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Kingfisher's open blade (straight razors and shavettes) journey
- Thread starter kingfisher
- Start date
All caught up, Randall. Lots going on with you. Glad to hear that you'll have family coming in for Christmas.
You might be disappointed. It's good stuff, but it didn't "wow" me like I thought it would have.
I think we need a video of Randall playing Christmas Music on the piano!
Go for it!
It is. Thanks.
Yep. We're really excited about it.
Well, then I glad I didn't fork out big bucks for them when they were being replaced.
Umm.......or not.
CCXXXIX this morning.
Stuck with the Peach soap. Switched out to the ZY. Two passes with the straight, one with the flat-bottom Tech; CCS without any problems.
I'm also playing some other folk instruments. I like playing music, especially this time of the year.
Have a great day.
Didn't sleep well last night, so this morning I opted out of the straight razor scene. I also switched up the Flat-bottom Tech for my Hybrid Tech. That particular move might seem lateral, but it's not. The Hybrid Tech is a notch or two or three better, and not just in looks. It's a FANTASTIC shaver. Perhaps my best DE.
For lather I stuck with the Stirling Peach. I'm determined to finish it off. I got another great lather today, but I still prefer Soapy Science to Stirling. It's not "head and shoulders" better; it's more like when you are at your family reunion and two cousins are arguing about which one it taller, and then you stand back-to-back and one guy is, oh, a couple of inches taller. Sort of like that. The Stirling is very nice and the post-shave feel is quite good, but the Soapy Science lather is slightly richer and the post-shave is a fair bit better. IMO.
Anyway, two quick easy passes to a really good shave this morning. No irritation or weepers. Finished with Stirling Lime balm.
My friend had a really tough week; Monday was bad, Tuesday was a tiny bit better, but yesterday was the worst. She called in to work and asked for the day off because she didn't think she could do it. They offered her the morning off. She spent some time at her old house just reminiscing. In the afternoon she came in, but I found her in rough shape, crying. I spent a bit of time with her and just listened and reassured. I prayed a LOT for her this week, all week long. I think Christmas is the problem, seeing as he's only been gone for just over two months and this will be the family's first Christmas without him.
Last night I had her call me at home and reassure me that she was OK. Then I prayed really hard several times throughout the evening.
This morning she was feeling much, much better. I even heard her laugh a "real" laugh at something funny that happened in the clinic. I think it is the first time I have heard her really laugh since late September. It was music to my ears. It took such a weight off my shoulders.
Obviously she's not through the grieving yet and there will be more bad days to come, but I suspect that once the holidays are over there will be fewer of them.
On another positive note, The King's Singers are performing a concert tonight here in Norfolk. I bought a ticket a couple of days ago, but my wife said they were too expensive so she wasn't going to go. I was pleasantly surprised when today she sent me a text message asking whether it was assigned seating or not. I said it wasn't. She then texts back something like, can you tell me where you got your ticket? I think I may go with you. A few minutes later she says, "We can have dinner together, too!"
So now I am really looking forward to going out to dinner with my wife and then taking her to what promises to be an outstanding concert.
So, seeing my friend much improved and at peace, and then being able to spend some quality time with my wife tonight has made today an outstanding one! I hope y'all's have a great day, too.
For lather I stuck with the Stirling Peach. I'm determined to finish it off. I got another great lather today, but I still prefer Soapy Science to Stirling. It's not "head and shoulders" better; it's more like when you are at your family reunion and two cousins are arguing about which one it taller, and then you stand back-to-back and one guy is, oh, a couple of inches taller. Sort of like that. The Stirling is very nice and the post-shave feel is quite good, but the Soapy Science lather is slightly richer and the post-shave is a fair bit better. IMO.
Anyway, two quick easy passes to a really good shave this morning. No irritation or weepers. Finished with Stirling Lime balm.
