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CBLindsay's brain droppings

Quijote said:
I look forward to the day I get to experiment with the stones. One step at a time though.
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One thing I left out was the ABSOLUTE necessity that all stones be flat. Beyond that you can try just about anything. Once you gain some experience you might find a convexed surface useful but I find the narrow stones do what's needed without being convex.

A 6x2 stone is fantastic but a lot can be done with those 1.5" wide stones. If you can only get one stone a combination Coticule/bbw is capable of SO much.
 
Catching up Chris!

Some good reading and honing going on here! Great shaves too!
 
WOW from Arks to Cotis to massages Wow, just Wow. I told you Chris, the Coti/Ark is magical
 
Excellent shave, Chris, and great reads on the honing.

I guess I am different than you fellas, because I have had a few couple's massages, and I love it! We go to the local massage school because it is much more affordable, but we did splurge on our honeymoon and visited the biggest resort-spa in Salou, Spain. Those ladies were excellent!
 
Xenostr8shaver said:
WOW from Arks to Cotis to massages Wow, just Wow. I told you Chris, the Coti/Ark is magical
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I am not enjoying the amount of work it takes to make the Sx Black ark smooth and lovely but it seems to me it might be worth the effort. My technique is definitely improving, I don't use as much pressure any more. I still need to get some of my restoration project done, that will be the test ..."can I correct the geometry, set a bevel and achieve nirvana?"
WildWest74 said:
Excellent shave, Chris, and great reads on the honing.

I guess I am different than you fellas, because I have had a few couple's massages, and I love it! We go to the local massage school because it is much more affordable, but we did splurge on our honeymoon and visited the biggest resort-spa in Salou, Spain. Those ladies were excellent!
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I have never had an actual couples massage, just seems strange to me. We did both get a massage at the same time while on a cruise ship, but that's hardly the same.

BTW. Whats the etiquette, do i shave my back or not?
 
Friday 5/11/18
Straight Shave #840

Rubberset 400 TGN finest
Razorock Freedburg
Genco (5/8 but i forget the name)
Fine Platinum
Creed Aventus

Before I regale Y'all with today's shave I should mention the longevity of yesterdays shave. You may recall I shaved off of a BBW edge, had some alum feedback but had great results. Those great results lasted well into the evening, I"m talking 15 hours of BBS or very near BBS. I guess it is possible the extra feed back was due to my adopting a more aggressive angle, resulting in a much more aggressive shave.

Today's shave was with the Genco I refinished on the Ark the other day. All I did was water olny laps until the blade stuck, no other work. The blade didn't take long to stick so the time on the ark was minimal. The razor definitely performed well, it was also a nice balance between keen and smooth but it did lean more toward keen than smooth. Since i typically hone with coticules i suspect the Coti first Ark finish (ala Dave) is a good way to kick up the keenness while keeping some smooth. I intend to try using a nice BBW in place of the ARK finish to see if i can achieve a similar effect while maintaining more smoothness. Time will tell.
 
Be interested to see the results of that, I have never used the BBW side on my Coti, I need to lap it 1st but may try it
 
Terrific shave, and some great longevity from the prior shave, Chris!

CBLindsay said:
I have never had an actual couples massage, just seems strange to me. We did both get a massage at the same time while on a cruise ship, but that's hardly the same.

BTW. Whats the etiquette, do i shave my back or not?
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Well, all of the couple's massages I've had were just the two of us in the same room getting massages at the same time, so not sure there's a difference.

As for etiquette, as long as you take a shower before you go that would cover it, lol! Unless your back hair is so long that you're worried about it pulling........
 
Guys, guys, guys. A couple's massage is supposed to be sharing of the same experience, relaxing together, most places you'll shower together and then relax in robes in loungers, listening to spa music and rehydrating with cucumber water. Given that, my wife asked if I'd do one with her in Hawaii and I begged off because within hours of the massage being over I feel like I always do. I'm not into paying that much just to feel good while it's happening.
 
NurseDave said:
Guys, guys, guys. A couple's massage is supposed to be sharing of the same experience, relaxing together, most places you'll shower together and then relax in robes in loungers, listening to spa music and rehydrating with cucumber water. Given that, my wife asked if I'd do one with her in Hawaii and I begged off because within hours of the massage being over I feel like I always do. I'm not into paying that much just to feel good while it's happening.
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I think you may have hit the nail on the head here, I am CHEAP as heck and don't relish the idea of paying top dollar for a massage. That being said, I have spoken with the massage therapist down the hall and she said a lot of what she does would fall into the category of therapy rather than luxury. All licensed massage people are trained in the basics and some take on a bit more education to learn more of the therapeutic aspects but. I get to see and talk with some of her regular clients and I can definitely say they view her services as therapy. I may just breakdown and have her go to work on my neck and arm, I am having a flair up of an issue that first appeared a couple years ago and the pain is pretty awful.

I am sure my wife would want the couples massage/spa experience you described, i would be too stressed about the cost to ever relax.
 
