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Kingfisher's open blade (straight razors and shavettes) journey
- Thread starter kingfisher
- Start date
Yep. Gonna do that soon.
SWMBO is never wrong!!
149/186 this morning. Last night I refreshed the heck out of the ZY and then stropped it. This morning I lathered up my Mike's (down to maybe one more shave or so left; I have a feeling tomorrow will be my last Mike's shave for a while), and went at it.
Three passes to shaving happiness, with injector clean-up. Good start for the week.
(Yesterday's non-open blade shave was AoS Lemon cream and the bullet-tip Gem; two passes to DFS.)
Have a great day and a great start to the new week!
Waaaaayyyyy too late for that!What ever you do, don't let her know that!
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
Great shave Randall. I was gonna mimic Craig's warning but knew it was too late. Lol
Finally caught up, Randall! Congratulations on the son's wedding, though bummer about the mono issues. Also, discouraging events with the car. Hopefully that's all in the past now.
Great job on the shaves and the experimentations with different techniques!
Great job on the shaves and the experimentations with different techniques!
Yeppers.
Thanks. My son has also contracted a cold! He and his wife are both sick. He told me last night that since he got married, they haven't even had a single day of good health. Yesterday he also got diarrhea. I made him go back to the doctor. His liver enzymes are still elevated, but improving. Hopefully it is just a matter of time. The poor guy can't seem to catch a break.
The car seems to be running fine now. You may be right about the short amount of post-shave stropping ending up being enough.Glad to hear that the car is back in business. And interesting that the razor's edge was fine with no stropping in between. Although, the 20 "drying" laps is probably what did the trick!
So, today was a momentous shave for me, I guess. I mean, since we are counting, and all. Today was my 150th straight razor shave! (187th open blade shave, since I started all this madness with the Feather SS kamisori.)
Today was also a sad day, as I sang the funeral march for my puck of Mike's Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper. There wasn't enough left for another shave, so I cleaned out the tin. It is drying on my chest-of-drawers right now. Good news is that the death of the Mike's allows me to bring my Mystic Water Rosalimone soap into the picture. I'll likely use it tomorrow.
Anyway, on to the shave. Today was an uneventful 3-pass shave that resulted in a CCS. No concerns at all. I cleaned up with the bullet-tip GEM, but I retired that blade right after the shave, so tomorrow I will switch up both the soap and the clean-up razor.
Now is about the time that I am really wishing that I had a) and interest in, b) experience in, and c) materials for honing. I feel like all my razors (I only have two in the rotation, lol) are getting to the point that the refreshes don't really bring them back where I'd like them to be. I really wish I could just hone them up and start again, but I have no idea how to do it and no material with which to do it.
I suspect I'll have to end up sending them off again. Last time I sent them to William. He did an amazing job. I'm just not sure, given the recent expected and unexpected expenses, that I can really afford to send them off for honing right now. I may have to take an extended break from the straight razors and go back to the DEs and SEs once the blades get to where I can't get a good shave from them.
Maybe later in the fall I'll try to get started with something cheap like lapping film or something. I don't know.
Hope y'all have a great day.
Randall...keeping you and your family bin my thoughts. Life gets rough sometimes...but I know you will get through these times. I wish I knew how to hone razors also...but alas, I do not. Keep your head up man!
Thanks. Me, too!
I've been told that after a certain number of shaves, the edge becomes rounded enough that even the balsa refresh doesn't work very well, and then it's time for a re-hone. I don't know how many shaves that is; I'm sure it varies from person to person and from razor to razor.
Another thing I'm considering is reloading the balsa with CrOx and FeOx; after a certain number of refreshes, the stuff gets used up. Maybe that will buy me some more time.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for my hapless son.
Thank you.
Thanks! We are trying.
151/188 this morning.
So, this morning was kind of fun, because I had two new things for this shave. First, since I used up all my Mike's, I went ahead and used Mystic Water Rosalimone. Wow. What an awesome soap. I have gone through a few pucks of MW in the past, but it had been a long time since I used one. I had forgotten, I guess, how epic this soap base is.
I used to be really careful, making sure the brush was almost bone dry, and then adding water very slowly and carefully, to avoid the dreaded "disappearing lather." This morning I started with a wetter brush, the same as I usually do for all my other soaps (not real wet, but not squeezed out twice, either). Initial lathering produced a lot of bubbly stuff, which got me worried that I would end up with disappearing lather. But as I worked the lather, it tightened up nicely and became just beautiful. It shaved great, too. And the scent is FANTASTIC. Just beautiful. Oh, and the post-shave speaks for itself. I had forgotten how much better it is in this regard than any other soap I have tried. It almost feels like you just moisturized your face. It was amazing.