My friend had a really tough week; Monday was bad, Tuesday was a tiny bit better, but yesterday was the worst. She called in to work and asked for the day off because she didn't think she could do it. They offered her the morning off. She spent some time at her old house just reminiscing. In the afternoon she came in, but I found her in rough shape, crying. I spent a bit of time with her and just listened and reassured. I prayed a LOT for her this week, all week long. I think Christmas is the problem, seeing as he's only been gone for just over two months and this will be the family's first Christmas without him.
Last night I had her call me at home and reassure me that she was OK. Then I prayed really hard several times throughout the evening.
This morning she was feeling much, much better. I even heard her laugh a "real" laugh at something funny that happened in the clinic. I think it is the first time I have heard her really laugh since late September. It was music to my ears. It took such a weight off my shoulders.
Obviously she's not through the grieving yet and there will be more bad days to come, but I suspect that once the holidays are over there will be fewer of them.
On another positive note, The King's Singers are performing a concert tonight here in Norfolk. I bought a ticket a couple of days ago, but my wife said they were too expensive so she wasn't going to go. I was pleasantly surprised when today she sent me a text message asking whether it was assigned seating or not. I said it wasn't. She then texts back something like, can you tell me where you got your ticket? I think I may go with you. A few minutes later she says, "We can have dinner together, too!"
So now I am really looking forward to going out to dinner with my wife and then taking her to what promises to be an outstanding concert.
So, seeing my friend much improved and at peace, and then being able to spend some quality time with my wife tonight has made today an outstanding one! I hope y'all's have a great day, too.
CCXL and CCXLI, yesterday and today.
Both with Stirling Peach, both with the Rosette Japanese shorty. I refreshed it between the shaves on CrOx and FeOx, about 15 laps each and then stropped it up good.
Both shaves went pretty well. There is a tiny bit of harshness I feel with this razor that my other razors don't seem to have; I think the bevel angle is different from my other razors. But it shaves OK and it's not anything horribly bad. Just not quite as smooth feeling as some of the others. Maybe my technique and it's bevel angle just don't match up perfectly.
Both shaves were CCS, though, so it's all good.
My wife and I are participating this week in a project called the Chesapeake Area Shelter Team that provides a warm place to sleep and three meals for homeless people every night all winter long. Our church has the week of Christmas, which is nice. So last night I made some chicken, potatoes, and green beans and took it over to the church where they sleep. They have a professional hot box there, and lots of other people cooked up the same meal, all sitting in the hot box. l added ours.
About 40 people came. We served them up a good meal. After a couple of hours we left, but volunteers are staying there overnight every day this week, and providing breakfast as well as a bag lunch to take with them.
On Christmas day my family and I will be over there in the early afternoon to hang out with them, play some games, maybe sing some Christmas songs. My wife and I are in charge of Christmas day. It's the only day they allow the people to stay there all day. I am looking forward to it.
Have a great day, gents!
Both with Stirling Peach, both with the Rosette Japanese shorty. I refreshed it between the shaves on CrOx and FeOx, about 15 laps each and then stropped it up good.
Both shaves went pretty well. There is a tiny bit of harshness I feel with this razor that my other razors don't seem to have; I think the bevel angle is different from my other razors. But it shaves OK and it's not anything horribly bad. Just not quite as smooth feeling as some of the others. Maybe my technique and it's bevel angle just don't match up perfectly.
Both shaves were CCS, though, so it's all good.
My wife and I are participating this week in a project called the Chesapeake Area Shelter Team that provides a warm place to sleep and three meals for homeless people every night all winter long. Our church has the week of Christmas, which is nice. So last night I made some chicken, potatoes, and green beans and took it over to the church where they sleep. They have a professional hot box there, and lots of other people cooked up the same meal, all sitting in the hot box. l added ours.
About 40 people came. We served them up a good meal. After a couple of hours we left, but volunteers are staying there overnight every day this week, and providing breakfast as well as a bag lunch to take with them.
On Christmas day my family and I will be over there in the early afternoon to hang out with them, play some games, maybe sing some Christmas songs. My wife and I are in charge of Christmas day. It's the only day they allow the people to stay there all day. I am looking forward to it.
Have a great day, gents!
