Great post. Now I'm going to have to weigh mine! I have so far gone purely by feel, but weight, like size and grind of blade add to that perception of "feel". Thanks for that idea! I may try to check balance too.
Printable View
Great post. Now I'm going to have to weigh mine! I have so far gone purely by feel, but weight, like size and grind of blade add to that perception of "feel". Thanks for that idea! I may try to check balance too.
Harold, I don't know if a couple of grams will make a difference in the shave, but the blade on he Felt Pad just seemed so light I wanted to weigh it. The scales have two felt pads and four extra brass pins and it still weighs less than the Aust; I think the blade is fairly light.
Round 2:
6/8 Thiers-Issard
This is a full hollow, carbon steel blade. It is on the large side of 6/8. I bought this razor last spring and chipped the edge in early summer. It was re-honed in November going through a Naniwa 1k, 5k, 8k, 12k, and Suehiro 20k progression. I shaved with it once the week it was honed, then four more times consecutively at the end of December. The first shave went fairly well despite feeling a bit awkward. This is a large blade for me and it does not feel as natural in the hand as my 5/8 and 6/8 razors. Stropping in particular felt unbalanced with the combination of a smaller tang and wide blade. Attachment 223613Attachment 223614
Shavewise, I struggled with the area near my cheekbone and sideburns due to the large blade blocking my sight. The edge did hesitate in tough whiskers like the moustache and chin. I haven't determined if this was due to poor technique or an edge dulled by bad angles or stropping. Or maybe it just needs some time on the hones. At any rate I what I take out of this round is some needed time driving a bigger blade. This should come in useful in a couple of weeks. I intend to spend some more time with this razor at a later date and figure it out.
Up next is another TI, the #69 frameback. The innagural shave was fantastic so I'm really looking forward to this round.
Attachment 223619
Show us the razors? I am not versed in TI's, but might elaborate based on grind, type.
Some prefer smaller blades. Nothing wrong with that. TBH, when one of my big ones comes up in rotation, I sometimes skip back and forth! Big ones and really small ones take a lot of concentration.
5/8 to 13/16 is a breeze!
YMMV
OH! You added pics! Looks like the big one has seen some hone time.
I am always on about this, but the edge looks dead-straight while the spine has a sway to it.
Could be that it has been straight-honed from a slight smile?
They always seem to cut better with the original profile to me.
That frameback looks like new almost to my eye.
Attachment 225073
After a crazy holiday period and then medical controversies (discussed elsewhere) I got back to SR shaving.
The picture above is what I've been using for the last two weeks. My wife loves Pre de Provence balm (she smells and rubs my face post shave) so I ordered the soap. :shrug:. The brush is a Pixelfixed (Bill) custom -- my favorite. The razor was originally a Robert Williams, which Sharptonn (Tom) and others thought had a slight frown, although I loved it, except for its corners. I sent it to that same Tom to look at it in person and improve if he thought it was feasible. Those of you who know him, know that he thinks anything is feasible if there is a well considered and executed plan (or a plan that is "adjustable" along the way). In passing, I also whined about the micro-fasteners which were used in place of pins and collars and were always loosening at the pivot.
To my surprise (not), Tom made a plan and executed it to perfection, creating a smile where there was, in fact, a frown, and replacing the fasteners with beautifully done pins and collars. It shaved like a dream right from the mail, but has improved, as many heavy-ish blades seem to with each stropping. I strop on fabric and three leathers before each shave, a total of 120-150 passes. Since it's the shave that counts let me me say it shaves my beard like it is going through butter.
I think it is now a "Tom" Williams :rofl2:
I must say, it reinforces my love of heavy smiling blades, but I still prefer the vintage ones. I'll do one of those next week!
Glad to be back!:beer1:
Cool, Harold! That's a great shaver! RW makes some neat smiling blades, some not so smiling. I cannot help but think somewhere along the way, yours developed a slight frown.
Funny how experience with worn vintage razors has come to help out with newer ones.
Funky process to convert that one from the microfasteners to traditional pins as the 'nut' side was countersunk a lot.
Should it loosen up, send it back and I have a few more ideas! ;)
Tom, the TI in the faux tortoise came from the vendor with a curved spine and straight edge. I'm sure the edge was that way from the factory since the vendor is not a a razor/shaving specialist and the edge was far from shave ready. I also beleive the spine and edge should be the same. If one smiles the other should too.
Harold, Glad to se you back. :) I'm happy to hear Tom got your razor dialed in. I find I'm leaning toward vintage razors also.
I understand! I began looking at those models and see that is the case.
