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

Caught up, Randall! Great group of shaves...the Icarus base is a top performer for me, but I'll definitely agree that it needs a LOT of water to get right. The anamalic funk does dissipate if you let it set out for a while...I usually do so overnight prior to the shave.
 
Dagwoodz said:
Caught up, Randall! Great group of shaves...the Icarus base is a top performer for me, but I'll definitely agree that it needs a LOT of water to get right. The anamalic funk does dissipate if you let it set out for a while...I usually do so overnight prior to the shave.
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Thanks. I agree about the Icarus base.

182/220 this morning.

This morning was a rare situation for me. I didn't shave yesterday (gasp!). I'm a dedicated every day shaver. Almost never miss a day. But yesterday I had to be at work early, and the night before I was really tired. I was almost BBS on Sunday morning, and I had no direct patient contact planned for Monday. So I figured I'd get a bit more sleep by skipping the shave on Monday morning.

As a consequence, this morning I had two-days' growth. This has always been problematic for me. My stubble is dense and coarse, and no matter what system I use, the shave after a skipped day has always caused trouble (cartridge, DE, SE, you name it). I don't think I've tried to straight shave off two-days' growth before; this morning was my first try.

Lathered up Soapy Science in My Special Blend and went at it with the Noonan. There were places where it was a bit of a tough go on the first pass, but reduction was really pretty good. I did two passes, and then finished up with the iKon SBS for the third. Got a CCS+ without any problems at all.

I am impressed with the straight's ability on longer growth. Not gonna give up my every day shaving, though.

Have a great day.
 
Catching up, Randall.

I’m completely with you on the Icarus “animal funk” - oy! I’ll stick with the regular DG version, even though I’ve still got two more samples to try (maybe!) of the Icarus.
 
cmh737 said:
Catching up, Randall.

I’m completely with you on the Icarus “animal funk” - oy! I’ll stick with the regular DG version, even though I’ve still got two more samples to try (maybe!) of the Icarus.
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183/221 today.

Switched my straight, my clean-up DE, and my soap today. Sta-Sharp, the NEW iKon SBS in aluminum, and Razorock "What the Puck?" in Orange Sunrise.

Loading the Razorock is an adventure. The container is just too small. I used a small brush, though, and I loaded for awhile, and I ended up with a pretty nice lather. I did two passes with the Sta-Sharp and one with the SBS. I wanted to make today's shave just like yesterday's so I could compare the original brass SBS with its pale imitation in aluminum.

The aluminum SBS is bulky. It weighs less than the brass SBS but it takes up more space, if you know what I mean. When shaving, though, it's surprisingly agile and smooth. The open comb side is, somewhat counterintuitively, considerably milder than the safety bar side.

I ended up with a good shave, although I had a couple of areas of irritation on the neck. I think the soap is at fault, for the most part. It's plenty slick but it seems to lack cushion compared with my usual tallow soaps. It's not a bad lather at all, but I'm spoiled. I think if I were strictly DE shaving I would find this lather to be more than adequate. And with Razorock blowing out the three-puck package at something like $8.95, it would be a no-brainer.

In the end, I had a good, but not great shave. CCS with only a tiny bit of low neck irritation.

My wife finally made it back from Pennsylvania the night before last. Everything on the trip went well except that she developed a frozen shoulder on the left side. Five years ago she had one on the right and went through physical therapy to fix it. I, too, have had both shoulders go, and went through months of PT. So I know how much pain she is in. The good news is that we know how to fix it. The bad news is that you have to go through a ton of pain in order to get it better. It breaks my heart to see her hurt this much.

Have a good day, gents.
 
Yeouch, sorry to hear about your wife. Is that kind of like a muscle spasm that doesn't allow it to move?
 
NurseDave said:
Yeouch, sorry to hear about your wife. Is that kind of like a muscle spasm that doesn't allow it to move?
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No. The connective tissue tightens up around the joint so it can't move and any movement is exquisitely painful.
 
Sorry to hear the missus is in pain; glad she’s back home safe though!

I’ve only ever tried one RR soap, their Santal Royale. It was a decent soap for the price, but as you say, not the most ideal for other than a mild DE shave.
 
Nice couple of shaves Randall...I've found the same with the RR soaps. Great value, decent performance, but definitely more suitable for DE shaving than for straight shaving. Now, having said that, I have yet to use Dead Sea, Mudder Focker or SdM, which from what I understand are different formulas and are indeed suitable for straights.
 
GearNoir said:
Sorry to hear the missus is in pain; glad she’s back home safe though!

I’ve only ever tried one RR soap, their Santal Royale. It was a decent soap for the price, but as you say, not the most ideal for other than a mild DE shave.
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As Chris would say, "roger all that."

Dagwoodz said:
Nice couple of shaves Randall...I've found the same with the RR soaps. Great value, decent performance, but definitely more suitable for DE shaving than for straight shaving. Now, having said that, I have yet to use Dead Sea, Mudder Focker or SdM, which from what I understand are different formulas and are indeed suitable for straights.
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I used to use RR soaps and I liked them just fine for DE shaving.

cmh737 said:
Bummer about your wife's "frozen" shoulder. Sounds painful.
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It really is. I know, since I've been through it twice. She is working on it and already has a tiny bit of improved mobility.

