my 8th and 9th and first with a SAK
Hello fellow razor lovers,
I'm already at my ninth shave, which I just did with my brand new Thiers Issard Limited edtion Silverwing with lovely ramshorn scales with C135 steel in 5/8! In my eyes it's beautiful :)
But first, lets do a quick story on the 8th. A good shave, not the best so far, but pretty decent. The whole process is so awesome. I actually irritated my neck pretty good. I'm definitely still lacking in technique but also my skin is a little bumpy at the moment and probably needs to get used to all this close up shaving. I'm loving it!
I couldn't resist the urge to order a TI LE silverwing ramshorn. I picked one up from a swedish vendor and it was by far the cheapest I could find. By far. New. Only 300 made to celebrate the coming of the C135 steel to the TI lineup. I was drooling over this baby long before my first shave...
I decided to get a dovo first when I started, so I could practice on a 'cheaper' model, but the longing was unbearable ;)
So I ordered it on monday night and it got in yesterday but had to pick it up at the post office since I was out at that moment. So I unpacked it today while sitting in the sun in the garden.
It's awesome. Beautiful handles that once belonged to a living creature. Very organic looking and feeling, with some roughness in the low spots of the horn and polished on the high surface spots. It's more dark than most promotion pictures you see and it's very nice and heavy.
The blade is highly polished with no markings and features a 'french' tip. One that might stab you if not careful.
So this evening, while my daughter was watching, I tried my shave with the new TI.
But first let's go back to another shaving experience earlier this afternoon.
Since another hobby of mine is knives, I was enjoying the sun and sharpening two folding knives. One of them was a swiss army knife (SAK) that I just found in the kitchen drawer and didn't know we had. Dull as a brick. So I started sharpening and went all the way to polishing it on a dmt diafold extra-extra-fine. After that I stropped it on a fixed leather strop with chromium oxide
My usual test is checking it with a triplet magnifier, slicing some thin paper to test for a totally burr and chip free edge and shaving some hair of my arm. As usual after my sharpening it shaved well and I was now curious if I could actually shave hair on my face with it. I kept the angles pretty low, definitely not more than 15 degrees on both, coming to a total edge angle of between 25 and 30 I'd guess.
So I stepped up to the mirror and tried it and I was actually pretty surprised that it worked on my whiskers !! Only did a little piece of it, but the proof of concept was there. I'd already seen it some times on youtube etc, but it was nice to do it myself. I think if I get the angle lower and do a good lather it's totally possible with a sak but it won't be as close to comfortable as a str8 since the handle will get in the way and angle of about 17 degrees with a thin blade is hard to get.
not that I'd want to shave with a sak, but it was a nice sharpness demonstration ;)
So far, my str8 are hollow grounds, but the sak experience leaves me curious to try out a flat ground (because it will have a thicker blade, much like a sak is thicker than a str8), though I'm not sure were to get them at the moment. I'll have to do some research on those..
So, now it's back to the TI and my shave. First, my dovo does not pass a hanging hair test, but it's sharp. the TI did pass, out of the box, with a nice 'zing' sound to it. GREAT!!! This looks promising!
The preshave preparation was nice, with a good rub of proraso preshave and keeping it there for a couple of minutes while I was chatting with my 3 year old. Then I started lathering up with my TI brush, with a good bit of glycerine added to the proraso soap. A very nice lather, absolutely the best so far. It kept it's perfect substance throughout the shave.
My little girl understood the need to be quit and she did so perfectly, attentively watching. Well... perfectly? She asked me if I was done shaving every 2 minutes but it was funny and she was singing a bit in between.
I was excited to start and with the first stroke I immediately felt a bit dissapointed. It felt more or less the same as my dovo, but all of a sudden I now understood what everybody here means by the term 'pulling' of the razor. I thought it would be way sharper than the dovo but the shaving experience sharpness wise was about the same. Except that I sometimes felt the pulling. My initial small dissapointment immediately left me as I realized that it was still sharp, could probably be made sharper and that I was holding a fantastic razor that looks and feels great.
I could see myself passing this razor on to my son when he turns 18. So the joy again took over and I started shaving away. A DFS is what it turns out to be now that I'm feeling my skin and I did two passes in all. The french point bit me but hardly noticeable, I am glad I did not get to use this one for my first couple of shaves since it would have gotten me multiple times then. With only the little experience I have, it's enough to be able to keep me free from wounds of the spike.
The razor feels very solid and is a little heavy, which I like. The edge and the blade are shorter than my dovo 5/8 and I definitely don't want to go shorter/smaller on my razors. The next one I'll try is definitely a 6/8 for me.
I've made myself the promise that I won't get more than 7 razors. I have enough sharp things already. 7 is fine. One for each day of the week. A nice quality collection I can proudly display and tell stories of to my friends. Get them into the adventure and the ride that is str8 razor shaving. This quote will be used against me. I know it :D
But first, I'll enjoy the heck out of my 2 razors that I'm proud to own and very happy to use.
thanks for listening
