As your Minister of Manliness I've not been very faithful to regular postings lately, but I hope to provide a good shot of testosterone.
First, let's talk shaving. I use a Parker variant, so I can adjust the aggressiveness. I mixed it up at the end of my Feather blades life & discovered that for me any irritation is directly resultant from that first pass. So I shifted the setting down to 3 for the first pass then back up to my normal setting of 4 for my last 2 passes. Usually I get so-so shaves at the end of my blades life, but doing this shift down on the first pass, no chance of irritation.
Ok, now on to man stuff. I finished my first knife that was forged from a coil spring out of a car. Nothing special, but it will slice paper effortlessly. My wife has been enjoying using it in the kitchen. The handle is made from curly oak I had hanging around.
![20231230_163444.jpg 20231230_163444.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126583-a2b6987bfa6a84c5938c2efb6e480462.jpg)
![20231230_163536.jpg 20231230_163536.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126584-568babc6a121a4be33c6b19f50d67afa.jpg)
I got to try it out the other day on a ham we smoked, and man it was just melting right through it effortlessly. It felt great to use something I completely made from raw materials. From forging the blade to mounting the handle materials.
![20240203_175810.jpg 20240203_175810.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126585-1c775a32c6578adac376cc67e20a2c63.jpg)
This first knife was a learning tool and I have to thank @ShawnF for all his wisdom & advice.
First, let's talk shaving. I use a Parker variant, so I can adjust the aggressiveness. I mixed it up at the end of my Feather blades life & discovered that for me any irritation is directly resultant from that first pass. So I shifted the setting down to 3 for the first pass then back up to my normal setting of 4 for my last 2 passes. Usually I get so-so shaves at the end of my blades life, but doing this shift down on the first pass, no chance of irritation.
Ok, now on to man stuff. I finished my first knife that was forged from a coil spring out of a car. Nothing special, but it will slice paper effortlessly. My wife has been enjoying using it in the kitchen. The handle is made from curly oak I had hanging around.
![20231230_163444.jpg 20231230_163444.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126583-a2b6987bfa6a84c5938c2efb6e480462.jpg)
![20231230_163536.jpg 20231230_163536.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126584-568babc6a121a4be33c6b19f50d67afa.jpg)
I got to try it out the other day on a ham we smoked, and man it was just melting right through it effortlessly. It felt great to use something I completely made from raw materials. From forging the blade to mounting the handle materials.
![20240203_175810.jpg 20240203_175810.jpg](https://theshavingcadre.com/data/attachments/126/126585-1c775a32c6578adac376cc67e20a2c63.jpg)
This first knife was a learning tool and I have to thank @ShawnF for all his wisdom & advice.