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

Today was my day off open blades.

Had an amazing shave, though, with a perfect Stirling Peach lather. Two passes with the Schick Repeater, using straight razor techniques (skin stretching, etc). After one pass I was CCS. Two passes brought DFS, with only a few tiny areas that were not BBS.

Comfortable, smooth, easy. This thing looks like a toy but it is an amazing shaver.

Back to the straight razor tomorrow morning. I'm going to touch it up ("refresh" it) on pasted balsa tonight.
 
Welcome to TSC!!

Very nice shaves, I am all caught up now and will attempt to stay that way for the most part.
 
You are on a great streak Randall! Avoiding leakage and getting great shaves. Having fun is the ace in the hole with this hobby.
 
Nice lazy Sunday shave. I’m back to the straight tomorrow as well.
 
Straight shave #57, open blade shave #94 this morning.

Last night I refreshed the edge on my ZY with 20 laps on CrOx and 20 on FeOx, followed by 101 on the leather.

Lathered up a sample of Sudsy Soapery in the Cola scent. I ended up with a nice lather, although it started out really foamy and took a long time to calm down and settle into a richer lather. Still, it shaved well, and the scent is growing on me.

Anyway, this was probably the best straight razor shave I have ever had.

Immediately after placing the blade on my face I knew that refreshing the edge had been a good choice. After a single WTG pass I was SAS. I did a second pass (now ALWAYS a Chimensch-style cross-handed mix of WTG/XTG nose-to-ear), and a second WTG on the neck. Then I did a nose-to-ear XTG on the face. Got DFS on the cheeks. CCS on the neck. Needed a bit of clean-up on the jawline (I'm working on new approaches to that area).

No nicks, no cuts, no weepers, no irritation. Just a smooth, close shave. I feel like it's becoming much more intuitive and I have very few moments where I feel like I don't know how to approach a certain part of the shave. It's starting to feel like "just shaving," as they say.

Have a good day, gents.
 
Very nice shave Randal!

Is the paste/powder on a piece of balsa or a leather or cloth strop?
 
clyde72 said:
Very nice shave Randal!

Is the paste/powder on a piece of balsa or a leather or cloth strop?
Click to expand...

It's on balsa.

I have the 4-sided paddle strop from Whipped Dog. it's small. Maybe 2 inches wide and about 10 inches long? Two sides have leather, and two sides have pasted balsa.
 
Straight razor shave #58, open blade shave #95 this morning.

Opted for Sudsy Soapery in the Cola scent again today. This stuff lathers up a lot fluffier than the soaps I prefer, but on the other hand it shaves wonderfully. So perhaps there is only a cosmetic difference. I really enjoyed the lather this morning. Shout out to Chris, who sent me the Sudsy Soapery samples out of the goodness of his heart.

So, ho-hum, another great straight razor shave. Less and less clean-up as I get better at maximizing the straight.

The only thing I did differently this morning is changed up the order of things a bit. I realized that I was switching hands a lot, and thought perhaps that wasn't necessary. So this morning on the first pass I did the entire right side of my face, including the mustache area, chin, and neck before changing the razor to my left hand, at which point I did the entire left side. I've never shaved this way before, because I have always finished both cheeks before I did the neck, even when I was shaving with a DE.

But I think it made the shave a bit more efficient. Ended up with a great shave, CCS to DFS all over, with only a bit of touch-up. Comfortable, without irritation, cuts, or weepers.

I remember that people said somewhere around the 20th or 25th shave I'd start to get the hang of it. That didn't happen. That was actually the time that I was about to give it up entirely. What a difference 25 more shaves (give or take) have made! Maybe it helps that I used the Feather SS kamisori for quite a while before the straight razor. I'm close to 100 shaves if you add those in.
 
Right on man! Great to see working through all the hassles has paid off! Now you have a successful shave to build from.
 
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