The other thing that was "new" this morning (I guess I should say different, rather than new), was that I switched the clean-up razor from the bullet-tip GEM to that Ming Shi Futur clone razor (I forget the official name of it). I've never tried a real Futur, but the Ming Shi is a nice, smooth razor. I loaded it up with brand new Polsilver SI, my favorite DE blade.
So, anyway, the shave was great. Very close and very comfortable. No problems whatsoever. I really enjoyed both the MW soap and the Ming Shi. So I got a really good start on my day.
Hope your day is going well.
Great stuff! That MW is an awesome base. And the moisturizing properties is a big reason I keep going back!
I found out that MW is most excellent stuff for sure but i cant get the water too hot or use a boar brush with it or the post shave it is known for falls flat.
Indeed.
Yep. The same thing is probably true of the Merkur Futur. You put the blade on the bottom piece and then the cap part literally snaps into place. During the snapping portion of the proceedings, the blade can and will move away from the alignment that was so carefully crafted. When that happens, I just open it up and try it again. Eventually you get it either perfect or close enough that you don't worry about it anymore.
But it is a phenomenally smooth shaver, and I imagine the Futur is, as well.
It hates hot water, for sure. I use nothing but synthetics these days, so I don't have to worry about what it might do with a boar brush.
Yes, I absolutely LOVE the scent of Rosalimone.
152/189 this morning. Went with Rosalimone again (love it!).
I learned a few things this morning. The first thing I learned it that edge degradation, because it happens gradually, can go somewhat unnoticed for quite some time. I learned this because I stropped up the ZY last night and took it in for the shave this morning, but the first pass was pretty frustrating. It was tugging and pulling, especially in the areas that have the densest growth. I guess the fact that I was able to get through the first pass is a tribute to my improved skills. But reduction wasn't very good and I was frustrated.
What to do?.........I suddenly remembered that I have another straight, the Tilquin (made by LeGrelot for the Belgian market, I was told) that I hadn't used in a long time. I haven't been using it because the blade itself is a tiny bit warped, which frustrated me in stropping more so than in shaving. But I remembered that since I had it honed I had probably only shaved with it 3 or 4 times. I hadn't stropped it, but I also remembered that I always give a razor maybe 20 laps after the shave, and that it was OK to shave with a razor that only had those 20 laps (thanks to my wise better half).
So with the lather for the second pass on my face, I stepped out of the bathroom, grabbed the Tilquin, and started the second pass. Wow. What a difference! It has been a long time since I shaved with a straight that had an almost freshly honed edge, and it was immediately apparent how much easier it was. Quieter, too, but that may be a function also of the blade's size and grind.
Anyway, I finished up the last two passes with the Tilquin. Touch-up was again with the MingShi. End result was a CCS.
So, good news and bad news, I guess. The good news is that I have a nice sharp razor in the Tilquin. The bad news is that the ZY definitely needs to be re-honed.
Man, shaving with a sharp straight is so much fun! It almost makes me want to look into the diamond pasted balsa strop method that is championed on another forum. The guy who uses this method never hones his razors at all. He uses stropping motions on the balsa, and he does it every day. He says if you do this your edges never deteriorate.
I dunno. Either that or get some lapping film and maybe once a month or so hone on the film?
For now I'll stick with the Tilquin for a bit. Toss in the Noonan to see how its edge compares, maybe.
Anyway, have a great day, gents!
The pasted balsa can do a lot to keep a good edge going, it can also add that special touch to a freshly honed blade. I mixed .1micron diamond and FeOx to get a little smoother finish that the diamond. I also has a .25 and .5 micron Diamond for larger touch ups. If you’d like I can hone you fading razors and send some diamond paste back with it. It only takes a baby aspirin size bit of paste to make a foot long 2-3” wide balsa strop. All you’ll need to do is mount the balsa to a flat tile, lap it dead flat and load.
I feel like I did, as well. I think my stropping technique is pretty good now.
Chris, thanks for the explanations, and especially for the offer to hone my razors. That is very kind.
I would like to ask you a question. I have a paddle strop that has pasted balsa on two sides, one CrOx and one FeOx. Would it be possible to just add a tiny bit of diamond paste to the FeOx side, rather than buying balsa, buying tile, and lapping?
152/190 this morning. I stropped up the Tilquin last night. It takes a bit more concentration to strop this properly, but after about 15 laps I got into a nice rhythm with it.
For software, I went back to Soapy Science in Doc's Special Blend. I got a nice lather.
OK, so the Tilquin is definitely sharper and quieter than the ZY. The first pass is definitely more challenging for a razor than are subsequent passes, though. It cut through pretty well but wasn't buttery smooth. Second pass was butter, though.
After three passes and a bit of touch-up with the MingShi, I was CCS without irritation. A good start to the day.
Hope y'all have a great day!