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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
I've been trying to get him to shave with a straight. So far I can't even get him to use the SE's I sent him. But at least he's off the carts now, so baby steps.
I've been trying to get him to shave with a straight. So far I can't even get him to use the SE's I sent him. But at least he's off the carts now, so baby steps.
I know, I know I have like 5 SE razors that need to come out and play
I don't know about straights. The idea appeals to me, and I'm sure Shawn will work on me more after I try the SE's and rave about how great they shave
I don't like to assume people want to see what I'm doing so when people ask for pictures I know they are really interested. I guess I should know by now you guys like to see that stuff.
Thanks Rich! I just hope I can keep it up.
Here's the picture of my new possibles bag and the first powder horn I ever made. Keeping my pet chipmunk Chip still to take the picture posed a challenge 
I'm not entirely happy with the bear tooth/claws combination at the bottom so I may make some custom deer antler beads instead or carve and antler effigy figure. I wanted something more period, but it also can't make a lot of noise when moving about.
The powder horn represents an actual battle event in my area where Capt. George Bush's men stormed up a hillside to dislodge a formidable group of Indians and British soldiers. The horn represents what perhaps his men may have made in the field and given to him afterwards to commemorate the moment. I tend to keep the first attempts at things that I do.
Also and update. Some time ago I said I'd forged my first knife and below is a picture of where I'm at with it. I think I've finished the final grind on the blade, but Shawn and I both agree I need to take more off the handle before putting the scales on. I have to give Shawn props because he's been a wealth of advice and wisdom as I've gone through this first knife. Many times he says "Make sure you ********* or else it will *********. Don't ask me why I know this". I've done all the work, but Shawn's experience has helped tremendously.
That's a spec of dirt or something on the above picture, trust me all the forge marks have been ground off. Once the handle is done I will begin sharpening the blade. It will be a small kitchen knife and is made from a coil spring off a car that was forged into a blade, quenched, tempered and ground to what you see here. Fun stuff. Not as nice as what Shawn has shown you, but I'm learning.
I'm not entirely happy with the bear tooth/claws combination at the bottom so I may make some custom deer antler beads instead or carve and antler effigy figure. I wanted something more period, but it also can't make a lot of noise when moving about. The powder horn represents an actual battle event in my area where Capt. George Bush's men stormed up a hillside to dislodge a formidable group of Indians and British soldiers. The horn represents what perhaps his men may have made in the field and given to him afterwards to commemorate the moment. I tend to keep the first attempts at things that I do.
Also and update. Some time ago I said I'd forged my first knife and below is a picture of where I'm at with it. I think I've finished the final grind on the blade, but Shawn and I both agree I need to take more off the handle before putting the scales on. I have to give Shawn props because he's been a wealth of advice and wisdom as I've gone through this first knife. Many times he says "Make sure you ********* or else it will *********. Don't ask me why I know this". I've done all the work, but Shawn's experience has helped tremendously.
That's a spec of dirt or something on the above picture, trust me all the forge marks have been ground off. Once the handle is done I will begin sharpening the blade. It will be a small kitchen knife and is made from a coil spring off a car that was forged into a blade, quenched, tempered and ground to what you see here. Fun stuff. Not as nice as what Shawn has shown you, but I'm learning.
I ate Dale for dinner one night, just kidding.
SteveChuckFrank
Close Enough*
Good stuff Mike, nice shave too!
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
Nice looking blade there
80th shave today. I wanted to go back and find a few things I tried from the PIF and use them again. It just felt like a Pacific Rush morning. Another excellent shave.
Today's Shave: Shave #80
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Lavender Lime
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 13 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Pacific Rush AS on the nec
k only. Barbasol Pacific Rush Post Shave Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting.
My lather this morning seemed a bit wet again so I squeegeed the soap from my brush and then worked the lather a bit more. I've noticed this trick works to thicken my lathers sometime. I'm thinking there is still immature product trapped up in my brush that gets squeezed out into the lather. At any rate, it seems to work for me if the MW is a little too wet.
