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Natterings of a Nasal Barbarian

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Saturday’s Cold Water Shave
February 22, 2025

The bride left early this morning with her best friend, Mila, to take advantage of the Broadway Tickets I bought for her and Mila for her birthday. But not before requesting that I blow the leaves out of our garage before her return this evening. The one good thing about being a so-called “crippled” old fart, is that my “honey do list” has been limited mostly to single items.

After she left, I proceeded to enjoy the first really great shave I’ve had since my return home. My faithful “Red Imp” received a touchup on the Suehiro 20k last night. I find myself sticking with the Simpson Chubby which builds terrific MWF lathers. Two very slow, careful and luxurious passes with my Case “Red Imp” left the mug wonderfully smooth. Three passes with the Durham Speed Shaver delivered the same quality shave to my dome. Finished with a cold and refreshing rinse with my brush squeezings topped off with Stirling’s Glacial Ice leaving me smooth, clean and velveteen from neck to dome.

RAZOR: WR Case & Sons Red Imp 6/8 (Mug), Durham Enders Speed Shaver (Green) (Dome)
BLADE: Schick Type B Proline w/ Adapter
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Argan Oil
BRUSH: Simpson Chubby 3 Sovereign Fibre
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brushsqueezings followed by a rinse with Humphreys WH.
 
Graybeard57 said:
So glad you are back home, sir! Please participate when you can. I’ve missed your fascinating posts. Be well! 👍👍
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Thanks, Bruce! Had a bit of a struggle to get the old carcass back in working order, but for a guy two years from his 8th decade, I’m not complaining! Hope to get back to my razor research, but don’t expect to be batting at the same level. And please call me, Jeff!
 
jgreenepa said:
Thanks, Bruce! Had a bit of a struggle to get the old carcass back in working order, but for a guy two years from his 8th decade, I’m not complaining! Hope to get back to my razor research, but don’t expect to be batting at the same level. And please call me, Jeff!
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Understood. I’ve got parts that have seen better days myself. Join in when you feel like it, Jeff. 👍
 
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SOTD Monday, September 24, 2025

One of the nice things about being retired is that I’m on my clock. Had to get a Zoom class lecture ready for this evening. Wanted to get that out of the way so I could relax and enjoy a leisurely shave. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to it until about 2:30 this afternoon.

My shave this afternoon was superb. My Filly Novodur was exquisitely sharp and smooth after a touchup on the Suehiro 20k and a final prep on the constroption. Two and a 1/2 passes left my mug delightfully smooth. The FrankenFamex, my bastardized French cage head razor followed the Filly mug shave and left my dome in the same condition as my face. The Pre de Provence finished off a great shave, leaving me smooth, clean and veleteen from collar to dome.


RAZOR: Filarmonica Novodur 13P (Mug), FrankenFamex Cagehead (Dome)
BLADE: Feather DE (Dome)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a heavy scrub with Argan Oil
BRUSH: Mr EE #007 Aluminum Handled Boar Knot
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brushsqueezings followed by a rinse with Humphreys LilacWH. Pre de Provence Bergamot & Thyme AS Balm.
 
MarkB said:
Beautiful scales on that Filarmonica!! :love:
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Thanks, Mark! It’s been one of my favorite razors. My son nationalized it while I was in rehab probably figuring I wouldn’t be coming out any time soon. It needed a slight blade refresh, but delivered the goods as it always has. Mistakenly described my brush as a boar knot, it’s a badger.
 
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WEDNESDAY SHAVE OF THE DAY
February 26, 2025

After my rehab discharge, as I mentioned earlier, I needed to retrieve a number of razors. The last modern maker’s straight razor that I purchased shortly before my stroke was Yuri Kravchenko’s 7/8 Extra Hollow Zodiac model. The cutting edge on this razor is paper thin and it truly sings during use. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that it along with over half of my other straight razors were now residing in my son’s den. Both of my SanMai built Vic Creazzi razors, my 7/8 Riga Razor, and my Gipson Katsumi 14/13 were there along with many of my other favorites including my Nichiri Tokusen 6/8 and both of my Iwasaki razors.

Ben looked a bit embarrassed, but readily handed them back to me. All of the razors had been through Ben’s jnat progression and sported killer edges. They’d been apparently appropriated by my son in the expectation that I wouldn’t be using them again. I also retrieved my beloved “constroption”, built for me by Harold Schecter of the Perfect Edge. This is a stropping tool that has four sides of progressive pastes. Perfect for the lazy old man who enjoys stropping while sitting at a desk.

In any case, my mug shave today was “divine” as my limey shave buddy, Barry (@palmolive fox), is wont to say. The Kravchenko Zodiac sang through 2 1/2 BBS passes. The MWF never failed and provided the perfect cushion for my mug. This was not the case for my dome shave. I guess I’m just spoiled. The Gillette blade in my Big Fellow just didn’t seem to cut as close as I like with my Kai or Feather blades. In fact after just one pass, I felt bristly spots across the entire shave surface of my head. So without any hesitation, I 3017’ed the Gillette blade and loaded a fresh Kai blade. One more once and done MWF fueled Kai pass was all it took to reach dome shave satori leaving me smooth, clean and velveteen from shoulders to dome.

RAZOR: Kravchenko Zodiac Extra Hollow 7/8 (Mug), Gillette Big Fellow (1920) (Dome)
BLADE: Gillette Green 7 O’Clock DE Final pass with a Kai DE (Dome)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a heavy scrub with Argan Oil
BRUSH: MrEE LE #007 Aluminum Handled Hybrid Knot (Badger & Boar)
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by a rinse withHumphreys Lilac WH. Finished with Pre de Provence Bergamot & Thyme Shave Balm.
 
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