Thread: Righty Tighty; Lefty Loosey

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Another popular task is using a butter knife to "pretend" shave.

The butter knife is also good to use learning to strop!!

Shave #134.2 - Morning Quickie

Klar Seifen Shave Soap
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Personna Precision (2)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum

Was rushing to get out the door this morning, but needed a shave. I didn't even think to pass my hands over my mug and evaluate the shave. But, judging by how the shave felt throughout the day, I must have done a good job.

Shave #134.3 - Osaka-To-Me

I travelled to Japan yesterday, and am currently in Osaka. I will head to Kyoto today. I have a knee injury, from jogging, that flying yesterday caused to swell up, so by the time I arrived at my hotel room in Osaka, I was a mess. I did bring some okay shave gear, but...

Hotel Provided Face-and-Hand Soap
My Hand
Hotel Provided Disposable Twin Blade

...about one and a half passes while I was in the shower. It was painful and the results were awful. But, the roughness matched the roughness of how I was feeling.

I'll tell you a smidge of my history. About 23 years ago, I was teaching in Korea, in little more than a fishing village. All I could get for shaving supplies was disposable razors and hand soap (no shave soap, no canned shave foam,... nothing), so that's how I shaved for a year - disposable razor and hand soap.

Last night makes me wonder how I survived that experience.

Shave #135 - The Kyoto Cut




We're staying in a nice little home rental at the moment. It has a bathroom with some things to recommend it, Japanese style toilet - an odd piece of luxury that can brighten your whole day, thermostatically controlled tub, etc. But, space is quite limited and with my busted up knee, I was finding it difficult to maneuver around in there. I managed a reasonable 2-pass shave though.

Proraso Green Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Don Jae Chopper + Derby Blade (1)
Aveda Men's AS Balm

BBS face, DFS- neck; considering the state I'm in, those are pretty reasonable results.

Shave #136 - The Sapporo Slice

Left Kyoto...



...for the north...



...and finally arrived in Sapporo.



So, I needed a shave, my first real cold weather shave in years.

Proraso Green Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Don Jae Chopper + Derby Blade (2)
Aveda Men's AS Balm

A quick 2-pass shave after soaking in a hot tub. The shave felt tremendous, really hit the spot, and the results were good - DFS++/BBS. I did however give myself a couple very superficial nicks. Carelessness and a slightly dull blade I think.

Shave #137 - Obihiro Onzen Shave

I'm in a little place called Obihiro, staying at an onzen hotel, so I have access to a nice bathroom. Hence a shave seemed in order.

Proraso Green Pre/Post Shave
Proraso Green Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Don Jae Chopper + Derby Extra (1)
Aloe Vera

I did 2 passes, N-S followed by S-N, then I did a touch up pass on the neck. The touch up pass consisted of me starting (with my left hand) as if doing a S-N pass on the right side of my neck, but instead transcribing a 90 degree arc, so that as the razor passed the center of my neck it was shaving parallel to the ground. I then continued across the left side of my neck shaving parallel to the ground. End result - BBS.

Shave #137.1 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig Jig

Back from Japan, it was a very pleasant trip. I just got back and am a bit loggy from traveling, so I went for a simple shave.

Castle Forbes Pre-Shave
Klar Seifen Shave Soap
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Feather (1)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum
L'Occitane Cedre & Oranger AS Balm

My normal 3 passes on the face and 4 on the neck, and I have a no-muss, no-fuss BBS. I really love the first shave off a Feather blade.

Shave #137.2 - Rainy Day Shave

Synergy Cavendish Shave Soap
Semogue 2012
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Feather (2)
Captain's Choice Bay Rum

Another 3 passes on the face, and this time 5 on the neck finds me BBS. I did the extra pass on the neck as a bit of an experiment: 1st pass, N-S, swooping a bit from left to righ, approximately WTG; 2nd pass, N-S, swooping from right to left, approximately XTG; 3rd pass, straight S-N, approximately XTG (I normally don't do this pass); 4th pass, S-N, swooping from right to left, approximately ATG; and the final pass, right to left parallel to the floor, ATG for the significant number of whiskers that defy the predominant growth pattern and have decided to grow parallel to the floor.

BBS without irritation. I'll have to see if I think the extra pass is worthwhile.

Shave #138 - Rusty

Synergy Cavendish Shave Soap
Semogue 2012
DOVO Palisander 6/8" (54)
Hulk's Smash
Baxter of California AS Balm

Been a long time since I took the traditional straights out for a run. I'm a bit out of practice. Originally I was planning a 2-passer, but after the first pass, I knew that wasn't going to do the trick. (I had quite a bit of growth to mow down). So, today ended up being a 3-passer, N-S, ear-to-nose, S-N. I'd call it an overall DFS. Nothing to write home about, but acceptable.

TaipeiJake, I wanted to thank you for keeping this thread up. It has served as a great inspiration to me, and answered a ton of questions about little things that came up along the way in my shaving journey...if I was wondering about why something was going wrong, I just had to look here, and find where you had already come across it, and how to fix it!

Thanks again, and keep up the good work mate!