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CBLindsay's brain droppings

Bummer about the soap Chris!
Interesting info on the stones.

Hope you arm and neck are better soon!
 
NurseDave said:
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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There are some lasting benefits to a massage. As Chad mentioned earlier, it does release toxins from your cells. But in direct response to your comment, you are paying for an experience. You enjoy it while it's happening, and that is about all that can be expected. Do you not go out to eat, because after you are done eating you can no longer taste the food you just ate? Do you not go out ziplining, because when you are done, you body no longer feels the thrill of zipping down a hill? No, we pay for experiences and when they are over, all that's left is the memory.

I love massages. I think a couples massage sound good.
 
Good reads, CBL. Interesting honing notes. And hope your arm issue is remedied soon.
 
Got a little behind...sorry Chris. But TTFFC Roses and Curants is seriously one of the best soaps I have ever used. Not sure why it is better than other soaps that Maria makes, but it is. But like you...I can't use it..it just burns so bad!
 
Wednesday 5/16/2018
Straight Shave #843

Rubberset 600 TGN finest
CBL Croap "Rose Oud"
Bengall

I missed yesterday's entry because my day was pretty busy. I used the same razor (my new Bengall) but lathered up some Mystic Waters...good stuff with a unique lather.

Today I decided to use the Bengall again, mostly because it was handy but also because I wanted to see if the edge felt any better after a quick 20 laps on 0.10 micron encrusted cotton. This was also a test run for my newest soap creation, I made it 10 days ago and scented it last night. The test was in part to confirm scent strength.

The soap loaded and lathered very well, the scent was on the mild side but being a rose-oud scent mild seemed to work. I like to be punched in the face by scent but if you aren't careful these rose scents can cause headaches when they are made too strong. The lather was plenty slick and did take on a decent amount of water, getting slicker as water was added. Residual slickness was somewhat hard to confirm because I didn't do much water only clean up...it felt slick when rinsed off though. I smooshed the left over lather onto my face and let it sit while i cleaned up, as a result I was left with a faint hint of the rose-oud scent that is either gone now or I have become nose blind to it. The post shave feel was right where it should be, no aftershave needed. I finished with alum and a splash of my own witch hazel blend and planned to apply a nice cologne but forgot.

The shave itself was wonderful, the edge felt great and did a wonderful job. I did end up with a couple bloody spots because I plowed through some skin blemishes. Minus the skin blemishes I am now BBS ...in fact I would rate the finished shave BBS+.
 
Rose Oud!! That sounds delicious...not in a "I want to eat it" kind of way. Nice shave though, even with the seepage.
 
Thursday 5/17/18
Straight Shave #844

SV Artisan 2.0
Valobra Fougere
Weck /Diane Blade
Alpa Fougere

Having worked my way through the larger tubs on the shelf I am now going to work through the smaller ones, First up...Valobra. I got this tub from Mostho (Marco?) straight from Italy as a gift. He had mentioned he dreamed of one day owning a Gillette Red tip but they were hard to find on his side of the pond. I searched the eBay listings until i found a quality specimen, bought it, packed it along with some WSP BlackBeard (another thing he mentioned wanting) and sent it to him. He was very appreciative and insisted on returning the favor by sending me one of his favorite soaps. Valobra is a very good, very predictable soap although the scent strength tends toward the light side. Chris H @CMH737 sent me a cut of the Patchouli scented Valobra which I enjoy quite a bit too.

The Razor for today was the Weck, loaded with a Diane Blade of unknown age. Before the shave i stropped the blade on leather for about 20 laps, the end result was a much smoother feel (I believe this is the second stropping of this blade). I'm thinking of @nursedave here, perhaps stropping a fresh blade will smooth it out for more comfort AND confirm your stropping isn't killing the edge.

Anyway, the shave went very well with no injury or discomfort. Some razors shave faster than others and the Weck shaves are definitely faster, which allowed me time to apply some post shave salve and do a cold towel treatment. Not bad.
 
CBLindsay said:
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)
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Ok Chris, so what methodology did you use. Long ago I was taught to measure specific gravity of a solid by weigh the solid, then submerge the solid into water and then measuring the volume of the displaced water. The way I learned it is that the displaced water would run through an overflow outlet into a tared container, weigh the water, and determine the volume with distilled water weighing 1g/cc. You could estimate the volume of displacement if a graduated cylinder before and after submersion of the rock, but the graduated cylinder would have to be greater than 3" internal diameter to accept my rocks, and those big cylinders to not accurately measure volume. I like the method that I showed you where you measure the mass of the rock dry, then measure the mass of the rock submerged. The difference should be the mass of the water displaced to submerge the rock.
 
Great shave Chris! Good job for getting comfortable with the Weck. I looked at those before going Feather AC, but they just looked too “Weckid” with that exposure.
 
McVeyMac said:
I like the method that I showed you where you measure the mass of the rock dry, then measure the mass of the rock submerged. The difference should be the mass of the water displaced to submerge the rock.
Click to expand...
Waaaaait wait wait. You're saying the difference in mass between a 1" cube of dense plastic in and out of water is the same as 1" cube of water. And the difference in mass in a 1" cube of lead in and out of water with also be the same mass as a 1" cube of water?
 
McVeyMac said:
Ok Chris, so what methodology did you use. Long ago I was taught to measure specific gravity of a solid by weigh the solid, then submerge the solid into water and then measuring the volume of the displaced water. The way I learned it is that the displaced water would run through an overflow outlet into a tared container, weigh the water, and determine the volume with distilled water weighing 1g/cc. You could estimate the volume of displacement if a graduated cylinder before and after submersion of the rock, but the graduated cylinder would have to be greater than 3" internal diameter to accept my rocks, and those big cylinders to not accurately measure volume. I like the method that I showed you where you measure the mass of the rock dry, then measure the mass of the rock submerged. The difference should be the mass of the water displaced to submerge the rock.
Click to expand...

i had considered measuring volume via displacement/overflow (which is also the first way I was taught) but opted for a method that I believe to be a short cut to the process. I simply weighed and recorded the stone. Then, partially filled a flat container with water and tared the scale. I used the bottom of my onion chopper because it was the only smallish container I had handy). I then made a sling of sorts using dental floss, tying a loop around each end of the stone so I could use the dental floss as a handle while I immersed the stone into the container of water. When lowered into the water without being allowed to touch the sides or bottom of the container the stone will displace the exact volume of stone AND in doing so increase the weight of the water at a rate of 1g/cc. Record the weight of he stone in water and do the math...dry weight devised by weight in water equals specific gravity.

For absoult accuracy you you need a scale that can measure grams to 2 decimal places or more. You also should ensure the stone and the water at the same room temp (water is less dense when hot and more dense when cold so the amount of water displaced will have a slightly different weight at different temps. ...in fact your really should ensure the water is exactly 4 degrees Celsius as that is the temp that water is exactly 1g/cc, I suppose the temp of the stone is less important. You really should tare the container of water with the same amount of dental floss submerged in the water (not touching the bottom or side) but I figured that amount of error was negligible.

what I did to show my daughter the concept is show her the “weight” of the stone while suspended in the water then show her that when I place the stone on the bottom of the container the weight exactly match its dry weight (at least within the range of my scale). She completely understood it from there.
 
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