No inference to any maker, but fads in the way of 'slashing' straight edges, yet a nice, smiling spine seem to have been popular for a good while these days.
100 years ago, they would have been laughable. Makers made blades to be honed and used. A totally straight edge from most quality grinders was not done, FME.
The reason is it did not give the user room to maintain the razor without considerable work as well as delivering a harsh edge quickly.
A slightly smiling edge is an easy pattern to follow. Shaves smoothly and is maintained easily.
YMMV
Round 3
This round's razor is a vintage TI 69 frameback. The razor was finished on an Escher. The blade measures @5/8 at the heel and @7/8 at the toe. I have seen a comment that the slant on the blade makes the guillotine stroke with a straight north to south pass. I tend to agree.
I shaved with this razor five times. The SRP member who gave me the razor had remarked that the razor felt light. My scale weighed it at 52 g. The weight and balance during shaving was very good. I never felt the need to correct or compensate for weight being in the wrong place. During the shave the edge felt really, really smooth. I was pleasently surprised by just how smooth. These past five shaves were right up there with smoothest shaves I've experienced. Stropping was awkward, however. The wide and thin tang felt different from my other razors and I really had to focus on finger placement.
Overall TI 69 is a fantastic shaving razor. I look forward to it coming up again in the rotation. Vintage razors finished on an Escher have become my preferred razor.
Sorry, my phone is out of commision so I can't upload any photos.
Cool! We get it! One on the left? Looks great!
Ok, today, and the next 5 shaves will be with this new for me old beauty. It was in the original rotation for this thread from Tom, and refused to go back to Texas. :shrug:
It is a Joseph Elliott "Best Silver Steel" in Ivory with a neat silver inlay. It has some really interesting spine work which I will get pictures of later, once I have shaved and cleaned it up. This picture is from its first appearance in this thread, because this morning it was still oiled up from a month off. I'm going to use MDC for this week, because it was discussed elsewhere and I want to experiment with it some. My face can't wait! More to follow.
That's a nice shaver! I have had issues before getting old Elliott wedges to shave their best, but that one went surprisingly easy, Harold! My thoughts on it was how perfect the size, balance, and tightness was.
Easy and smooth. :D
And the Elliott weighs in at 51 g, and as a correction, the inlay is brass, not silver. It is really a showcase razor that shaves like a dream. Great shave today (wife was napping), with MDC and the famous Pixelfixed badger brush, straight to the face. Was like dancing with a favorite girl...everything just fell in line, from the lather through the shave...a damn fine shave!
I have one with the same spine work, quite a shaver, I clothed it in streaked horn, but that ivory looks way better.
Really good lookin razor.
:tu
OK -- I've never tried this before, but the Elliott I'm using feels so perfect in the and, I wanted to check where its balance point was. So, I opened it straight and laid it on its side across a round rifle cartridge (smallest perfect cylinder I could find) and found that it balanced right behind the heel. I couldn't get a picture because I didn't dare let it sit there and perhaps slip off, but it balanced perfectly level. So the scales, wedge and tang are an exact equal weight to the blade from heel to the toe. I'm not sure if that is common or not, but the thought had never occurred to me before. Interesting!:thinking:
Sounds like it is a tad blade-heavy. I always prefer that, but some are opposite. I have balanced razors on a SE blade, but one thing I have discovered is a loose pivot kills balance. Make sense?
I have scale-heavy and blade-heavy razors, but as long as the pivot is tight, it is easy to adjust the scales for the right feel.
IF they will stay there, of course. ;) Scales bouncing around does not lend it'self to anything at all.
Sadly, so many scales are broken while attempts to tighten them has got to be happening regularly.
I find lots need repinning to accomplish safely.
JMO
Yesterday's mail delivered an 8/8 Filarmonica 14 full hollow from an anonymous lender (Tom, you know who I mean, his name starts with an S). This morning's shave was a delight and eye opener. Being a full hollow I expected some "singing". Add to that it being an 8/8 there was more surface to vibrate and as a result I will go looking for some ear plugs since it was a very loud "singer." Which I don't mind at all. A long time ago I likened various voices to the different razor grinds, progressing from high soprano on a ultra thin bellied blade to basso profundo on a near or pure wedge. Needless to say, the extra weight of being a large razor meant that a swift adjustment needed to be made on inward pressure used. Recalling the old adage, shave the lather not the beard, and increasing my conscious needed to do so, I felt I shaved with an additional 20% lighter pressure than normal. The result was the best, best, best first shave off of a freshly honed razor I've ever gotten. Under normal circumstances, regardless of who honed the razor (mine have been honed by four known masters and myself) I have found that I could not really appreciate the edge until the second or third shave with that particular razor. Not so in this case. I have to put it down to make of the razor (I normally don't care about the make as long as it's a good shave), quality of edge, quality of pre-shave and lather and attention to pressure. I am looking forward to do the unusual for me, that of shaving for the next week or so with only one razor (I have about 45 razors and I try to rotate them over a two month period.) Might not make daily reports but will provide periodical updates.:rock:
I tried a Filarmonica like that and it was an amazing shaver. I was surprised by how good the shave was since I'm usually less than successful with a full hollow blade and have never shaved with one that big before. It left my face as nice as it has been after any shave, and wasn't nearly as scary as I thought to use. Hope you get a great week of shaves.
