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

You know...as a kid I really hated the sound of the organ. Now as an adult (but with the brain of a kid) I think it is one of the coolest and underappreciated instruments to play music! If there was more organ music and accordion music in the world...music would be more interesting!
 
GearNoir said:
Easy Saturday, well deserved!
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Thanks!

dangerousdon said:
You know...as a kid I really hated the sound of the organ. Now as an adult (but with the brain of a kid) I think it is one of the coolest and underappreciated instruments to play music! If there was more organ music and accordion music in the world...music would be more interesting!
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Interesting. A really good pipe organ has so many different sounds it's hard to even know what "the sound of an organ" means! Playing the thing is challenging but rewarding. I have played piano for 50+ years but I only started learning organ in October of 2015. All that piano experience wasn't worth a lot, to be honest, because the instruments are so different. Now I enjoy both instruments quite a bit.

Sunday morning's shave was a two-passer with my RFB NEW and AoS lemon. Got a bit of irritation just to the right of my Adam's apple. Going too fast and got the angle wrong, probably?

This morning I had to be to work earlier than usual, so I opted for a DE again, but I switched to the Fatboy. For software I used Soapy Science Mint Mint. On the first pass I had the Fatboy set to 4, but I switched it slightly to 5 for the second pass. Easy, smooth 2-pass shave this morning and I made it to work 5 minutes early (mostly because traffic was so light because of the holiday).

Yesterday's service went well. I did a good (but not great) job on the organ, and my Sunday School lesson went very well. I had a lot of participation/discussion from the students and afterwards I had about 4 or 5 people come up to me and tell me that they enjoyed the lesson. That's a win!

This morning when I left home for work it was 18 degrees with a 25 mph northern wind. Coldest it's been so far this winter by a long shot. It's supposed to hit 63 degrees on Wednesday. Crazy!

Hope y'all have a great day and a great start to your week.
 
CCLIX this morning.

Used the Swedish Steal for two passes, then did a third pass with the Fatboy. Nice, smooth shave today. The edge on the Swedish Steel is still pretty amazing in terms of its buttery smoothness.

For software, I went with something completely different today. I've been using artisan soft-ish tallow soaps forever. Today I pulled out RazoRock What the Puck? in the orange scent, which is a triple-milled non-tallow soap. In the past this soap's lather hadn't impressed me much, being too airy for my taste.

This morning I loaded the crap out of it and added water very slowly until I got it where I wanted it. I can tell you that the lather LOOKS completely amazing. If I were to post a photo of it and not tell you what soap it was, everybody would be begging to find out so they could score a puck ASAP. It's just gorgeous.

It's still a bit too airy for me, but it was heavier and denser than I expected. Glide was good and protection is fair. Unlike my Soapy Science soaps, the lather degraded a tiny bit between passes; it was at its best during the first pass. (With Soapy Science, the second pass is probably the absolute pinnacle.)

Anyway, it shaved great. And I love the simple, straightforward orange scent. Where the soap really falls behind my favorites is in the post-shave. Not drying, per se, but it definitely didn't have the awesome post-shave face feel of my artisan tallow soaps.

All things considered, though, it was a good shave. I need to pull this soap out more frequently. Maybe during the spring/summer when moisturization isn't at as much a premium I will give it more face time.

Have a great day, gents.
 
GearNoir said:
RR soaps are definitely not a bad place to start from and revisit once in a while!
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Indeed. Especially this triple-milled soap. And cheap!

CCLX this morning.

Stuck with the Swedish Steal but changed up the software back to one of my favorites: Soapy Science in Doc's Special Blend. Whipped up an amazing lather that shaved great.
Two passes with the Swedish Steal, and my stropping must be pretty good because this edge is still buttery smooth. Did a third pass with the Fatboy set at 7. The Fatboy set at 4 or 5 is a good razor; set at 7 it's almost magical. I had forgotten how much better it gets when you open it up a little.

OK, I think it's time to tell you my Fatboy story.

I purchased my first Fatboy from a meticulous, famous antique mall in Williamsburg, VA. It was pristine (not NOS, but close to mint), cased, and being displayed in a glass case. I had to have it. I think I paid $30 for it, or thereabouts. I took it home and started using it. Loved it immediately. I had been using a Slim for a while at that time, and after about 7 shaves with the Fatboy, I put the Slim up for sale. I thought to myself that the Fatboy was one DE that I was never going to sell.

I was posting about the Fatboy on another site, and I got a PM from somebody in Europe who wanted to make a trade for my Fatboy. My immediate thought was "No." But then when I saw what he wanted to trade, I reconsidered. He wanted to trade me a Mont Blanc Le Grand fountain pen in perfect condition. My Fatboy was worth maybe $60 or 70 bucks at the time. The fountain pen was easily worth $200. Being an honest man, I PM'd him to make sure that he clearly understood that the trade was unfair. I told him that he could sell the pen and buy 4 Fatboys if he wanted to. He came back telling me that he was fully aware that the trade wasn't fair, but that he had no need for the pen, he really wanted the Fatboy, and he had no desire to sell the pen. Once I knew that he wanted to continue the trade even though his eyes were wide open, I made the trade.

