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Natterings of a Nasal Barbarian

SOTD THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020

Another sub par face shave with a freshly honed vintage razor. My son shaved with it after honing it and claimed it passed some hair test with flying colors. He then stropped it on a pasted(?) strop and then on a leather one. I have no idea what the latter sentence means, but my son assured me it was as sharp as my Feather Barber’s razor. In any case I ended up with VBBS cheeks and a DFS neck, which I again cleaned up to VBBS level with the FrankenFamex.

A FB shave brother from down under mentioned that the maker of Suneko nanocoated blades had stopped producing them. They apparently succeeded in developing a blade coating as effective as the venerable Personna 74’s. I usually toss my DE blades after two uses, but my shave today was the 7th shave on this Suneko blade which is still going strong. Blades that last as long as these are clearly not as profitable, thus the shutdown. The blade sheared right through the noggin stubble and is still going strong. I’m glad I purchased as many as I did. My shave today left me cool, clean, and quite velveteen.

RAZOR: Lord 6/8 (Mug), FrankenFamex (Dome)
BLADE: Suneko DE (7)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Omega Pro48 Boar
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Laura’s Tobacco & Bay Balm.

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SOTD FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2020

Same old, same old! DFS in three careful passes (WTG, ATG, XTG) on the mug further elevated into the ‘velveteen zone’ thanks to the Feather Super equipped RazoRock Hawk V3. Still struggling with straight razor stubble reduction. Minor right cheek weeper on my third and final XTG pass which disappeared after my MWF wash with the brush squeezings. The Hawk made short work of the noggin stubble in two passes (WTG, ATG) leaving me again velveteen, clean and cool!

RAZOR: DD Goldedge (Mug), Hawk V3 (Dome & Mug Cleanup)
BLADE: Feather Super AC
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute w/ 24mm Synthetic Knot Ferrule
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH. Finished with Mentholated Mysterium Serum.

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SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 2, 2020

Well it’s Day 2 of “Aurum-inspired” August and my shave today featured two golden tools, the head of my Shake Sharp Model 1.5 and the gold lettering on the blade of my evil Dovo Special! The Dovo was definitely sharper than it had been thanks to the ministrations of my son’s sharpening toys. He even pulled out a loop to demonstrate the “mirror” sheen on the edge he’d created for me. I’m still convinced, however, that it's out to get me. I may require a razor exorcism in the future. I still have no idea what straight shavers, like my son, are referring to when they describe a straight razor’s edge as ‘buttery’ or like ‘velvet’. It’s just scary sharp to me.

Thankfully, it was another great mug shave, due to my trusty Shake Sharp! Despite my old nemesis, the Dovo’s, attempts to bite me, I persevered, and with great trepidation, finished the Mug shave with the usual unsatisfactory three pass (WTG, ATG, XTG) DFS. Fortunately, my trusty Shake Sharp rushed to the rescue shearing away the resistant facial stubble, and in its usual effortless manner opening the door to velveteen facial bliss! My two pass (WTG, ATG) Dome shave was a joy, after the fear and anxiety of the mug straight shave, delivering your grateful narrator directly to MWF paved velveteen happiness with another VBBS. I feel velveteen smooth, clean and cool!

RAZOR: Dovo Special (Mug), Shake Sharp Model 1.5 (Dome)
BLADE: Stacked Suneko DEs (4)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: MrEE Knurled Aluminum Hybrid Knot
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with A&E Post-Shave Serum.

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Everyone’s level of comfort with SR edge type is personal, just like everyone likes different types of DE blades. SR honing allows a certain degree of customizability with ones edges.
 
SOTD MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2020

Affective tonality of the shave was consistent! Fear and trembling during the three pass (WTG, ATG, XTG) straight shave resulting in a very rough CCS which the Gold Rocket cleaned up and moved into BBS territory. My dome shave required three passes (WTG, ATG, ATG) to achieve velveteen victory. The Rocket razor is nowhere near as efficient as the earlier New Standard, Deluxe, and LC or my select rotation of seventeen safety razors. In any case, I feel cool, clean and velveteen, albeit with a bit moreshaving effort on my part,

RAZOR: Genco 35 (Mug), British Gillette Gold Rocket
BLADE: Suneko (8)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute w/ 26mm Two Band Badger Ferrule
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH andOsage Rub. Finished with Krampert’s Frostbiteand Cremo Cooling Balm.