Yes, those big ones are a bit intimidating, but paying attention, they are quite friendly. Especially in the thinner grinds, FME.
Blade angle is sometimes a bit awkward as the width of the blade makes for some interesting passes in spots.
BTW, it has been about 4 years since that razor was honed...Just well-stropped, that's all! :)
Watch those ears, Richard! :eek:
I was going to wait a few days before posting again, but this mornings shave, number 2, held a revelation for me. I normally start out ATG, south to north on my neck. The mind inside of my mind said, "Hey, lets try something different. DO your neck north to south and see what happens." Trusting to the fact that the weight of an 8/8 needs to be taken into account at all times I did as requested and had a perfect result. Cut out maybe one minute of shaving time (big deal, it's no race.) The point being that a weightier razor, proper pressure and skin stretching has changed how I shave once again. I doubt I will have the same results with a 5/8, 6/8 and maybe a 7/8 (critically thinking, it is minute but a factor.) Later shaves will tell the story. Somewhere in the next week I need to hone/refresh a 5/8 I'm loaning to a newbie and need to test shave with it so I'll have a comparison sooner than later.
Great variation: I'm glad you were successful.
I discovered the same things during my initial run through the 7 day rotation. Some of the razors worked better with techniques I had never tried. For example, I went cross-handed (left on right side and right on left side) with two of the heavier wedges that had smile and found the blade size, shape and weight worked to get me closer faster doing that. To be fair I first tried that because I cut my left hand thumb on the heel of one of the first I tried so I had to crossover with my right hand to finish.
Funny (and useful) to know we can discover different razors on the same face do differently with different approaches.
Oh hell, folks. My inner adolescence (quite a gap between then and current age. Makes you think I might be in my second <third> childhood) took hold of me this morning and said, "Stop this mature, quasi scientific investigation and do something out of character (as if that was new)", lets play with contrasts. Sooo, I looked in my big cigar box of rarely used, vary rarely used, razors and pulled out, not a plum, but a 4/8 Shumate, slight smile, Tungsteel labeled and, if I remember correctly, honed by pinklather (I think he swore off of honing small razors after that one.) Decided to use the same shaving pattern as yesterday and see what evolves. Again a better than DFS shave with a couple of needed steps to get the same as with the 8/8. Neck: north to south, checked the closeness and added a south to north pass plus fussiness around the Adam's apple (always a fuss spot for me) for desired effect. Rest of the shave went as well as yesterday's 8/8 shave. Difference wasn't noticed till I applied witch hazel and AS. And then the true difference showed up. I thought I had used the same light pressure as with the 8/8. Boy, was I wrong. Sting city! For me, a new found advantage of a bigger and heavier razor, less pressure needed to get a decent shave. I will be keeping my minute Shumate in a more active rotation schedule now to remind me of the closer and smoother shaves I get with my bigger blades.
I need to plan a series of nefarious events to fund the acquisition of an 8/8 and/or plus that size in the future.
Well in two weeks, I managed to get in 6 more SR shaves with the Elliott. What I found using it every day is that I got progressively more comfortable using it, and that the quality of my shaves depended completely on my not taking any shortcuts in stropping, face prep or lathering. I used MDC the whole time as well as my favorite brush, but on a day or two when I just "needed to get it done" I skimped on lather time, and I could tell. I also found out that when I face lather I need to pay attention to loading the brush (or not overloading it in the MDC case) and then having a decently wet face. I guess as someone once said, they don't call it wet shaving for nothing. My stretching was also something I have to remind myself of, especially when I'm trying some new angles/approaches.
In spite of just having done all that whining and self critique, all my shaves were at least finer than I ever got with any other tool, and they were fun...which is my objective. This coming week I travel, and I'm going to take the Mongoose, because I like it and it's easier than hauling a strop, etc. After that I think I'm going to follow a different pattern and go to one of my more "normal" razors...maybe the Butler Art or the Taylor Eyewitness, both of which are different from each other and from most other SRs I have. Maybe I'll use them both, since they came to me as "brothers".
