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Kingfisher's open blade (straight razors and shavettes) journey
- Thread starter kingfisher
- Start date
Finally caught up Randall, and it sounds like some very good shaves were had in the interval. Interesting on the technique, I haven't really tried that on my cheeks, though that's almost verbatim what I do on my neck for passes 2 and 3 going S-N. The first one is baised one way, the second biased the other.
It's just the same as I was doing before, but with a slight tilt. It actually makes the pass seem less scary. When I first started doing the straight XTG on the cheeks with the razor completely vertical it scared me to death. Had I started with this slight tilt of the blade it would not have been as intimidating.
Thanks!
Thanks.
Today being Sunday, it was my day off of open blade shaves.
I went with the AoS lemon cream and my vintage Merkur slant razor. Two passes to near shaving nirvana. This old slant is very efficient, I can tell you that. One pass WTG with this slant is equivalent to two passes with a straight razor.
Had a nice, comfortable shave and went off to church. No organ playing and no lesson this week, so I was chill.
Hope you all have a nice day. If you are an NFL fan, today is a big day!
Thanks! I did. My wife and I went and visited a friend of ours who is in an assisted living home and we were able to provide some food for a hungry family. I DVR'd my favorite NFL team's game and we won! Overall, a good day.
Thanks!
170/208 this morning.
I got the hankering for the Sta-Sharp again, so I stropped it up last night. I didn't pick out a soap until this morning, when I decided to go with CBLs MdC-like soap with a Vetiver scent (a large sample of which was PIF'd to me by Chris [thanks!]).
It lathered up well and shaved well. I did 3 passes with the Sta-Sharp and had a bit of clean-up to do around the jawline and low neck. Overall, a nice shave. CCS at worst.
Hope y'all have a great day!
Thanks, Craig!
171/209 this morning.
I changed up everything today. I ditched the DE slant for clean-up and switched to a beautiful Everready Streamline with a fresh blade.
For my straight, I decided to go with the Tilquin, which did not get refreshed recently. I thought it might be a little dull, so I gave it 20 quick laps on CrOx before stropping last night.
For lather, I went with Soapy Science in the Lollipop Citrus scent (always reliable).
Wow. This razor was SMOOOTH today. I think it is not quite as keen as the razors Chris honed for me, so that may be part of it. As a golfer, though, I know that a lot of what golfers describe as "feel" of a club is directly related to the sound a club makes when it hits the ball. Golf club designers spend a lot of time "tuning" the sound to make it appealing.
This razor, the largest one I have (it's a 6/8), makes a much different sound as it plows through the stubble; lower pitched, less "scritchy" sounding. I think this sound makes me think the razor is smoother.
Stubble reduction on the first pass was fair; not as good as some of my recent shaves, but decent. Two more shaves went smoothly. End result was a CCS, no irritation. Can't complain at all. It's nice to have options, isn't it?
Have a great day. We are kind of freaking out about the approaching storm, hoping it doesn't destroy us. I hope you are all safe.
Thanks.
Thanks, Craig.
172/210 this morning.
Stuck with the Tilquin. For lather, I went with a sample of a soap that CBL made in the Russian Tea scent. I understand that the soap sample I got, labelled "mix," is not the final product available on his website. The scent is similar but not exactly the same, to my understanding.
Anyway, I scooped out a bit of it from the sample container using a sample spoon, and I smooshed it onto the bottom of my lather bowl. The appearance and consistency of this one is completely different from the "50 shades of vetiver" soap I used a few days ago. That one looks matte and feels almost like modelling clay; feels dry and extremely malleable. This one is shiny and feels slick and smooth. I'm talking about what it feels like when I smash it onto the bottom of the lather bowl with my finger.
