JTSpartan
Shave Member
Hello All,
I gave a brief description in the Newbie thread yesterday, but I thought I'd give a more fulsome description of my journey to TSC in journal form. Live many of you, I am sure, I'm from a generation raised on cartridges and canned goo. There was a Remington Microscreen (thanks again, Mom and Dad!
) thrown in there for good measure. About 15 years ago, for a reason lost to the dustbins of history (but probably based on a magazine article or such), I ditched the canned goo and started using a brush and soap. Always a cheapo brush- I recall a few Body Shop synthetics and a few drugstore Wilkinson boars. Didn't even clean them properly after use. Usually a puck left out on the counter in a wooden bowl- I was lucky enough to have a number of C & E tallow pucks before the reformulation, but had no idea how good it was, nor really about how to build a lather. Who needed a grand lather with a one pass'er with a Mach III...
Five years ago, I bought an Edward Jagger 89 (original, I know...) and sample pack of blades from Fendrihan. Why? I think a few lurking sessions had me realizing there was this whole other world out there. A Whipped Dog HM Badger soon followed. I then fell in with an outstanding group of gentlemen called the 30Day Crew, already mentioned on these pages by a few others. That was my online shave home exclusively until recently when I decided to see what else was out there.
What made my shave journey a little different at that point was that I had been a wood turner several years before. I had bought a lathe, before getting married and having kids. Moved to a different town and mothballed the lathe for the better part of a decade. Anyway, after seeing so many awesome brushes online, I thought to myself 'I think I can probably give making those a go'. Long story short, out came the lathe. The first one or two hit the garbage can (a noble destination for those gems) and then I had a few successful finishes. I was completely self taught, but there really are only so many ways to hold wood on a lathe and only so many ways to use tools. I had no jacobs chuck at first, so I used to bore out the holes with lathe tools. I started posting some of them ( I still have some early ones in the rotation) and then ended up doing a LE for the 30DC in '17. I stared making more for friends, and then made a lather bowl, which kind of turned into another LE, which led to another LE brush in '19. Then lidded shave bowls followed. Then I bought casting resins and made some resin and resin/wood combos as well. Razor stands were a fun way to test resin pours.
I don't do it for profit, I do it because I like to and I like to test my skills and creativity. It has been an awesome outlet. I have filled the den with lots of stuff received in trades, which has been fun too. I've really slowed down in the past year or so, and have only made stuff periodically lately. I'm really trying to get back into the lathe room again, fwiw. Any turners out there? I very much like to talk about turning.
Anyway, here is where my den is currently at:
Razors:
DE Gillette:
Canadian ball-end Old Type
US New Improved ‘Bostonian’
Canadian New Deluxe
US #175 Goodwill
Canadian bar-handled NEW LC
Canadian pre-war fat-handled Tech
#51/53 English Aristocrat Jr. 'Canadian Rocket'
Non-Gillette DE:
Cooper MonoBilt
Barbasol Floating Head
Occam’s Razor (both heads, 3 plates)
Razorock .68 Gamechanger Jaws
DS Cosmetic Z0 SS
Karve ‘Christopher Bradley’ D & F Plates/ Solid Bar, C Plate Open Comb
SE/Injectors:
RazoRock Hawk SS V3 OC
Schick G4 '66'
British EverReady 1912
SS Supply Injector- all 3 plates
Yaqi Katana
Shavette:
CJB Kamisori-style
In the drawer, out of the rotation and ready to be passed onto my son, PIFed or similar:
GEM Jr
GEM MMOC
Gillette ‘51 Canadian Tech
Gillette ’57 Red Tip
Gillette ‘69 SA-109 ‘Black Beauty’
Schick I1
EJ 89
Zenith Boar 26mm/ Green Resin handle
Soaps/Creams:
Tubs/Tubes/full sized pucks/Shave sticks:
A&E Asian Plum
Castle Forbes Lime
Fine American Blend
Fine L'Orange Noir (2)
Fine Platinum
Haslinger Schalfmilch
Highland Soap Co. Kootenay Blue
Jeeves of Hudson St. Apothecary
Jeeves of Hudson St. Blood on Steel 30DC LE
Mikes Orange, Cedar and Pepper