This morning I was planning on shaving with my Rosette shorty, but I didn't sleep well last night and by the time I got up and out of the shower it was too late for a straight razor shave.

So I went all in with the new iKon SBS on a UFO Titan Fine handle. I used Soapy Science in the Lollipop Citrus scent for lather, and it was awesome.

Two passes and a tiny bit of clean-up to CCS. This razor feels a little bit smoother on the face than the brass SBS does. There is a bit more blade feel, though, than I prefer, especially with the safety bar side.

All-in-all, though, a good start to the day. I missed my straight, but I got a good shave anyway.
 
There's that Lollipop Citrus again. Randall, you continue to wear me down with that one. OK, tell me again about that scent, and especially what's the SOS on it?
 
cmh737 said:
There's that Lollipop Citrus again. Randall, you continue to wear me down with that one. OK, tell me again about that scent, and especially what's the SOS on it?
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It's a fresh mixed citrus scent; lemon, orange, lime, and ??. Scent strength is about a 3/5, perhaps? It's not weak but it's certainly not "in your face."

184/222 today. Got to use the Rosette this morning, as I had more time.
For lather, I chose MW Rosalimone. One of my favorite soaps and scents. It takes some time to get the lather perfect, though, to be sure.

As an observation, and I'm speaking only for myself here, I have found over the years that, generally speaking, if a soap loads up almost instantaneously and comes together as a lather very quickly, it's usually not the kind of lather that I prefer. Conversely, if loading takes a bit of work, and lathering takes a bit more time, I generally end up with a lather that is much more to my liking.

Anyway, so on to today's shave. Three passes with the Rosette and some clean-up with the "new" SBS left me CCS and happy. The post-shave face feel was incredible, as it always is with MW, but I went ahead and put on some aftershave anyway, just for fun.

Good start to the day. Hope you all are well. This morning my son is getting his Remicade infusion (he gets one every 6 weeks because he has Crohn's disease). He doesn't enjoy these days, but he does enjoy that it makes him feel a lot better!
 
Randall likes to play with his lather! That is all.

Great to hear that your son will have a period of respite from Crohn’s this week. How long does the “feel good” usually last for him?
 
GearNoir said:
Randall likes to play with his lather! That is all.

Great to hear that your son will have a period of respite from Crohn’s this week. How long does the “feel good” usually last for him?
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It takes about 2 days to kick in, and it lasts about 5 weeks or so.
 
kingfisher said:
It's a fresh mixed citrus scent; lemon, orange, lime, and ??. Scent strength is about a 3/5, perhaps? It's not weak but it's certainly not "in your face."
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Thanks, Randall.

And I hope your son starts feeling better soon.
 
185/223 yesterday afternoon after doing yard work all morning.

Decided to go with "50 shades of vetiver" and the diminutive Sta-Sharp. The "50 shades" is an MdC clone that Chris made. Smells great. Lathers quickly. Not my favorite type of lather, but plenty good. I wonder if I let it age for 6 months it would be even better?

Anyway, I did two passes with the Sta-sharp and a bit of clean-up with the iKon S3S (not to be confused with the SBS I was using earlier in the week). Got a nice shave. Wasn't chasing any great reduction since I knew I would have to shave early this morning.

For this morning's shave, I used the AoS lemon cream and the Feather AS-D2 on a UFO Titan Fine L handle. I should've stuck with the S3S, to be honest. I thought it would be best to go with the mildest razor I could find, but the lather was somewhat thick and I pressed to get a better shave and ended up with a little bit of irritation. Oh, well.

Today at church a group of 9 to 11-year-old girls performed a song I wrote; I accompanied them on the piano. It turned out really nice and I got a lot of compliments. Then I gave the Sunday School lesson; this time is was the book of Hosea. It went pretty well.

Have a great day, gents! 15 more straight shaves to 200!
 
GearNoir said:
Awesome day! Any special plans for the big 200?
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Thanks! I have no big plans except to suspend my journal. I'll continue it to straight razor shave number 200 and then it goes the way of all the earth.

186/224 today.

Very good shave today. Switched the DE blade out of the Feather AS-D2 and back into my S3S (this is an amazing razor, although loading a blade is a PITA).

Stropped up the trusty Noonan last night in preparation for this morning's shave, and then produced a perfect lather with, you guessed it, Soapy Science soap. Again with the Lollipop Citrus, just to tantalize Georgia Tech Chris. It was lovely and fragrant.

I did two passes with the Noonan, and they went very well. I was pressed for time, so I did the entire 3rd pass with the S3S (love this razor!).

End result was CCS+/DFS-, with one tiny little weeper that I got from the S3S. (Oh, and I forgot to mention I had a small cut yesterday from the AS-D2.) It cracks me up. People think that straight razors are dangerous, but I get nicked way more often with DEs.

Hope y'all have a great day, and a good start to a wonderful week.
 
I hope you pop into it from time to time just to let us know how things are going other than the shaves. Maybe ole 200 should be a video!
 
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