Some shave reflections this morning. I can't help but feel I'm finally dialing in things. The redness is minimizing each week it seems and I'm getting smooth and great feeling shaves. I set the razor again at 2.0 and did my 3 passes to get another BBS shave. I feel I'm finally settling into a shave routine that works as far as my passes go. I do shift up the razor setting to 2.5 on my XTG pass then shift down to 2.0 for the ATG pass. One thing that has really helped reduce the redness is cleaning up as I go. Previously I used to soap up for the clean-up pass which technically might count as a 4th pass. This was too much. If I wet my fingers and dip them in the lather bowl I can add more soap if needed to do the clean-up during the passes. I think this equates to less time irritating my cheeks and neck. I used to do a ton of clean-up with my cart after my 3 passes and I've cut that down to just cart clean-up on my upper lip. To me that's progress. I can live with using the cart occasionally to get my upper lip BBS when it's sore. My wife just commented that she has only needed to buy razors once since I've started wet shaving. I feel like I'm finally breaking through and figuring things out. No doubt the Variant razor is a huge component too. It just shaves so smooth and is easy to use. The adjustability is so nice. I have no doubt that as I improve I will increase the setting to the 3.0 range. For now it's too agressive. I'm almost ready to try SE razors, so those that have PIF'd me some can look forward to me getting to them soon.
Post shave today, I am beginning to really love the Pacific Rush AS. At first try I was not a fan of menthol, but now I'm really liking the cooling effect. It does help any redness go away after the initial burn goes away. At first if just turns up the redness level, but then the cooling kicks in. It's really good stuff. I do like the Pacific Rush AS balm, but it's not the quality of the Every Man Jack I've grown to love. It dries clean smooth, but I don't feel it has the moisturizing properties of other things I've tried. It's still a keeper though and I love the scents of both. Hmmm, now I need to find more PR AS so I always have some on hand.
Today's Shave: Shave #80
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Lavender Lime
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 13 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Pacific Rush AS on the nec
k only. Barbasol Pacific Rush Post Shave Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting.
My lather this morning seemed a bit wet again so I squeegeed the soap from my brush and then worked the lather a bit more. I've noticed this trick works to thicken my lathers sometime. I'm thinking there is still immature product trapped up in my brush that gets squeezed out into the lather. At any rate, it seems to work for me if the MW is a little too wet.
Some shave reflections this morning. I can't help but feel I'm finally dialing in things. The redness is minimizing each week it seems and I'm getting smooth and great feeling shaves. I set the razor again at 2.0 and did my 3 passes to get another BBS shave. I feel I'm finally settling into a shave routine that works as far as my passes go. I do shift up the razor setting to 2.5 on my XTG pass then shift down to 2.0 for the ATG pass. One thing that has really helped reduce the redness is cleaning up as I go. Previously I used to soap up for the clean-up pass which technically might count as a 4th pass. This was too much. If I wet my fingers and dip them in the lather bowl I can add more soap if needed to do the clean-up during the passes. I think this equates to less time irritating my cheeks and neck. I used to do a ton of clean-up with my cart after my 3 passes and I've cut that down to just cart clean-up on my upper lip. To me that's progress. I can live with using the cart occasionally to get my upper lip BBS when it's sore. My wife just commented that she has only needed to buy razors once since I've started wet shaving. I feel like I'm finally breaking through and figuring things out. No doubt the Variant razor is a huge component too. It just shaves so smooth and is easy to use. The adjustability is so nice. I have no doubt that as I improve I will increase the setting to the 3.0 range. For now it's too agressive. I'm almost ready to try SE razors, so those that have PIF'd me some can look forward to me getting to them soon.
Post shave today, I am beginning to really love the Pacific Rush AS. At first try I was not a fan of menthol, but now I'm really liking the cooling effect. It does help any redness go away after the initial burn goes away. At first if just turns up the redness level, but then the cooling kicks in. It's really good stuff. I do like the Pacific Rush AS balm, but it's not the quality of the Every Man Jack I've grown to love. It dries clean smooth, but I don't feel it has the moisturizing properties of other things I've tried. It's still a keeper though and I love the scents of both. Hmmm, now I need to find more PR AS so I always have some on hand.
I dunno. Seems hardly fair that you get to keep all your fingers on the back of Shawn's experiences. ?