Palmolive Stick (multi)
PAA Et Tu
Proraso Green SC
SV Felce Aromatica
SV Cubebe
SV Desert Vetiver
SV/Asylum Colonia
Soap Commander Endurance
Shulton OS (vintage)
Stirling Gin and Tonic
Stirling Mountain Man
+ samples
Aftershaves:
Splashes:
Alt Innsbruck
Avon Spicy (Vintage)
Barrister's Reserve Cool
Barrister's Reserve Spice
Chatillon Lux Bon Vivant
Chatillon Lux Gratiot League Square
Chatillon Lux Unconditional Surrender
Dior Eau Sauvage
English Leather (Vintage)
Fine American Blend
Fine Fresh Vetiver
Fine Platinum
Jeeves Tobacco & Bay Leaf
Jeeves Blood on Steel 30 DC LE
Maol Grooming Heliopteris
Maol Grooming Frankenlime
M&L Florida Water
PAA Et Tu
Shulton Old Spice (2) (vintage)
SV Felce Aromatica
SV Colonia
SV Cubebe
Stirling Arkadia
Stirling Autumn Glory
Stirling Baker Street
+ samples
Brushes:
Turned by me:
Stirling Finest Badger Fan/ Maple Handle
TGN Finest Badger Fan / Maple Handle
APShaveCo Tuxedo/ 30DC LE Handle
APShaveCo Flattop/ Sapele Handle
APShaveCo SynBad 30mm/Poculi Handle
APShaveCo Badger/Boar / Resin & Sapele Handle
APShaveCo GELousy SHD 2 band/ Resin & Maple Handle
Omega '49/ Bronze & White Resin handle
Omega ‘49/ Walnut & Brass Handle
Omega '83/ Poculi Beehive Handle
Omega 21mm / Walnut Handle
Simpson Sovereign (T2) / Blue& Bronze Resin
Others:
APShaveCo 2Bed Fan/ Evan’s Aluminum handle
JR 228
Simpson CH2 Synthetic
Omega Evo
APShave Silvertip/Evan’s ‘21 30DC LE
Oumo Flattop Boar/Rubberset 400 #3
Most of the hardware is in this pic:
What won't you see in my den?
Arko, Tabac, and Clubman (banned by me)
Stirling Gentlemen (banned by SWMBO)
I'm really looking forward to meeting many of you, this seems like a great place to be.
I gave a brief description in the Newbie thread yesterday, but I thought I'd give a more fulsome description of my journey to TSC in journal form. Live many of you, I am sure, I'm from a generation raised on cartridges and canned goo. There was a Remington Microscreen (thanks again, Mom and Dad!
) thrown in there for good measure. About 15 years ago, for a reason lost to the dustbins of history (but probably based on a magazine article or such), I ditched the canned goo and started using a brush and soap. Always a cheapo brush- I recall a few Body Shop synthetics and a few drugstore Wilkinson boars. Didn't even clean them properly after use. Usually a puck left out on the counter in a wooden bowl- I was lucky enough to have a number of C & E tallow pucks before the reformulation, but had no idea how good it was, nor really about how to build a lather. Who needed a grand lather with a one pass'er with a Mach III...Five years ago, I bought an Edward Jagger 89 (original, I know...) and sample pack of blades from Fendrihan. Why? I think a few lurking sessions had me realizing there was this whole other world out there. A Whipped Dog HM Badger soon followed. I then fell in with an outstanding group of gentlemen called the 30Day Crew, already mentioned on these pages by a few others. That was my online shave home exclusively until recently when I decided to see what else was out there.
What made my shave journey a little different at that point was that I had been a wood turner several years before. I had bought a lathe, before getting married and having kids. Moved to a different town and mothballed the lathe for the better part of a decade. Anyway, after seeing so many awesome brushes online, I thought to myself 'I think I can probably give making those a go'. Long story short, out came the lathe. The first one or two hit the garbage can (a noble destination for those gems) and then I had a few successful finishes. I was completely self taught, but there really are only so many ways to hold wood on a lathe and only so many ways to use tools. I had no jacobs chuck at first, so I used to bore out the holes with lathe tools. I started posting some of them ( I still have some early ones in the rotation) and then ended up doing a LE for the 30DC in '17. I stared making more for friends, and then made a lather bowl, which kind of turned into another LE, which led to another LE brush in '19. Then lidded shave bowls followed. Then I bought casting resins and made some resin and resin/wood combos as well. Razor stands were a fun way to test resin pours.
