Thread: Sunday September 20 ~ Saturday September 26

SOTD SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

Today’s shave deserves to be framed. I spent yesterday afternoon applying some of the honing principles my son, Ben, has taught me. I began with the Imperia La Roccia (ILR) stone I nationalized from Ben’s rock garden. Worked up a slurry on the ILR after first lapping it with Ben’s coarse Atoma diamond plate and followed with a tomo nagura slurry stone and kept gradually diluting the created slurry until I was working with just water and the blade began to stick. I then spent about an hour with the UF side of my jasper stone and plain water until the blade again began to stick. Three pasted stroppings (0.5, 0.25, 0.1) and 30 strokes on the leather paddle strop and the blade began to resemble my Diamond Hayashi Nichiri Tokusen Silver Steel Razor’s edge under 200x magnification. The pattern is not identical because the steel’s different, but the smoothness is evident as is the slightly more acute angle as I did not use tape on the spine.

I just can’t stop grinning after today’s mug shave. Yesterday’s shave was ok, and many would be happy with it. Maybe it’s just the fact that I rebuilt the edge by increasing the angle slightly and smoothing it out. Despite the slight stubble, the blade floated through the MWF lather both above and below the jawline. The weep from yesterday reopened, but the MWF lather did its thing and by the end of the first ATG pass was no longer bleeding. The second and final XTG pass put the baby in the velveteen cradle. My greatest learning which was truly freeing was recognizing that my straight shave was just that and need not mirror many of the straight shaving exemplars on YT. It was Jared Connerty’s video and his unconventional - at least according the others I’d viewed - two handed blade hold on an ATG neck pass that helped me realize it's my shave, freeing me up to use a variety of unconventional holds.

After that great mug shave, I loaded the RR Hawk V3 with a fresh palm-stropped Feather Super and had at it. The huge 26mm Two Band Badger ferrule in the Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute brush worked up a rich, yogurty, slick lather. Applying the lather with this huge rush really felt good and just contributed to what turned out to be a truly paradigm-shifting shave. Particularly so when my mug shave feels so much closer than my dome shave. I had this same experience two days ago with the Feather DX. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that technique trumps tools. It just appears to me in retrospect that the infinitely flexible angles afforded the open edge shaver do provide a leg up technique wise when compared to the fixed angle built into a safety razor. I’ll have to think some more on this recognition. Maybe I just experienced my first Kuhnian Shaving paradigm shift! In any case I feel velveteen, clean and refreshed on this beautiful morning in Philadelphia!

RAZOR: Riga Razor 7/8 (Mug), RazoRock SS Hawk V3 (Dome)
BLADE: Feather Super
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by Argan Oil
BRUSH: Alpha Shaving T-400 Tribute w/ 26mm Two Band Badger Ferrule
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Humphreys Lilac WH and Osage Rub. Finished with Alt-Innsbruck and A&E Post-Shave Serum.

Sunday's Shave
'181 Layer Random'

Feather AS-D2
Feather blade
J&T badger brush in ebony
Mondial bergamotto & neroli shaving cream
Proraso balm
Institut Karité night cream
Penhaligon’s Eau de Verveine

F. Herder #3
Prometheus green Apple 28mm Oumo Motherload
Noble otter Rawr + AS

Wade & Butcher FBU

Hammam Bouquet

SOTD September 20
Kinfolks - Real Red Point
Heirloom Razor Strop Co. Old No.2 Notovan
SV TSC Brush
Proraso Green Soap
Proraso Green Aftershave
Borotalco

My first in a long time, it’s special

Razor- Wade and Butcher, Tom gifted me this razor. A unicorn for me
I had told him I was going to steal it so he saved me the felony, butter smooth edge
Brush- a Bill Barber creation, still one of my favorite
Leather- from Tom also, from the master, circa 1943, old shell Kanoyama
Suds- well maybe don’t even need to say it cause it’s pretty much all I use, MDC lavender
And another gift from Tom the nourishing. Afta great stuff
Had a glass of Knob Creek afterwards and now just waiting on the BBQ.

Very nice Tc

21 September 2020

* Blackbird Brass SB 101
* Wizamet Iridium Super
* WSP 2-Band + Oscar11 Aquamarine C7
* Mystic Water Poggio dei Pini
* Unrefined Shea Butter
* Bergamot/Vetiver EO

21 -SEPTEMBER-2020
Steam Punk/ Muhle/ Koch & Schäfer Solingen-Wald. Trademark “Kama”/ L’Occitane 3-in-1