blade and ended up with a close, comfortable shave. After a cold water rinse, I finished off with Thayer's Lemon WH and then Pinaud Clubman AS. I am clean, smooth, and refreshed...
Thank you, Doug! I like the AS quite a bit. It has some similarities to Tabac, but it is different. I find I like it better.
OCtober 4, 2017 The first pairing was a Gillette Old against a RazoRock Old Type and honestly, there was simply no contest. The new RazoRock Old Type was far superior to the Gillette. RazoRock Old Type on left: This pairing place one of my Gillette New Improved razors against my Merkur 1904 razor. Both had Feather blades and each blade had one prior shave. In both cases I used Tabac soap and the final result from both shaves was beyond PDG, near perfect. Gillette New Improved on left: The Merkur 1904 is supposedly a copy of an early Gillette razor but since the head seems nearly identical to other modern Merkur Open Comb razors and since I have never seen any evidence of such a 1904 Gillette razor I think it fair to say while it might be an homage it is not a copy of any Gillette razor. So there has to be a winner, but in this case there was no knockout and the judges are divided. Both razors produced near perfect results in two passes and slight touchup. Both easily handled the difficult places like my chin, the left corner near my mouth and the right part of my neck below the jawline. Both liked multi-directional diagonal stokes and skin stretching. In both cases the shave seemed to end too soon. But there has to be a winner. So, between these two I will give the Gillette New Improved with the Bar handle the win, but at least one judge says I am simply wrong and the other grudgingly accepts my position as he scored as a draw. The only possible difference is that with the Gillette there seemed to be more disappointment that I could not find yet more to touchup. Today's brush was a Peerless low end brush of Cased Badger. Cased badger was a combination of badger and other bristles that are generally not specified but likely boar. It is yet another lather making machine but not as wonderful as the Peerless Pure Badger. Today's Peerless is next to last on the right, top shelf:
SOTN OCtober 3rd Razor: Cooper MonoBilt Blade: TianLi Super Stainless Soap: RazoRock XXX Brush: 30DCLE Post Shave: Aqua Velva Ice Sport
That's possible but the cap seems thicker than my other Old Style Gillettes. It has no serial number or date code but has the smaller Gillette in a diamond Trade Mark so it could be a very late Old Style that was contemporary with the New Improved. The cap and base plate are in very good shape though with only one spot showing brassing or corrosion.
OCtober 4, 2017 Pre-shave: Warm towel & pre-shave oil Shave Cream: Every Man Jack Sensitive Fragrance Free Shave Cream (ended up adding some Cremo Original Shave Cream) Brush: Omega Synthetic Hi-Brush Razor: vintage Probak 3 piece OC Blade: Wilkinson-Sword (3) Post-shave: Dickinson WH, Every Man Jack Signature Mint Post-Shave lotion, Jovan Musk AS / Cologne I chose to use the Every Man Jack Shave Cream since I had not used it for a long time. Normally, I just apply it by hand and it works well. I decided to experiment and try to bowl lather it with a brush, but I probably should have just applied it to my face by hand. Not wanting to give up so easily, I added some Cremo Original and managed some lather build up, which I applied to my face with the brush. I liked the mixture in that it felt very nice on the skin and it was very slick. I also like the citrusy scent the Cremo Original has. Neverthess, I could've just saved some time and applied either cream by hand and gotten the same result. However, the main goal for today's shave was to try out, for the first time, the Probak 3 piece OC razor I picked up at an antique store in August. I'm not sure why it took so long to get to this point. This razor is in excellent shape. I started out slowly, but became so confident with it quickly. This is an amazing razor! I got a very close, comfortable shave throughout, even for my trouble spots on the neck. Have a great day, gents and ladies!
OCtober 4, 2017 B-400 by Tom with Omega Pro 20107 Mystic Water Eucalyptus and Spearmint Ti Wolfman WR1-OC with Brass Darwin Gillette Silver Blue Chatillon Lux Champs de Lavande Post Shave Toner CRSW Lavish Tom Ford for Men