October 2018 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

SOTD October 20, 2018

Prep: Cold water and Stirling mentholated pre-shave soap
Blade: GEM PTFE
Safety Razor: GEM Micromatic
Straight Razor: Offenbach Solingen
Brush: JR #41 badger
Soap: Stirling Green
Post: Witch hazel, Country Club for Men Modern Fougere aftershave

I had two straights touched up and worked on by @HolyRollah recently. The two were from my great uncle who passed away almost a year ago. My father was helping clean out his house and brought me a good many shaving items, including four straights. I sent two of those four to Kevin and decided to try a little bit tonight.

Lathered up the right side of my face with Stirling Green and then went to work with the straight. Only shaved my cheek and the flat areas, then washed off that lather and lathered up the left side. Again, just shaving the cheek area and a little bit of the jaw line. Then I resisted temptation and put it down. Lathered up the whole face and did one solid pass with the Micromatic and called it quits. I didn't want to push my luck with the straight.

Pretty good shave! No blood except for a tiny spot on my right ear lobe. Yep, I hit it a tiny bit by accident. These suckers are sharp!

Straight razors are interesting. I can already foresee that shaving my neck will be a challenge. But I'll go in baby steps. Straight shaves will probably need to be a weekend activity so I can have a little more time and be more awake than my normal weekday shaves.

Anyway, it's been a fun day of football and beer. Hope you all had a great day!

 

OCtober Oddball & Open Comb

Strop Shoppe SE London Morning with tallow*
The King badger by Steve @Vlasta
Gillette NDC Short on a ball end handle
Pinaud Clubman After Shave Lotion
When I placed my first order for soap samples with Maggard's in '15 I got 6 different scents of *SS SE w/tallow. Before I'd used them up the company had gone under. Seems weird now with the profusion of formulas and scents available since their demise was blamed on "too many options" or some such nonsense. During a swap session with (I think...?) a 30DC member or was it a TSD general population person I jumped at the chance to get most of a tub of their no longer available soap. Best ever? No, but it's good stuff with a pleasant scent. Whipped up a face lather with the fat badger and set the Astra SP on it's last use in the oldest DE I currently own. The baseplate on this one is scratched up, the top cap still has some nickle showing. If it weren't for the uncracked handle I'd have retired the whole unit. Fortunately I held onto it long enough to get a photo in John's @John Ruschmeyer Flawsome Razors thread. Three passes for a more or less DFS, no blood shed, but it's just not a stand out shave in any particular way. Splash of Clubman for the comfy face feel finish.
Good Shaves Y'all!

 

Awesome pic, Perry! Sounds like your day went as planned. Here's to more of the same tomorrow.

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Great picture and report, Rick!

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Thank you, Jim!

 

OCtober Oleo and Odd Balls!!

October 20

Razor - Gillette New SC Deluxe
Blade - (2)
Soap - Stirling Iced Coffee
Brush - Stiring Two Banded Synthetic
Post - Alum

Second night for my haunted buddy. Rapira PL for the second run as well. Definitely one of the top blades from Moscow. I chose Stirling Iced Coffee with the Stirling synthetic tonight to get ready to see Rod tomorrow afternoon. I'll be lobbying him to bring the Iced Coffee back to the lineup. For those wanting to get in on it I'll let you know how it goes. Something tells me I will probably come home with another soap too. I'll try keeping my hands in my pockets and being a good boy without reaching for my wallet.

The shave tonight was a two pass and touch up very fine DFS. I didn't really try very hard to get any better. Just enjoyed where it went. I did my head shave first so a lot of time in front of the mirror. Good thing I'm this doggone good looking, eh? Enjoy your Sunday!

 

Great minds think alike.

 

Sunday Shave

I have decided to grade my edges tougher starting today. As I was checking through my soap storage I pulled out this tub of AoS cream. It is near the end so I will focus on finishing this tub off too. The AoS produced some great lather and I thought I nailed the shave but I did get a tickle from the alum. The edge was silky smooth and on my old scale it would have been A++, but this is the new standard so A+.

Irritation A Closeness A Smoothness A+ Sharpness A

Razor: Koraat 7/8, 3/4 grind
Strop: Mastro Livi
Brush: Omega silver tip
Pre: Proraso
Soap: AoS cream
AS: Lucky Tiger AS
Scent: Chanel Egoïst

 

Thank you Jason. Your Shave Fu was strong.


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Great photo Perry. Very cool to have such a family heirloom. Congrats on give the SR a try.


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OCtober 21st
Razor: Cooper Monobilt
Blade: SuperMax Blue Diamond (2)
Brush: Maseto Finest badger 30mm
Pre-shave: Stirling Mentholated
Soap: JoHS Blood on Steel
Lucky Tiger face tonic
AS: JoHS Blood on Steel

Good morning!

Hopefully no cut and paste errors today. I have no idea how I had the date so screwed up yesterday.

2nd shave with the Monobilt/SuperMax combo. Two pass with touch up. Excellent near BBS result. I would say effortless but I did have a tiny weeper on my adams apple so a little more effort was needed.

Have a great Sunday!

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Thank you, Clint!

 

Wonderful photo, Jim!

 

Thank you, Perry!

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Some great looking shaves and pictures, gentlemen!

 

October 21 SOTD:

Razor: Gillette '37 Aristocrat
Blade: Voskhod
Brush: PAA Atomic Rocket
Lather: Henri et Victoria Cognac and Cuban Cigars
Aftershave: Henri et Victoria Cognac and Cuban Cigars
Additional Care:
Stirling Unscented PSB

 

Thank you, Jim!

Great pic of a beautiful razor! Nice software choices!

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Thank you, Jim!

Great photo and setup!