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Kingfisher's open blade (straight razors and shavettes) journey

K

kingfisher

1/2 Straight Razor 1/2 Shavett ...ALL Man!
Veteran
Well, gentlemen, I posted this on other sites earlier today, but since I just joined up here, I thought I'd paste it here, too. I've been working at this open blade stuff since December 30th, and this morning was a milestone. Here's the post I put up on another forum.

Straight shave #54, open blade shave #91 this morning.

Well, I did it! Today was the "Brut shave." At long last.

Two complete passes all over and then an XTG nose-to-ear on both cheeks, all with the ZY straight razor. My first time ever getting the entire neck two passes with the straight and not having to use a DE or an SE to finish the first pass on the neck.

I saved the Brut for the first time I could get two passes (minimum) and SAS (minimum), and it happened this morning. I went ahead and did a bit of clean-up around the jawline and on the chin with the Schick Repeater, and ended up with CCS all over. Not the best shave I've ever had, but not a bad shave at all, and I did it with the cheap Chinese straight razor!

So, I broke out the Brut. I don't know if I've ever used Brut before, and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not. It wasn't bad. Has kind of a Fougere scent. Didn't sting at all. Smelled a bit too old school for my taste, but not horrible. This morning, it was the smell of victory. Followed it up with some Stirling Lime aftershave balm.

I think I'm a bit too proud of myself this morning. I mean, some guys get to a two-pass SAS on the 4th or 5th shave. It took me FIFTY-FOUR FREAKING TRIES! 54! And that was after 30 or 31 attempts with the Feather SS kamisori. So, I'm a really slow learner and I probably shouldn't be proud of myself. But I am.

I've got two other straights (vintage, hollow-ground varieties) that have not been anywhere near as kind to me as the cheap Chinese ZY Grand Slam razor. I lurves me my Grand Slam!
I will, however, be sending both of my vintage razors off to Will, who graciously honed my ZY for me, to see if he can work a similar magic on them. I'm curious to know how much of my recent success is due to a better edge versus a heavier grind. Only one way to find out, and that's to get the same edge on the hollow grinds and see if I can replicate the success.
 
Congrats on a good shave!
FYI and someone correct me if I wrong, but @Xenostr8shaver is honing blades professionally now.

Hey I grew up with Brut by Faberge. It's a good old school scent IHMO.

Don't concern yourself with what number of shave how many shaves it took you to reach a certain point. Mastering a Straight razor is marathon, not a sprint. Just keep at it and you will get there, could be in 10 shaves or 1000, really who cares, it's the journey that is part of the fun IMHO!
 
Be proud of your results no matter what number it is. The magic number is closer to 100, somewhere around that number you have had some successes followed by a few failures you can't explain but somehow you figured it all out and are getting more of those Brut shaves than the bad ones.
The Chinese Gold Dollar and ZY are great for learning, their size, shape and balance seem to work. I will admit that I used a modified Gold Dollar for more than 40 of my first 50 or 60 shaves. Give yourself credit, keeping that ZY stropped up and shaving is a skill in and of itself.
 
Great to see you over here Randall!

Brut is indeed a fougere, though on the sharper side of the house.
 
Nice result Randall. Keep with it, and you will soon be knocking your socks off.
 
Welcome Randall. I agree that the number is not important. The important part is the result. And you are getting a good result. If I remember correctly from another place, you got less blood loss than many of us. That is also a huge accomplishment. And the ZY may not be a super cool looking Damascus custom, but if it gets the results you are looking for, it is the right razor.
 
Welcome to TSC, Kingfisher! It's good to see you here!

Congrats on your best shave yet with the straight! Don't be too critical of yourself. I haven't even made the leap to trying straights.(yet!)
 
Straight shave #55, open blade shave #92 this morning.

Another Brut shave.
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Used Mike's in the Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper scent. Got a beautiful lather.