Yeah. It's pretty awesome. My son and his wife are in a plane on their way to us right now. We're excited.
Today being Sunday, I went with a DE. Chose the Ming-Shi Futur clone. Used the same Polsilver I've been using for clean-up duty (no idea how many shaves it has on it).
Chose the AoS lemon again, as per my Sunday habit. It lathered up easily and today I got a better lather out of it than I usually do. Two passes with a bit of touch-up left me easily CCS. No problems at all.
Went to our church Christmas service today. 460 people in attendance. Lots of great music and three short talks. I played the organ, and we did six congregational songs, not to mention postlude, so I got a work-out today. I started off badly, messing up the intro to "Joy to the World," but my playing got better as the meeting went on, ending up with "Silent Night" which I think I played note perfect.
It was a beautiful service. I had invited my friend (the one who lost her dad in early October) and she agreed to come. She brought he fiance with her. They sat with my wife. (I obviously couldn't sit with them since I was at the organ.) Anyway, it was nice seeing them there. I think she really enjoyed the service.
Hope y'all have a great day.
CCXLII this morning.
I stropped up my trusty Noonan last night. Still 3017'ing the Stirling Peach. It maybe has 3 shaves left in it; 4 at best.
I loaded heavily and whipped up enough rich lather to shave the entire cul-de-sac.
I actually changed up my technique a bit today. The first pass was the typical WTG pass. My second pass has been a Chimensch-style cross-handed pass that is half WTG/half XTG, from ear to nose. When I felt my stubble after the first pass, it felt like it would be more advantageous to go half WTG/half XTG nose to ear. So I did that for the second pass instead of the usual cross-handed pass.
I could tell it definitely worked better this way. Finished up with the Ming-Shi and called it good. Had one tiny weeper near the left side of the mouth that I got doing a new second pass. It was small and shut itself off.
I'm thinking that maybe I'll change the technique even more tomorrow. Perhaps do the cross-handed Chimensch pass FIRST, skipping the straight down WTG pass, and then do the second pass like I did today, and see where that leaves me. I'm trying to figure out how to get more efficiency out of my straights. Passes are comfortable but they don't reduce the stubble as much as I'd like them to.
Anyway, on the home front, my eldest son and his new bride made it to us safely yesterday. We had a joyous reunion and a nice evening together.
Hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas Eve! I'm at work right now but will be leaving early to cook a huge Christmas Eve dinner for my family.
I stropped up my trusty Noonan last night. Still 3017'ing the Stirling Peach. It maybe has 3 shaves left in it; 4 at best.
I loaded heavily and whipped up enough rich lather to shave the entire cul-de-sac.
I actually changed up my technique a bit today. The first pass was the typical WTG pass. My second pass has been a Chimensch-style cross-handed pass that is half WTG/half XTG, from ear to nose. When I felt my stubble after the first pass, it felt like it would be more advantageous to go half WTG/half XTG nose to ear. So I did that for the second pass instead of the usual cross-handed pass.
I could tell it definitely worked better this way. Finished up with the Ming-Shi and called it good. Had one tiny weeper near the left side of the mouth that I got doing a new second pass. It was small and shut itself off.
I'm thinking that maybe I'll change the technique even more tomorrow. Perhaps do the cross-handed Chimensch pass FIRST, skipping the straight down WTG pass, and then do the second pass like I did today, and see where that leaves me. I'm trying to figure out how to get more efficiency out of my straights. Passes are comfortable but they don't reduce the stubble as much as I'd like them to.
Anyway, on the home front, my eldest son and his new bride made it to us safely yesterday. We had a joyous reunion and a nice evening together.
Hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas Eve! I'm at work right now but will be leaving early to cook a huge Christmas Eve dinner for my family.
CCXLIII, CCXLIV yesterday and t his morning. Same setup each day except for the clean up razor, which on Christmas day was the Ming Shi and thus morning was a Schick injector with a fresh blade .
Used the Noonan straight for both shaves, and Stirling peach for both shaves. The peach is almost gone. There is likely enough for one more shave and that's it..