Anyway, I put a bit of water onto it before the shower and then went to lather it up with a brush that probably I hadn't shook out enough. This led to a mixture that had too much water in it. As a result, the lather was bubbly and dissipated a bit. (The last time I used this soap I didn't have this problem, so I'm pretty sure the issue was that I used too much water.) Anyway, it shaved pretty well despite its appearance. Interestingly, it was somewhat difficult to rinse off the blade; it's like the top layer of soap dissipated off, leaving a concentrated lather beneath. I've noted this phenomenon with other soaps in the past, particularly Meissner Tremonia, although today's lather was not exactly like MT lather.
Before the second pass, I decided to try to fix the lather mix. I thought I had some unscented Kiss My Face under the sink, but I guess I must've given it to one of my sons. I noticed that I had a tube of I Coloniali, so I added just a pea-sized dollop of that and then mixed it in. I had to add about 3 or 4 drops of water. The resulting lather, a mix of CBL's Russian Tea and I Coloniali, was amazing. It had a great texture, rinsed easily, was just the right thickness, was slick, and it smelled great.
Second and third passes went well. Cleaned up the jawline, and was left with a fantastic shave.
The post-shave face feel was so good it honestly felt like I had moisturized my face. I know from experience using I Coloniali by itself that today's face feel was much better than what I Coloniali gives. Most of that must've been from the CBL sample soap. Maybe the mix of the two had some sort of magic voodoo. I don't know. But it was really nice.
Gents, have a great day. I hope none of you is directly in the path of Florence. It appears more and more likely that we will get a glancing blow, which is good for me. The weather will be horrible, and we will definitely get some flooding in the area, but it is less likely that my house will flood (I am in flood zone D; A is worst).
Thanks, guys.
173/211 today.
A day off work because of the hurricane. Pulled out the Mystic Water Rosalimone and my Noonan, along with my Streamline. My wife was in a hurry because she was hungry and wanted to go out for lunch before the rains really started, so for the first pass I used the Streamline on the right side and the Noonan on the left.
I expected first-pass reduction to be much better with the Streamline but it was only marginally so. For the second pass I did both sides with the Noonan, then cleaned up with the Streamline here and there. My original plan was for a single pass, but the lather was so fantastic and I was enjoying the shave so much I went ahead and pushed on to CCS. I was SAS after the first pass.
Have a great day. Gents in the hurricane's path, stay safe!
I am getting tomorrow off due to the beast Randall. Where are you in relation to the storm?
North of it, as it turned out, since the storm moved south. I live in extreme southeastern Virginia, about 20 miles from the ocean and about 10 miles from the North Carolina border. I'm about a 60-mile drive from Kill Devil Hills.
Thanks. Didn't get much of anything, which is good for me. I know the storm was still horrible for a lot of people.
174/212 today.
Decided to go with an all-small shave today. Small brush, small soap, shorty straight razor.
I had originally decided to use MW Rosalimone again today, because it was so awesome yesterday, but then I thought about that Razorock "What the Puck" in orange sunrise. I had only really tried it once, and I wasn't very impressed. I thought maybe I just didn't get enough soap into the lather.
So I decided to try it again. It is is a small container, so I got my smallest synthetic brush. To complete the trifecta of tiny, I pulled out the Rosette Japanese shorty.
I loaded very heavily and ended up with a lather that was much better than what I got before. On par with a lot of other well-regarded soaps. It suffered a bit in comparison with the Mystic Water I had used just yesterday; post-shave face feel, in particular, is nowhere near MW level. But the lather was pretty good. Definitely usable. Slickness was good and the protection seemed pretty good, too. Post-shave wasn't bad.
I did the usual in terms of passes. I switched from the Streamline to the MMOC for clean-up.
End result was a CCS.
Hope you are having a great day. I was off work again today because of the storm, even though it didn't really come this way. So I worked on my Sunday School lesson for this week (which earlier in the week I was pretty sure I wouldn't have a chance to deliver). It's Jonah and Micah this week (we are skipping around a bit).
Anyway, have a good one!
Dude we live like less than 2 hours apart. And my Grandparents (moms folks) live in Creeds VA. I probably have to drive past where you live to get to their house.