Monday 5-14-18
Straight Shave #842

Smatayu Tuxedo
TTFFC Rose & Currants
WECK #299 5/8
Avon Oland

This weekend I decided to use the Henckels safety razor for Saturday's shave and the Wade & Butcher "lather well" wedge for Sunday. The Henckels did well but the little touch up on the ARK didn't change the edge much. I used Capt Choice NORTH for saturday and was pleased. Sunday was another story all together, the W&B wedge was on fire and the Jeeves of Hudson Street was stellar. Both blade and lather were out of this world. a BIG shout out to @spider for introducing me to Jeeves.

This morning was NOT a fun morning. I have been having some significant issues with my neck and arm so i am not sleeping well...and i was TIRED. I grabbed the next soap in line, TTFFC Rose&Currants, and the next razor in the rack WECK then lathered up with the Smattayu tuxedo. I have always found TTFFC soaps slightly difficult to lather but it generally performs well once lathered. Unfortunately this one hurts to use. Many of the guys who bought this soap when it was released have reported the same burning hell, but this morning was the first time it was as bad as it was. I will be putting this in the box of soaps that will be sold but i pity the fool who uses it. Many wondered if the soap is "hot" or lye heavy, I can assure you it is not lye heavy, it is clearly a scent oil issue. Since I am not sensitive to rose oil I suspect either too much was used or a synthetic component is to blame.

The WECK used today and the Wedge used yesterday where definately much smoother than the recent ark finishes. The weck was honed and finished on Coti's while the wedge was done on the dry hone and pasted balsa/hanging strop.

It's a family thing...
We ended up at my dads house for dinner yesterday to celebrate mothers day. His sister (my aunt) had prompted him to host the party then helped him execute it. It has been 5 years since my mom died and my dad had not entertained at his house since, so this was an important step for him. My aunt has largely been missing from my dads life over the last 20-25 years and I have not seen her in more than 30 years so it was pretty cool to have her there helping him. The dinner was my aunts idea, she realized that my mom's passing made my wife the matriarch of the Lindsay Clan as it is known today. My aunt, who has never met my wife, was very intent on making sure my wife knew her importance.
 
My stones aren't fat, they are big boned

Recent discussions about black, surgical black and translucent arks had a few of us wondering what the Specific Gravity of our stones really is. In particular McVeyMac (Walt), has a stone that performs exceedingly well while a similar looking stone fails to deliver the same excellence, leaving us wondering if one stone might be more dense than the other. A higher specific gravity would suggest the stone is more dense. While density doesn't mean "hard", it does seem to influence the type of edge that a stone is capable of creating. All things being equal, a very hard and very dense stone should provide a better finish than a softer and/or less dense stone.

So, I let the inner scientist loose and set out to measure the Specific Gravity of a few of my stones. I will eventually copy this post to its own thread so others can document and discuss their stones SG and the quality/type of edge produced. I will move the post once I have pictures to include with the data.

**Measuring Specific Gravity accurately requires a certain amount of precision and adherence to process but it isn't hard to do. Because several of my stones are too heavy for my little (more accurate) scale I had to use a larger, less accurate, scale. I will report my SG findings to two decimal places BUT the accuracy of my scale really makes that last digit an estimate. I figure with the larger stones the limited accuracy will have less of an impact on the final calculation than it will on smaller stones, so i will double check (later) the smaller stones using a more accurate scale.
***Calculating a meaningful or descriptive SG on a stone of mixed type is not possible ...but I will probably report what i find none-the less just for kicks. My 8 year old daughter seems to understand the calculations so i figure it will be a fun experiment for her to do.

Solid Coticle chunk = 3.18
Vosgienne/French Vosges/Brown Thuringian = 2.79
Trans Ark = 2.66 (consistent with expectations)
Surgical Black Ark = 2.65 (consistent with expectations)
 
Nice shaves this weekend past, Chris. Sounds like the Sunday shave was one to remember, too!

Interesting findings on the stones you have and their specific gravities...I'm somewhat surprised to see the coticule having by far the largest specific gravity of the one's you measured.
 
With you guys getting into the science of this so much, I think the next step is an objective way of measuring the closeness of a shave. Maybe using drag coefficients or micro surface mapping? We need hard numbers guys!
 
Nice weekend shaves. That is a serious bummer about the TTFFC.

Thank you for posting the information about your stones.
 
Dagwoodz said:
Nice shaves this weekend past, Chris. Sounds like the Sunday shave was one to remember, too!

Interesting findings on the stones you have and their specific gravities...I'm somewhat surprised to see the coticule having by far the largest specific gravity of the one's you measured.
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This little hunk of Coticule is the only one i have that isn't glued to another stone. It is VERY hard on one side and a little less hard on the other. To hold this thing in your hand you KNOW its a dense one, you feel it. It measures about 1"x3"x3/4" but it weighs one third as much as the black ark measuring 8"x3"x1/2".

One thing that might account for the Coti's apparently high SG are inclusions in the stone. If the little hink has a significant amount of other minerals inside where we can't see, the SG would not be an accurate description of the stone that is on the surface. The other stones i listed look pretty consistent in compositions.
 
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