What's new
The Shaving Cadre

Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun

Coffee Buzz, Blades, Brushes, Bubbles and Blather

ME2Shaves

ME2Shaves

Jr. Shave Member
Henson Mild Razor/Merkur Super Platinum-coate Blade/Simpsom Polo 8 Super Badger Brush/Saponificio Varensino Opuntia Soap & After Shave

Started 2023 with 15 grams of Krucible's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe freshly ground on 1ZPRESSO K-Plus at 4.75 clicks brewed in aeropress with 250 ml of 96*F water. This fruity kickstart to the year was followed by a shower and then a face and head shave. I bloomed the SV puck with 1/2 tsp water first and then did 20 seconds of loading with the Polo8 holding the puck in hand. Tons of soap went directly on the face and head using my hands, before a fantastic face lather with the splendid Polo 8 brush. The scent of Opuntia was probably a 5 during the first face lather, which was thick and a little bit on the dry side. (I have been using B&M's Vespers nearly exclusively for the past 2 weeks of shaves, which I'd say is more like a 6-7 in scent strength.)

And then onto a 3 pass + BBS face shave (WTG, XTG, ATG, with a final buff under the goatee). This was then followed by a 2 pass head shave. The red, Henson mild aluminum razor with a Merkur blade, on its 4th use, did a great job. I really get great shaves from these german-made blades -- the Merkur and the Chroma's go 5,6, and even 7 uses and still give me bbs shaves, but once I get to 3 or 4 uses, I will stay away from my more agressive, more blade-feely razors.

I was a bit surprised how pleased I was with the shave because I don't usually enjoy shaving with Henson razors that much. Perhaps the cushion and slickness from SV's Opuntia lathered up with a hand/face lather was the trick. It wasn't a thick or terribly wet lather, but it seemed to be very slick and protective. Mistakenly added SV's Desert Vetiver after shave which went well with the Opuntia fragrance. It also really made the face feel great!! I went with a second round of Opuntia after shave, which the face and head soaked in well and gave off a nice scent that lasted into the evening.
 
2 January 2023

Morning Coffee: Ambrosia Diner -
Afternoon Coffee: Starbuck's Christmas Blend brewed in French Press
Value Shave: Prorasa White pre shave; Truefitt & Hill Grafton soap bowl lathered in a West Coast Shaving Scuttlewith a Semogue Galahad-C3 Premium IT Boar brush; Merica Razor with Croma stainless blade; Truefitt & Hill Grafton After Shave Balm

First stop in the a.m. was to hit the diner for a leisurely breakfast (2 dropped eggs on rye toast, crispy bacon(?), homefries, coffee, and a large tomato juice). The coffee was hot, added 1 ice cube and 1 cream to each of the 3 mugs, but the refills came a little slow.

The late morning shave was another 3 pass shave -- plus some clean up under the goatee -- with another mild razor. It was a nice BBS shave. I really enjoy the Merica razor and the croma blade is a real value. I think this blade has 8 shaves on it. The soap smells great to me, is slick enough, and was easy to bowl lather plenty of suds for 3 passes with plenty left over. The boar brush is easy peazy! This Semogue brush is a good value too. It is just comfortable to hold and develops a quick lather in the scuttle. The lather is all in the brush, but it release lather to the face without making a mess in my hand. I am looking forward to this brush once I get 30-40 shaves under its belt. Today's performance was more than adequate and the brush has seen only a month of sporadic use (maybe 4 or 5). It is going to be wonderfu when fully broken in.

This soap rinsed off much quicker than the SV Opuntia. Ran the alum over the face to see if the croma blade was a bit ragged yet but got no sting. Finished off the great shave with 2 rounds of the Grafton balm left my face feeling smooth and soothed!

Brewed up a 14g of Starbuck's Christmas Blend in a ESPRO 'French Press' with 400 ml of 96*F water for 6 minutes. Such a tasty pick-me-up helped me crank out chores all afternoon.
 
ME2Shaves said:
Afternoon Coffee: Starbuck's Christmas Blend brewed in French Press
Click to expand...
I don't know if this is same as what used to be their Holiday Blend. That was a blonde roast and one of the only Starbucks roasts I enjoyed. My wife had a connection with a barista near her work and we would buy 2 of the big size bags they used in the store every year. 5 or 10 lbs. But then they stopped that roast or something and that came to an end.
 