A week or two later a beautiful Mont Blanc fountain pen arrived at my house. There was a problem with the piston so I sent if off to Mont Blanc headquarters in Texas for repair, which they did for free. I never inked the pen.

Within a month or so of letting the Fatboy go, I began to regret it. I really missed the Fatboy. Repeated trips to the antique mall in Williamsburg were fruitless. I checked some local shops but to no avail until one day, when I found the most cluttered, run-down, horrible looking antique shop I've ever seen. Have you seen the TV show hoarders? Like that, but worse. I could barely even walk through the shop to see if he had any razors. After 15 minutes of difficult sledding, I found one battered GEM. I was walking out with my head drooping when the owner says to me, "Did you find what you were looking for?" I said that I hadn't. I asked him if he had any other old razors besides the GEM. He says, "I think so. Let me take a look around." He then begins to rummage through a couple of 4-foot tall piles of junk. Eventually he holds up a razor case. "I have this," he says, and hands me a cased Fatboy. It's dirty and disgusting. Looks nothing like the one I bought in Wiliamsburg, but it appeared to open and close correctly, the numbers had their paint, and it had the quarter-turn. So I said, "How much?" and he said, "Gimme $15 and it's yours."

I probably could've talked him down to ten pretty easily, but I was ecstatic. I gave him the $15 and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for about an hour.

Once I got it home I cleaned it up. Turns out it was just as nice as the first one, and it shaved just as well. It became one of my favorite razors. And I promised myself that this time, I would definitely never sell or trade this Fatboy away.

Oh, and I ended up selling the Mont Blanc for about $215 on the bay. ;-)
 
Great read...even better Fatboy prices, holy moley!

Dave in KY said:
Cool story. I still need to find mine
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Your Mont Blanc?
1f602.png


Dave the poet!
 
CCLXI this morning.

Stuck with the Swedish Steal, but switched up the software again. This time, to yet another non-tallow soap. This one is not on the market, because it was the demo soap that CBL made on video; scent is "50 shades of vetiver." Folks, this stuff smells great.

I don't know details, because I can't remember the video very well, but it is said that this is an McD-ish soap; that is to say, the principal ingredients are similar to those of MdC. After this morning's shave, though, I'd have to venture a guess that Chris added something to the basic recipe. My recollection of shaving with MdC was that the post-shave face feel wasn't very good; pretty sure what I got this morning from Chris's soap was superior to it.

Anyway, lathered it up and got a nice, thick lather. Probably used too much soap, but it's all good (better than too little!). First pass went very smoothly. For the second pass, I decided to make the Chimensch pass a lot more XTG, almost a pure XTG, rather than a mix of WTG/XTG like I usually do (again, searching for more efficiency). It went well. Didn't feel awkward at all and was smooth.

Reduction after two passes was probably slightly better than my usual, but not good enough to avoid the third pass, which I did quickly and lightly with the Fatboy set at 7. Final result was DFS- without irritation. Gotta be happy about that.

So, the weather around here has been absolutely crazy! On Monday morning when I drove to work it was 17 degrees and we had 20-25 mph north winds. Freezing! Tuesday was a little better, but not much.

Yesterday afternoon the sun was shining and it was 62 degrees. I got out of work early and headed to the golf course. By the time I got home, though, I was pretty sure I didn't have time to play 9 holes, so I decided to just go hit a bucket of balls at the range. So I loaded up my clubs but I didn't take golf balls (there were 2 or 3 of them in my bag).

As I'm driving over there, I see one of my neighbors loading up his clubs into the back of his pickup truck. He's like, "You gonna go play?" I said I was just going to hit range balls. He's like, "Heck no! Let's play!"

So we get there, and there are no carts out. It looks like they don't realize that people might want to play on a warm day in January. While my neighbor is paying his green fee, I get paged. I return the page and I'm talking to a doctor when my neighbor says, "Buy a couple of cheap balls from that basket," and points to a place where they sell balls they found on the course for a buck apiece. So I grab four of them and put them on the counter.

My neighbor has a history of paying my green fee without my consent. I look at the guy behind the counter and I say, "He didn't pay my green fee, did he?" and the guy says, "He did."

Meanwhile, somebody has fetched a cart for us.

So, instead of hitting a bucket, I got to play 9 holes. No warm up at all. Haven't played in months. Hurrying to try to get 9 in before dark. Wind blowing about 20 mph. Despite all that, I had a great series of holes in the middle of the round. We played the back nine. On 14 I had a 12-foot putt for birdie that was in all the way but stopped about 4 inches short. On 15 I had a second straight par. On 16 I hit a 6-iron to 16 feet and drained the birdie putt! On 17 I had a nice 2-putt par. So on that stretch of 4 holes I went one under!

