Thread: SOTD Jul 30 - Aug 5

The Winner arrived today. In person it doesn't look nearly as ugly as on the pic.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=270008848821
The scales are lighter and aren't as scuffed as they show on the picture and the blade itself just needed a bit of polishing. After relatively little work on the Norton (compared to my other razors) it gave me a decent shave. Since I'm not satisfied with "decent" I took it back to the Norton and will try it out again in a couple of days (I'm also re-testing the Butler and the M&Y). Shaving is almost impossible in this heat. The sweating gave me a major rash in the neck area. Not as bad as after shaving with an electric, but still. Maybe I should take a day off tomorrow (the last day of the heat wave).

Cocobola Custom 6/8 blade
HoneyBee's Cedarwood Amber Shaving Soap
Natureade Aloe80
Saint Charles Shave New Spice EDT

RT

Wed:

Rooney small style 1 brush
Harris Arlington soap
8/8 W&B frameback
Harris face milk
T&H 1805

Went back to the Harris soap today and got a great shave. The blade was a recent ebay acquisition that I de-nickified and honed with an arkansas stone, 4k/8k norton, and 0.5 micron paddle. The edge could use some more work, so it's back to the 8k. Sadly, I had an outstanding edge last night but then decided to clean some of the surface scruff off the tail and managed to flip the blade around into my hand. Some superglue and electrical tape fixed the hand, but a 1 micron paddle didn't quite fix the blade.

My question is: Why did you start with the AK-stone if you already have a Norton which cuts faster? Could have saved youself a bit of time, unless you were REALLY curious about trying it out.

Arkansas stones are only about 800-1k grit. It got the nicks out very quickly and took the edge to hair-popping sharp as well (though it was obviously rough).

AFIK they cut slower than the Norton 4k but you can at least press on it and grove it without the fear of damaging the Norton. I have a rough Norton oilstone for that purpose that worked quite well for severely damaged edges.

I do use pressure with the arkansas stone. Also, it's the softer white stone, so it cuts a little faster.

Edit: Hmm, using the search function reveals a general consensus that the arkansas stone, despite being so coarse, is a very slow cutter indeed. It's possible that what I have isn't an arkansas stone after all. I swiped it from my dad when I went to college, so I'm taking his word that it was an arkansas stone, but maybe it's not.

Couldn't resist trying out The Winner again. Everything else was the same..
-face wash
-prep with wilkinson brush/soap
-CH Cavendish Black soap + c&e best badger
-still have some of that homemade aftershave left

I still can't believe that I got that razor for so little cash (a bit over $10US shipped), that it took so little work to get shave ready and that it's giving me such great shaves, comparable to Taylor's and the Bismarck! My homemade AS works fine but I think I'll stick with DBR after I run through this batch.

Rooney brush
Harris Arlington soap
8/8 Wade & Butcher frameback
Harris face milk
Penhaligon Blenheim Bouquet

This was the same ebay razor from yesterday that flipped into my finger. After shaving with it yesterday I gave it 15 licks with the 1 micron and 20 with the 0.5 micron paddle and it's better but still not quite right, so I'm putting it away for a few days while I cogitate.

Hot shower
Trumper's Limes
Edwin Jagger
Moss Scuttle
5/8 Black King spike
Tony Miller #1 3" hanging strop
TAZGMSC
Royall Lyme

This is one of my all-time favorite razors and my first string lineup but for the first time it let me down a little today. I wasn't in a good mood, so I purposely grabbed this one out of rotation because it usually turns my frown upside down.

Maybe I just wasn't in the groove, maybe I just wasn't feeling it, but I was vaguely dissatisfied with the shave today. Didn't pull, didn't tug, but things just weren't going well. Didn't have enough water in my mix so the lather dried up a hair, had to revisit several areas that I missed or didn't get well the first time and had quite a bit of touchup to do which left my face kind of tingly raw. Couldn't seem to get a few problem areas that I thought I'd finally gotten good at taking care of.

Probably didn't help that I was grumpy this morning too. Still far better than a Mach 3 shave though.

-- Gary F.