ME2Shaves said:
Started 2023 with 15 grams of Krucible's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe freshly ground on 1ZPRESSO K-Plus at 4.75 clicks brewed in aeropress with 250 ml of 96*F water.
Click to expand...
ME2Shaves said:
Brewed up a 14g of Starbuck's Christmas Blend in a ESPRO 'French Press' with 400 ml of 96*F water for 6 minutes.
Click to expand...
Yessir, you belong here alright. Anyone who alters the amount of coffee 1 gram based on either the bean, the brewing method, or both (?) is anal enough for the coffee afficionados around here. 😉
 
NurseDave said:
I don't know if this is same as what used to be their Holiday Blend. That was a blonde roast and one of the only Starbucks roasts I enjoyed. My wife had a connection with a barista near her work and we would buy 2 of the big size bags they used in the store every year. 5 or 10 lbs. But then they stopped that roast or something and that came to an end.
Click to expand...
It is a medium roast I think. They've discontinued a couple of roast that I enjoyed in the past. It is amazing how the darker roast weighs so much less than the light ethopian roast. The loss of water (and some caffeine) requires nearly 35% more beans by volume to get to roughly the same weight (~=/- 6-8%). Of course different beans and different roasters may drive the result.
 
3 January 2023

5 a.m. shave today.
Graybeard57 said:
Yessir, you belong here alright. Anyone who alters the amount of coffee 1 gram based on either the bean, the brewing method, or both (?) is anal enough for the coffee afficionados around here. 😉
Click to expand...
Definitely a bit of OCD resides here that drives all kinds of disfunction
 
Quick Shave: Nordic Shaving Absinthe soap was bowl lathered in a WCS Scuttle using a Simpson CL2 Best Badger; Merkur 34 G with the last shave for a well-used, Croma Diamant stainless blade; Stirling British Leather splash and bit of Old Spice EDC from way back for grins and giggles.
Coffee for 75 minute morning commute: 14 g of Krucible's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe brewed in Aero Press with 270 ml tap water at 96*F for 5' before percolating. Very pleasant quick brew piping in the Yeti for the long drive.
Work Coffee: ~26 ounces of Starbuck's Pike Peak because no blonde was available , with 3 creams.

Shave was a beauty. The Absinthe scent is not that strong but grew throughout the shave. Not super slick when rinsing, but i raced through a 3 pass shave with a blade that was approaching double digits without any discomfort. Of course, the mild Merkur may have a lot to do with the no brainer shave; and the British Leather splash seemed to catch may attention throughout most of the day at work... It faded during the 6 p.m drive home. Finally, the Old Spice seemed to add some depth and intrigue in the morning, but lost it once the morning drive was over. I have used it before with the Maol Lavendar after shave and it seemed to reinforce the flower scent, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the stonger British Leather.

SOTD1323a.jpg

Thanks all for reading.
-David
 
4 January 2023

Morning Coffee: 16 ounces of Romeo Toyota's Cafectionere French Roast - vending machine coffee
Afternoon Coffee: ??? Don't think I drank anymore coffee
Evening Shave: B&M's Vesper bowl lathered in a West Coast Shaving Scuttlewith Simpson PJ2 Super; Timeless Ti Scalloped 0.68 Wilkinson Sword (I); Vesper After Shave Splash & Balm

Dog needed to get walked in the rain and I needed to get the car in for an overdue inspection and oil change (and ultimately a reluctant set of snow tires mounted). So I was banking on the free coffee dispenser being fully available at the shop (and thankfully it was) to tide me over until I could brew up my own concoction. I sipped that french roast coffee for the entire 2 hours 45 minutes I sat in the lounge and then some. Was feeling put upon by the long wait and had a conference call that I was 90 minutes late too, so the home brew didn't happen. That afternoon the body took to aching and after getting the dog out for a run (the dog, not me) where we'd shot several pheasants this past fall (mostly in the dank darkness that follows a dreary rainy day) I came home eager for a hot, invigorating shower and a shave.

Barrister & Mann's Vesper is a recent purchase that I am very thrilled to have made, as is the Simpson Persian Jar 2. I really enjoyed this shave. I had over 36 hours since the last shave, so my variegated crisscross of facial hair was approaching a bit of stubble, though it was far from resembling whiskers or a beard. The Timeless Titanium might be my favorite razor -- it certainly is a contender. This was all about getting spiffed up for a cozy evening at home. The quick 3 pass shave was effortless.

And the found Wilkinson blade is a delightful puzzle that had me wondering for months what I should do with it. How and why did it find its way into my possession? It was all by itself in a space familar to it, but altogether where shouldn't have been. It was wrapped as if it had been part of a package, but had an arch set into it as if it had been permanently housed in a DE razor for the past 20 years.
I found this blade in my Dad's bathroom several months ago when I was cleaning out one of his drawers full of plastic cartridge and disposable razors. "Wilkinson Sword Made in England" That is what it says on the blade. I took it out of its paper to inspect immediately when I found it. It looked clean, no rust. I don't know, can you even buy these any more?? How the heck did it get here?