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SOTD FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020

Glad to be able to post a shave again after having lost power from a local tornado this past Tuesday in the wake of Hurricane Isaias. We were notified that power wouldn’t be restored until this Sunday. After three days my neighbor called our local Congressman and lo and behold about an hour later a power crew showed up to clear the two trees blocking our neighborhood’s sole access. Power was restored shortly thereafter. The shave was extremely enjoyable. With all the talk lately about Gillette New models, I selected one of the best vintage shavers I own, my New LC for the dome shave and neck cleanup.

Before my shower I soaked the Rooney Badger brush and bloomed the MWF in warm water. The shave began with a cold water rinse and a good scrub of both mug and noggin with the Rabid Banana Preshave Cube. The Rooney brush whipped up a great, cooling, wet lather to the mug and a thick protective lather to the noggin thanks to the 6 drops of M-Bomb added earlier to the shave bowl. My straight razor technique is slowly improving. I can easily achieve a VBBS above the jawline. It’s that danged, saggy, old-man neck that presents issues.

My safety razor technique has improved immeasurably, thanks to the skin-stretching and attention to shave angle learned from using straights. Despite that it seems that I’ll never achieve a VBBS below the neck with the straight razor alone. One thing I have noticed is that Ben’s new 30k grit jnat finishing stone has resulted in incredibly sharp straights. His hair pinging demo yesterday on this Damascus straight used this morning scared the bejeezus out of yours truly. His talk of “velvet, buttery” edges didn’t help! But it did give the notion of ‘negative pressure’ new meaning.

So despite a glasslike finish above the jawline, below is a challenge. There’s my terror about using the scary sharp straights my son is returning to me. His new honemeister guru from up around the Boston area doesn’t believe in stropping. He apparently advocates for a weekly touch up on the 30k stone. I will say that the razors he returns to me are very sharp. It did feel like I was just brushing away the lather above the jawline. The New LC did a tremendous job on my neck cleanup and was a joy to use on the dome. I'm on my 10th shave with the Suneko DE blade, although I think it’s coming to the end of the trail. After three days without a shave I feel cool, clean and amazingly velveteen!

RAZOR: CKA Damascus Koa Wood Scales 6/8 (Mug), Gillette New LC (Dome)
BLADE: Suneko (10)
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Rooney Ebony Pure Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Krampert’s Frostbite AS Splash.

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Glad you’re OK Jeff!
jgreenepa said:
His new honemeister guru from up around the Boston area doesn’t believe in stropping. He apparently advocates for a weekly touch up on the 30k stone.
Click to expand...
Daily touch ups I could believe but this sounds questionable to me. He must not shave daily? The edge has to be realigned pretty much after every use or it just degrades that much more quickly.
 
jgreenepa said:
After three days my neighbor called our local Congressman and lo and behold about an hour later a power crew showed up to clear the two trees blocking our neighborhood’s sole access. Power was restored shortly thereafter.
Click to expand...
That's some response!
 
SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 9, 2020

Today I shaved with a straight I haven’t used before. It’s a NOS A. Witte complete with an enclosed note saying “honed by Henrey 1939”. I swapped a brand new EJ89 I’d purchased as a gift for my 15 yr old grandson which he had returned to me for it. Despite the note, Ben reset the bevel with his honing toys. It shaved beautifully, with the usual results, VBBS above the jawline and DFS on the neck. My Type I Hydromagic Injector cleaned up the neck and delivered a good clean VBBS to the noggin. All in all an excellent way to start the day! I feel refreshed, cool, clean and acceptably velveteen!

RAZOR: A. Witte Copperhead 6/8 (Mug), Hydromagic Type I Injector (Dome)
BLADE: Schick B-20 Proline
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with Rabid Banana Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Rooney Ebony Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat w/ 6 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Cremo Cooling Post Shave Balm.

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