I had good lathers both days and both shaves were nice. The edge on the Noonan us a little less keen than I'd like it to be.
I had a fantastic Christmas. I had to go to work in the morning, but then at noon I met my family at a homeless shelter. We spent a couple of hours there just hanging out and playing games with the guests. It was really a nice time and we all enjoyed it.
After that we came back to the house and started our Christmas gift opening, etc. It was almost 3 pm before we even got to our Christmas stockings. But we had a great time opening gifts and watching our cat play with the boxes and bows.
At the end of the day we played some of those Jackbox. TV games together. It was surprisingly fun and we laughed a lot.
To top it all off, my friend texted me to tell me that she felt the presence of both God and her father on Christmas day during a quiet moment when she was on her mom's back porch overlooking a lake. That was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received.
I hope your Christmas was similarly merry and delightful. You guys are the best. Have a great day.
Used the Noonan straight for both shaves, and Stirling peach for both shaves. The peach is almost gone. There is likely enough for one more shave and that's it..
I had good lathers both days and both shaves were nice. The edge on the Noonan us a little less keen than I'd like it to be.
I had a fantastic Christmas. I had to go to work in the morning, but then at noon I met my family at a homeless shelter. We spent a couple of hours there just hanging out and playing games with the guests. It was really a nice time and we all enjoyed it.
After that we came back to the house and started our Christmas gift opening, etc. It was almost 3 pm before we even got to our Christmas stockings. But we had a great time opening gifts and watching our cat play with the boxes and bows.
At the end of the day we played some of those Jackbox. TV games together. It was surprisingly fun and we laughed a lot.
To top it all off, my friend texted me to tell me that she felt the presence of both God and her father on Christmas day during a quiet moment when she was on her mom's back porch overlooking a lake. That was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received.
I hope your Christmas was similarly merry and delightful. You guys are the best. Have a great day.
Thanks. I'm thinking of getting Satsuma to replace the Peach, if it ever comes back in stock.
Thanks, Chris! It was truly great.Glad to hear that you had a wonderful Christmas, Randall.
So for this morning I went with a "free shave," as California Chris would say. I used a Schick injector just like the one Georgia Tech Chris just bought, except with an off-white handle. I loaded it up with a fresh blade yesterday morning so it had been used for clean-up after a straight shave once and was otherwise brand new.
I figured I maybe had one shave left in the Stirling Peach, and I was right. I thought I might have to supplement it with some cream, and was prepared to do so with Aos Lemon, but it turned out I had just enough for a two-pass shave. I used every last molecule of that soap, leaving nothing but the Kerry green of the bottom of the tub when I was finished.
Two passes to CCS+, maybe even DFS. Smooth and comfortable. Finished with Stirling lime balm and I was good to go.
So easy and so smooth it almost makes me wonder why I have so much shaving equipment. I could probably just use an injector every day and do fine. But I kinda do enjoy variety, and I enjoy the challenge of the straight razors.
Hope y'all have a great day!
CCLV this morning.
Went with the Mighty Mite and, since the Stirling Peach is gone, I went with Soapy Science in the Doc's Special Blend scent. It was nice.
I've been changing my technique, hoping to become more efficient. So I did a cross-handed WTG/XTG ear-to-nose pass first, then a hybrid WTG/XTG from nose-to-ear.
Finished with an injector.
My new approach definitely was more efficient, and I worked on a new approach to the tough spots on the jawline, too. It went pretty well.
Overall, this was a great shave.
Hope you have a wonderful day.
Went with the Mighty Mite and, since the Stirling Peach is gone, I went with Soapy Science in the Doc's Special Blend scent. It was nice.
I've been changing my technique, hoping to become more efficient. So I did a cross-handed WTG/XTG ear-to-nose pass first, then a hybrid WTG/XTG from nose-to-ear.
Finished with an injector.
My new approach definitely was more efficient, and I worked on a new approach to the tough spots on the jawline, too. It went pretty well.
Overall, this was a great shave.
Hope you have a wonderful day.