My mom hadn't really gone through My Dad's things since he passed away. She'd gotten rid of the stuff out that was in use, but the stuff that was in the closets and the drawers that just stayed where it was at for some time. And I wanted to leave some shaving suppies of my own at her house for when I wind up down there overnight -- this could be as often as twice a month -- so I was cleaning out some of his old shaving stuff that was full of old razors. He actually had not been shaving himself with razor blades for at least the last 3 to 4 years of his life because of his Parkinson's. So this stuff had been in these drawers for about a decade. He, or more likely near the end, my Mom would use a braun or a norelco electric razor to get him 'cleaned up,' but it rarely did the trick. He had a real thick beard and even when he was an able bodied younger man that shave every day, he always had some 5 o'clock shadow by mid afternoon. He'd probably shaved in the morning and in the evening on days when he had to be spiffy. My blonde beard would take 3 or 4 days to show the stubble he'd have in the morning if he was shaving every day.

But why was this blade in his junk razor drawer all by itself? It wasn't covered in stains or soap scum like most of the junk in the drawer. It was still neatly wrapped in its monikered, waxed paper sheath. There was no vintage DE razor anywhere to be found. I do vaguely remember him using a DE razor, but that must have been over 45-50 years ago so it was a real suprise to find this one blade in amongst a bunch of his old Schicks and Atras and Bic disposable two- and three- bladed plastic razors. It was an intriguing puzzle, one that no one had any explanation for. I left the blade in the drawer with a couple of my soaps and a yates razor that I purchased a few years back. It sat there in the mostly empty drawer for months. I placed it right up front expecting to use it at the first opportunity, but never did. It would sometimes disappear for a bit, hiding under one of the soaps or a unused tube of toothpaste. I wanted to try it for several shaves, but anytime I needed a new blade I would instead always grab one of the Astra Green blades out of the box of blades that I had brought down with my other supplies. Then, in October it disappeared for a good bit. I began to think that i had used it. I even asked my mom if she had seen it or moved it. Eventually I took the drawer out of the cabinet and found it all the way in the back. Well this thing is not going to get away from me that easy. I brought it home after the Thanksgiving holiday, convinced I'd give it a shave there being that I am shaving 5-6 days a week and really enjoying this wet shaving hobby/habbit/compulsion. But it made it through November, and then Christmas and New Years. But I wasn't going to pass it by this evening. I needed answers. Well, at least one answer? And yes, as we know, it shaved great! I was thrilled to use it. I still do not how or why I came to have it, but am glad I do and happy for all the puzzling possibilities it presents me -- and possibly a few more fine bbs shaves!

I finished the evening sitting down to begin (again) Richard Powers "Overstory" and sip on a hot chai tea. The begining on this book brings the melancholy out in me so after a short sojourn to the cusp of the 20th century I dosed off, still somewhat puzzled but content to be warm, dry, and fairly well kempt on this particular cold and rainy evening.

142023.jpg
 
What a great background and wonderful find! I can’t get over that blade! Since WS left GB at the turn of this century and considering that background - the blade is probably at least as old as us!

Have a great day and here’s to your next Cup O’ Joe!
 
6 January 2023

Evening Face and Head Shave: Saponificio Varesino Desert Vetiver face lathered Smilez for Milez 5-color custom Stout Jefferson 24mm BBS badger; Merkur 39C HD Twist with Merkur SP blade (V), Desert Vetiver After Shave and EDP.
Morning Coffee: 17 g of Krucible's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe brewed in Aero Press with 260 ml tap water at 96*F for ~5' before percolating. Another gudin.
Afternoon Coffee: 15.5 g Krucible's Soto Espresso/Aero Press 260 ml ... tasty!!!

Both shaves were beauts. It was the first go round with my new Desert Vetiver soap, aftershave and EDP. They didn't disappoint! The S4M brush is very smooth and plays bigger than my other 24 mm. It Soap smells great. Scent is a 6 or 7 I think. I pre-shaved with some of the excess soap off the puck and loaded for only 20 seconds without any blooming. I had to rinse and dry hands to keep hold of the brush. No problem holding the razor either.The razor was big but nimble enough. Not quite as nimble as the Yates 921 but it is pretty close. I did my 3 pass face shave with some buffing throughout but no clean up pass. This was followed by a 2 pass head shave with some minor clean up behind the ears. I was impressed

The aftershave and EDP were a great finish and reminded me of the great shave throughout the night.

SOTD1623.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top