Of course, I hit a fair number of bad shots, too, although I don't think I only had one hole that was worse than bogey.

Overall, a great afternoon.

Wake up this morning and it's pouring rain in buckets; my back yard is already flooding. Had to take an alternate route to work because of flooding in the streets. Crazy, crazy weather.

Hope y'all have a great day.
 
kingfisher said:
CCLXI this morning.

Stuck with the Swedish Steal, but switched up the software again. This time, to yet another non-tallow soap. This one is not on the market, because it was the demo soap that CBL made on video; scent is "50 shades of vetiver." Folks, this stuff smells great.

I don't know details, because I can't remember the video very well, but it is said that this is an McD-ish soap; that is to say, the principal ingredients are similar to those of MdC. After this morning's shave, though, I'd have to venture a guess that Chris added something to the basic recipe. My recollection of shaving with MdC was that the post-shave face feel wasn't very good; pretty sure what I got this morning from Chris's soap was superior to it.

Anyway, lathered it up and got a nice, thick lather. Probably used too much soap, but it's all good (better than too little!). First pass went very smoothly. For the second pass, I decided to make the Chimensch pass a lot more XTG, almost a pure XTG, rather than a mix of WTG/XTG like I usually do (again, searching for more efficiency). It went well. Didn't feel awkward at all and was smooth.

Reduction after two passes was probably slightly better than my usual, but not good enough to avoid the third pass, which I did quickly and lightly with the Fatboy set at 7. Final result was DFS- without irritation. Gotta be happy about that.

So, the weather around here has been absolutely crazy! On Monday morning when I drove to work it was 17 degrees and we had 20-25 mph north winds. Freezing! Tuesday was a little better, but not much.

Yesterday afternoon the sun was shining and it was 62 degrees. I got out of work early and headed to the golf course. By the time I got home, though, I was pretty sure I didn't have time to play 9 holes, so I decided to just go hit a bucket of balls at the range. So I loaded up my clubs but I didn't take golf balls (there were 2 or 3 of them in my bag).

As I'm driving over there, I see one of my neighbors loading up his clubs into the back of his pickup truck. He's like, "You gonna go play?" I said I was just going to hit range balls. He's like, "Heck no! Let's play!"

So we get there, and there are no carts out. It looks like they don't realize that people might want to play on a warm day in January. While my neighbor is paying his green fee, I get paged. I return the page and I'm talking to a doctor when my neighbor says, "Buy a couple of cheap balls from that basket," and points to a place where they sell balls they found on the course for a buck apiece. So I grab four of them and put them on the counter.

My neighbor has a history of paying my green fee without my consent. I look at the guy behind the counter and I say, "He didn't pay my green fee, did he?" and the guy says, "He did."

Meanwhile, somebody has fetched a cart for us.

So, instead of hitting a bucket, I got to play 9 holes. No warm up at all. Haven't played in months. Hurrying to try to get 9 in before dark. Wind blowing about 20 mph. Despite all that, I had a great series of holes in the middle of the round. We played the back nine. On 14 I had a 12-foot putt for birdie that was in all the way but stopped about 4 inches short. On 15 I had a second straight par. On 16 I hit a 6-iron to 16 feet and drained the birdie putt! On 17 I had a nice 2-putt par. So on that stretch of 4 holes I went one under!

Of course, I hit a fair number of bad shots, too, although I don't think I only had one hole that was worse than bogey.

Overall, a great afternoon.

Wake up this morning and it's pouring rain in buckets; my back yard is already flooding. Had to take an alternate route to work because of flooding in the streets. Crazy, crazy weather.

Hope y'all have a great day.
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Fun shave and sounds like a decent round of golf with the neighbor!

I think the only thing Chris did different with his MdC clone was add soy.
 
GearNoir said:
Fun shave and sounds like a decent round of golf with the neighbor!

I think the only thing Chris did different with his MdC clone was add soy.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Thanks for the information.

This morning I actually had to be at work 2 hours earlier than usual. So I went to bed early last night and this morning I did the quickest, easiest shave I could muster: Soapy Science Lollipop Citrus lathered with my Rubberset brush, and then one pass with the Fatboy at 6.

I applied a bit of lather to the jawline by hand and did the tiniest bit of clean-up there, but did not do a second pass. Result was easily SAS+ CCS-. Smooth and comfortable. It wasn't as close a shave as I normally get and am accustomed to, but it was a closer shave than I used to get with my Sensor Excel or Mach 3 and one quick pass, and therefore closer than most people's normal daily shave. No complaints here.

I hope y'all have a great day.
 
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