I don't do it for profit, I do it because I like to and I like to test my skills and creativity. It has been an awesome outlet. I have filled the den with lots of stuff received in trades, which has been fun too. I've really slowed down in the past year or so, and have only made stuff periodically lately. I'm really trying to get back into the lathe room again, fwiw. Any turners out there? I very much like to talk about turning.
Anyway, here is where my den is currently at:
Razors:
DE Gillette:
Canadian ball-end Old Type
US New Improved ‘Bostonian’
Canadian New Deluxe
US #175 Goodwill
Canadian bar-handled NEW LC
Canadian pre-war fat-handled Tech
#51/53 English Aristocrat Jr. 'Canadian Rocket'
Non-Gillette DE:
Cooper MonoBilt
Barbasol Floating Head
Occam’s Razor (both heads, 3 plates)
Razorock .68 Gamechanger Jaws
DS Cosmetic Z0 SS
Karve ‘Christopher Bradley’ D & F Plates/ Solid Bar, C Plate Open Comb
SE/Injectors:
RazoRock Hawk SS V3 OC
Schick G4 '66'
British EverReady 1912
SS Supply Injector- all 3 plates
Yaqi Katana
Shavette:
CJB Kamisori-style
In the drawer, out of the rotation and ready to be passed onto my son, PIFed or similar:
GEM Jr
GEM MMOC
Gillette ‘51 Canadian Tech
Gillette ’57 Red Tip
Gillette ‘69 SA-109 ‘Black Beauty’
Schick I1
EJ 89
Zenith Boar 26mm/ Green Resin handle
Soaps/Creams:
Tubs/Tubes/full sized pucks/Shave sticks:
A&E Asian Plum
Castle Forbes Lime
Fine American Blend
Fine L'Orange Noir (2)
Fine Platinum
Haslinger Schalfmilch
Highland Soap Co. Kootenay Blue
Jeeves of Hudson St. Apothecary
Jeeves of Hudson St. Blood on Steel 30DC LE
Mikes Orange, Cedar and Pepper
Palmolive Stick (multi)
PAA Et Tu
Proraso Green SC
SV Felce Aromatica
SV Cubebe
SV Desert Vetiver
SV/Asylum Colonia
Soap Commander Endurance
Shulton OS (vintage)
Stirling Gin and Tonic
Stirling Mountain Man
+ samples
Aftershaves:
Splashes:
Alt Innsbruck
Avon Spicy (Vintage)
Barrister's Reserve Cool
Barrister's Reserve Spice
Chatillon Lux Bon Vivant
Chatillon Lux Gratiot League Square
Chatillon Lux Unconditional Surrender
Dior Eau Sauvage
English Leather (Vintage)
Fine American Blend
Fine Fresh Vetiver
Fine Platinum
Jeeves Tobacco & Bay Leaf
Jeeves Blood on Steel 30 DC LE
Maol Grooming Heliopteris
Maol Grooming Frankenlime
M&L Florida Water
PAA Et Tu
Shulton Old Spice (2) (vintage)
SV Felce Aromatica
SV Colonia
SV Cubebe
Stirling Arkadia
Stirling Autumn Glory
Stirling Baker Street
+ samples
Brushes:
Turned by me:
Stirling Finest Badger Fan/ Maple Handle
TGN Finest Badger Fan / Maple Handle
APShaveCo Tuxedo/ 30DC LE Handle
APShaveCo Flattop/ Sapele Handle
APShaveCo SynBad 30mm/Poculi Handle
APShaveCo Badger/Boar / Resin & Sapele Handle
APShaveCo GELousy SHD 2 band/ Resin & Maple Handle
Omega '49/ Bronze & White Resin handle
Omega ‘49/ Walnut & Brass Handle
Omega '83/ Poculi Beehive Handle
Omega 21mm / Walnut Handle
Simpson Sovereign (T2) / Blue& Bronze Resin
Others:
APShaveCo 2Bed Fan/ Evan’s Aluminum handle
JR 228
Simpson CH2 Synthetic
Omega Evo
APShave Silvertip/Evan’s ‘21 30DC LE
Oumo Flattop Boar/Rubberset 400 #3
Most of the hardware is in this pic:
What won't you see in my den?
Arko, Tabac, and Clubman (banned by me)
Stirling Gentlemen (banned by SWMBO)
I'm really looking forward to meeting many of you, this seems like a great place to be.
