The Shaving Cadre

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If you have to do something...

I hope you chugged a cup of coffee and got to it! Sounds like a bit of a day, but you got it.
 
Shave #259 (338 Open Blade Shaves) of 2019:

Gear: Gillette RFB, Astra SP blade, RR Big Bruce synth brush, FFSC Mr Beardsley’s Shaving soap, generic witch hazel, Thayer’s Medicated, and Old Spice AS to finish!

 
Dude! don't you know you are supposed to have a complete transcript of your videos available for the cadre to read? 🤪
 
Oh, OK.. I didn't know. What model and year is it? That's a new expression to me.
Well NEWs were produced roughly 1921-1933, beyond that I don’t know what it’s officially classified as other than a NEW. This one happens to be British. Maybe @The Monkey knows better?
Dude! don't you know you are supposed to have a complete transcript of your videos available for the cadre to read? 🤪
*upon request
I'd like a complete transcript please, also define all obscure acronyms while you're at it. TY LY!

But then you’d skim and deny me my weekly 20 minutes of face to face time!
 
Shave #260 (339 Open Blade Shaves) of 2019:

Gear: Feather AC SS folding clone, Feather Pro blade, Schick M Adjustable, Supply blade, RR Big Bruce synth brush, FFSC Mr Beardsley’s Shaving soap, generic witch hazel, Thayer’s Medicated, and Pinaud Citrus Musk to finish!

Lemme just preface this conversation by saying...

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Ok, so it wasn’t that bad...but it wasn’t the best either.

Gave Mr Beardsley’s Shaving Soap another go...just smells soooo good! Just might not be the best shaving soap though, more of a country store novelty hand soap repackaged. I bloomed longer and loaded super long today...then worked it way more than anything else I’ve used...and still just got airy, bubbly, disappearing lather. One good thing about it is that it leaves plenty of slickness on the skin. Still no reaction to the cinnamon oils, that’s another positive!

Now the Feather SS clone...oh boy. Visual comparison, side by side with the real thing, you can definitely tell which is the fake. Luckily, about the only QC areas they probably bothered to check were where it counts...the blade clip (firm enough hold) and the area where the blade edge extends out of the clip for cutting (pretty darn straight guard area). I think they also got the weight pretty similar, hard to tell with the wood scales on. Overall, it looks like the real thing, just sloppy and a little bit less grippy (seemed like a smoother mould/metal was used). The most questionable parts had to do with the inside of the razor. The sliding “door” is a bit too easy to open, and the tension spring is not firmly seated.

Now, the most important difference over everything else...the clone has less blade reveal. It’s a minute difference, but noticeable enough to the naked eye, in turn meaning that the shave could be drastically affected. I knew, as I was setting up the razor for use, this might cause trouble.

So the shave today? I had to abort after pushing through the first pass and switch to the Schick backup. Once I found the angle the clone was actually going to cut at, the angle felt way too steep and tuggy. I was using and am used to using a Feather Pro blade mind you. I don’t think the Pro is meant to cut at this angle. If you could find a way to uniformly extend the blade a little more, I think the shave would be better. The slicker material of the clone, while not nice for holding, did feel smoother/slicker against the skin to be shaved, which is nice.

I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and try again tomorrow with a different soap, and we’ll see how it goes.

In other things - back to work today. Not quite the heavy week as last week, but still many things going on. On major thing is a thank you get together for all the ministry volunteers that my wife is doing. Volunteer appreciation is sadly something that gets overlooked a lot or that is not done often enough in some settings. Part of my wife’s job is to help correct that! We’re expecting a couple hundred people for that event.

The interview yesterday afternoon went really good I thought. I spoke to the head pastor and one of the church elders for over an hour, as we made acquaintance, tried to get a good feel for each other, and figure out what we’re each about. Overall I feel positive about it. Proceeding would be a pretty big step and a pretty big change for us, but it is exciting in many ways. I should hear results from the interview soon hopefully!

Have a great Tuesday all!
 
Pretty huge stuff indeed Gear. Hope it works out the way you want it to. Just thinking about moving that far gives me anxiety.
 
Shave #261 (340 Open Blade Shaves) of 2019:

Gear: Feather AC SS folding clone, Feather Pro blade, Schick M Adjustable, Supply blade, RR Big Bruce synth brush, Cella soap, generic witch hazel, Thayer’s Medicated, and BB Brut Fresh AS to finish!

Unexpectedly short on time this morning. After I took one child to school, came back to the house to get the missus and the other two to a check up and flu shot appointment for the boys...where we waited for a total of almost 2 hours after our appointment window before all was said and done! They didn’t even get seen until the last 30 minutes! Ugh.

Anyway, got them off to school, what’s left of it, then went out for a quick breakfast with the missus.

Finally got back home with a little less than 44 minutes to freshen up and get ready for work. Almost skipped the follow up shave for the SS clone, but I had just enough time, so I did it anyway.

Chose to use Cella this morning, a little bit more of an average shave soap. Things were a little bit better from yesterday’s shave, but not by much. There was less tugging, so there’s that. It feels like there’s two settings for this clone...comfortable but inefficient and rough but more efficient. The forced shave angle for the efficiency needed to come close to matching the real SS is just plainly too steep. I figured most folks would opt to have the smoother shave, so I kept it there for the most part. It did cut, but not well and not close; there was a lot left behind. I did get through two passes this time, without incident. Decided not to press my luck and swapped out for the Schick, which took on its monumental cleanup job with ease. In all, it’s looking like the SS clone is not a worthwhile investment.

I want to go ahead switch to the Kai clone for a bit next and see how that does for a couple shaves. I have the feeling it will be better...I hope anyway.

In other news, besides work stuff, fairly big update: the missus and I are being flown out to Mississippi to visit the church I interviewed with for a couple of days! A bit shocking and a bit surreal...things just took a big step! We’re looking at dates toward the beginning of October, so fairly soon. We’re excited to go see what things are like over there and meet some folks face to face!

Have a great Wednesday all!
 
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