Did three passes on the cheeks, two on the neck. Everything went beautifully. Maybe a bit less beard reduction today. I suspect the edge is getting a bit duller. I have to go back and calculate how many shaves I've had on this since the honing. Still, CCS+ after a bit of touch-up.

As for the mention of "less blood shedding" than most people, I went back in my mind and thought about cuts I've had from the straight razor. There were a total of two, and neither one of them was on any part of my body that actually needs to be shaved, lol. Within the first three shaves, I caught the tip on the front part of my left ear, leaving a little tiny cut. About a week or a week and half in, I cut my index finger when I was wiping oil from the blade prior to stropping one evening. I was using only one Kleenex, and I just wasn't careful about how I wiped the blade. Aside from that I've had maybe two tiny weepers that stopped bleeding before I finished the shave (and I take aspirin every day, so these were truly tiny little weepers, not nicks or cuts).

The only cuts I've had to my face since taking up open blade shaving all occurred with the Feather SS kamisori. I had two small ones in one shave, in essentially the same spot, and I had one pretty bad one on my chin trying to do an XTG without good stretching. But again, only with the SS. Never with the straight.

So, in essence, I've made it through shave 55 without a single cut. It honestly seems to me that the straight is safer than so-called "safety razors."
 
Nice set-up and shave! IRT the SR being safer than the safety razor, there might be some merit to that as you tend to be very focused on what you're doing with the SR while with a safety razor it's easy to get lackadaisical and let concentration and technique fall by the wayside.
 
Good stuff man! So all that’s left is adding in the 3rd neck pass?
 
Welcome Randall! There’s some good shaving! you are getting into a great bunch of guys here! Enjoy the trip and relax with probably the best of the best shavers on the web!
 
Straight shave #56, open blade shave #93 this morning.

Used Mike's again, with great success. The shave went well except that I do believe the blade is slightly less keen than it was. It had trouble on the right side of the neck, in the same area that caused me so much grief in the early part of this journey. It kept wanting to get stuck, or hold up, rather than going through the dense part of the stubble. I almost gave up and went with the Schick Repeater, but then decided to just make sure the lather was hydrated enough, and then went at it again with the straight. It made it through and did not cause any irritation.

I got DFS on the cheeks with three passes; CCS on the neck with two. I added a true XTG pass in the "soul patch" area this morning, which I had never done before, and a good XTG on the chin.

Just a tiny bit of touch-up along the jawline left me with CCS+, bordering on DFS everywhere. I wanted to use an alcohol splash to see if there was any sting, especially in the areas where I had trouble, but I didn't want to use the Brut (I think I am slightly allergic to it), so I used Myrsol F/Special. No sting at all. Finished up with Stirling Lime balm and was happy.

This morning I sent my remaining two straight razors (the sight unseen I got from Larry which is branded T. Noonan and sons, and a Tilquin I got in a trade [made by LeGrelot for the Belgian market] off in the mail to Will in Texas for honing, etc. The Tilquin has a very loose pin, also, and I wanted Will to check the geometry, because I'm not entirely sure but I think the blade may be slightly bent. I know both razors are duller than I would like them to be for shaving, so they will get honed while they are there. I hope he is also able to tighten the pin on the Tilquin. The Tilquin differs from both of my other razors; the blade is larger (7/8, maybe?) and it has a thumb notch. I am excited to see how these shave when they get back.

In the meantime, I'll be touching up my ZY soon.

Oh, and Sundays is my day off open blade shaving, usually. That's my day to use a DE or an SE.
 
Great write-up, Randall, and glad to see the progress is continuing with the straight shaves. If you didn't get any feedback from the Myrsol f/Special, you did well...actually with any Myrsol product. They are some noisy Italians if you get a little out of line with the straight!
 
Nice couple of reads and shaves Randal!

I wish I could say I had that many bloodless straight shaves!
 
Catching up Randall. 1st and foremost Welcome to TSC, and 2nd very good reads and shaves, thanks for posting
 
Nice, if there’s no alcohol sting it seems there’s room for more clean-up without irritation.
 
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