Last, some of the local guys (Nipper and Lindyhop) have arranged a local meet at the end of February, which is only 4 or so hours away, so I'm going to try and get over there and meet some SRP members in person, and maybe learn something!
A small diversion and aside to the Great Experiment. I had the joy of spending three hours with a 19 year old (going on full maturity) college student yesterday getting him started on the path of straight razor shaving. He had inherited two W&B's (lucky devil), not used since his Great Grandfather's use. I had him send them to cudarunner to be cleaned up and honed, which of course resulted in some fine work. After about an hour and a half of talking about everything razors and shaving we hit the shaving room and he was led through lather building, razor maintenance and finally, first shave with a straight. In retrospect I could think of no other razor more suitable to demonstrate with than the 8/8 filli. First, the look on his face on seeing such a large razor, and then realizing his 5/8 was as good as they get as I demoed first the side burn area and led him through doing that section and then a full face shave and watched quiet joy spread from his eyes to his whole demeanor was beyond priceless. Let me also state that under normal conditions I would not have gone the full face route except for the fact that I was dealing with an intelligent, systematic thinker that could handle the process. Sent him home with a brush, lathering bowl, witch hazel, two soaps (one of them William's for the challenge)and of course, my phone number. His W&B has a wicked point and he learned quite quickly to concentrate and be aware of the razor's placement all the time. Oh, and a brand new styptic pencil.
I, again, give credit to the shave ability of the 8/8 filli to orchestrate a successful intro to our funny field of shaving diversity (he was wide eyed when I showed him my electric double edge razor) and can't not see him not shaving with a straight for years to come.
Forgot. Also lent him a vintage 2-1/2 inch strop.
Round Four
For this round I am using a 13/16 Wade & Butcher near wedge. I found this one at an antique store this summer and had it restored by Wolfpack. The edge is really smooth; coticule followed by an Escher, I think. This was my largest blade and first wedge so it was very different from my rotation.
Attachment 226713
Shaving with it the fall was awkward at first. I was kind if getting the hang of shaving with a wedge, when I started posting to the great experiment, so I dont think I have shaved with it since November. I have used it five shaves in a row, now. Manueverability has improved and I've adapted to the minimal feedback. I pretty much have the angle dialed in. Like mentioned above, this is a very smooth razor. The last two razors I shaved with were both vintage blades finished on an Escher, which is now my preference.
Attachment 226715
Attachment 226716
The razor for the next round was a gift from a friend here at SRP. It is another W & B wedge, a 7/8s I think.
Attachment 226717
As Razorfeld has said I was honored to be asked to bring his heirloom razor back to do what it was intended to do. I also cleaned it up for him N/C and it didn't take much at all! Just a little time on a buffer wheel with some CrOx. The blade and the scales look great. It honed up wonderfully with a very small and even bevel and gave a great shave!
I'm glad that he had your help with learning this age old art! That W&B has a very unique point on it. I've never seen one like it before.
I hope he will jump in and add some words and pictures. :tu
I thought that I'd deleted the pics that were sent to me but I was mistaken, here's a shot of that wicked point!
Attachment 226735
I did not dull the tip. It is providing a learning lesson in concentration.
I thought about de-fanging the creature so that it would be less apt to 'Bite' but decided to let Razorfeld talk to the young man and let the owner make the decision about what to do with it.
I do hope some pics of after it was cleaned up can be posted. I didn't take the time to set up and take pictures as I wanted it back home ASAP.
Wow, what an honor and what a privilege to help a younger person start on the right path with the right tools and mentorship. And what a gift of knowledge to him. Wish I had met someone to do that 40 years ago. I would have saved thousands :hmmm::hmmm: or maybe not...but I would have had more fun shaving!
It's funny how camera angles change perspectives. The picture I posted 'exaggerates' the angle of the point, here's another pic. The actual angle is somewhere between the two, but its still a wicked point/one to be aware of at all times!
Attachment 226816
I'm in a hotel this week on business and while at home I have a telescoping mirror, here they have this luxurious granite sink surround the puts me (given my "keg" abs) about 3 feet from the mirror.
So what I thought. Mindful that I'm using the Mongoose on this trip that always gives me an almost SR shave, I rub my face afterwards and eek! Stubble!:aargh:
So I relathered and put my glasses on and WOW. I can see better to shave. I will introduce this "wrinkle" at home (I can also see some facial defects -- sags and wrinkles -- that weren't there 5 years ago), and see if I get better at SR shaving!