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Shave #75 (yesterday’s crazy shave was #74 and I forgot to number it):

Back to normal! No one needs to freak out about todays shave. ?

Today’s shave was supposed to be yesterday’s if you recall, but was postponed due to messiness. Boy am I glad I did!

Scheermonnik: Delfts Wit definitely deserved the time I gave it this morning!

Official scent notes: features & a woody scent with notes of Italian Bergamot, Apple wood, Tonka Bean, Patchouli, Cedarwood, and Oakmoss, all finished with Cardamom, Vanilla Bourbon and Allspice.

This stuff smells sophisticated, luxurious, and deep. The scent really gets unleashed with lathering and it does not disappoint one bit. I didn’t catch all the notes, but for me, I got a lot of bergamot, Tonka, and Cedar, with a very nice underline of warm vanilla. The scent was also kind of reminiscent of a cured tobacco, ever so slightly smoky. I enjoyed it very much!

I was going to do a 2 pass today but ended up doing a 3 pass, mainly because my Pro blade felt really on the fritz, enough that I tossed it after the shave. 15 shaves on it ain’t bad though! I’m going to practice stropping them, as some claim to get many times more shaves out of them with a little loving.

With the Feather I’ve really been putting to practice cross handed strokes, especially on the XTG passes, where I’ve also been enjoying stroking from the back of the jaw to mouth instead of front to back. It has been a very easy and pleasing experience, so I carried that into my DE XTG do-over today. It made the pass ultra smooth. Something about the angle my cross hand finds just fits nicely. I’m so glad I forced myself to learn to be ambidextrous during shaves early on!

Feather took the initial XTG, but didn’t give it’s normal stellar reduction, so the Fat Handled Tech took the follow up XTG and also the ATG. Finished up with a lather soak, a little moisturizer, and my Brut AS concoction, and my face is loving me!

Back to work today after my busy, crazy weekend. Looking forward to the TSC Bingo thing!
 
Good shaves.

If you're going to start stropping the replaceable blades, why not just go back to a straight razor? Seems to defeat the purpose of the replaceable blade, which, if I remember correctly, was to AVOID stropping?
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Good shaves.

If you're going to start stropping the replaceable blades, why not just go back to a straight razor? Seems to defeat the purpose of the replaceable blade, which, if I remember correctly, was to AVOID stropping?

 
Good shaves.

If you're going to start stropping the replaceable blades, why not just go back to a straight razor? Seems to defeat the purpose of the replaceable blade, which, if I remember correctly, was to AVOID stropping?

I feel the need for a history lesson, if you will pardon me.

Stropping, and even re-honing, replaceable blades has been used in the past (especially during The Great Depression) to extend the life of razor blades. Here are some pics of one of the DE hones in my collection. (Yes, I have a collection of antique DE hones.)


I have actually used one of these on a DE blade. It works better with carbon steel blades than it does with stainless steel, but done right it can extend the life of a blade.
 
BTW, denim makes for a really good cloth strop. Also blades can be palm stropped to good effect, as the DE hone box mentions.
 
I feel the need for a history lesson, if you will pardon me.

Stropping, and even re-honing, replaceable blades has been used in the past (especially during The Great Depression) to extend the life of razor blades. Here are some pics of one of the DE hones in my collection. (Yes, I have a collection of antique DE hones.)


I have actually used one of these on a DE blade. It works better with carbon steel blades than it does with stainless steel, but done right it can extend the life of a blade.
I find historical bits like the DE hones to be really fun and cool.
BTW, denim makes for a really good cloth strop. Also blades can be palm stropped to good effect, as the DE hone box mentions.

Good history lesson and info Doug, thanks!
 
I saw the Veg and my jaw dropped. LOL Hope you like it. I don't like it by itself but pairs well with Tabac.
 
Totally know about all that, and I have been palm stropping DE and SE blades forever.

I was just trying to give Chris some grief. We kinda flip flopped, so I was joking about that.

But thanks for the pics of the hones. That was pretty cool.
 
Shave #76:

Today’s new soap of choice was Catie’s Bubbles: Un Jour Gris

Official scent profile: A fresh, clean blend of citrus, spice, vetiver and sandalwood.

I’m not so sure about all of that, but the scent for me was definitely clean with an undertone of grey, as advertised. Sometimes my nose takes some getting used to finer scents, in order to pick out certain notes, which this must be. The scent was not bad, but not impressive either, and that’s OK really, sometimes one just needs a decent soap and naught else. It almost reminded me of a weak, dark tea.

The performance this first time out was a bit iffy. I would relate this initial performance to a bit under my experience of Grooming Department: Yuzu. A decent slickness was there, but it was very much a thinner lather; I could not get it to thicken up without adding more product which affected the slickness/brush glide. So ultimately I kept it thin in favor of what slickness I could get. I will say that the post-shave feel was decent.

Another minor annoyance was the tub size. It was probably the size of my Cella tub, but had an even smaller opening for its cap.

Overall it was just an OK soap for its first outing.

Now the shave itself was a 2 pass. Brand new Feather Pro in the AC SS. Seemed much smoother at the start than my last one. I wonder if AC blade consistency issues are a thing? I’m in the game way too early to know off hand.

I kept up with the cross handed technique practice for both the XTG and also brought it in for the ATG with the Tech. It worked surprisingly well. For the ATG I also incorporated a “windshield wiper” like stroke (I think Kingfisher was working something like this in his journal?). It helped quite a bit with under the chin actually, where I’ve been having some issue getting close lately. Good shave!

In other news, I’m fully caught up with Walking Dead (shocker season and and ending!) and catching up with Fear the Walking Dead (loved the cross-over!).

Happy Wednesday all!
 
nice shave Chris! I only have experience with Purple Grapefruit from CB, and it was a decent performer, but not puck worthy for me. The scent was unreal good, however.
 
Another twist on the Chipotle bottle strategy. I hunt the array for the nearly dead soldiers and when I'm done eating, empty them into the bowl then when leaving tell them you are taking a couple dead ones. They are usually happy you are recycling/re-purposing these bottles. I slipped the manager a five once, but I've harvested from all three of our local Chipotle's.
 
Another twist on the Chipotle bottle strategy. I hunt the array for the nearly dead soldiers and when I'm done eating, empty them into the bowl then when leaving tell them you are taking a couple dead ones. They are usually happy you are recycling/re-purposing these bottles. I slipped the manager a five once, but I've harvested from all three of our local Chipotle's.

Sneaky! I’ll have to remember that for the next round!
 
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