SOTD Sep 24 - Sep 30

Friday:

Continuing the translucent arkansas experiment...

Loreal for men conditioner
Rooney small style 1
Gold-Dachs soap (classic shaving "rivivage")
HA strop
7/8 square point Heljestrand
Harris face milk

After the last shave I refreshed the helje on the translucent arkansas, it went 7 shaves before needing a refresh and may have gone more. That is 3-4 more than I usually get. I don't know whether my last shave suffered from sucky prep (I used harris face milk instead of hot towels or pre-strop lather) or the edge was beginning to fade. I took the safe route and changed the prep and refreshed the blade. The refresh consisted of 20 laps on the translucent arkansas (10 light pressure, 10 no pressure). Not sure if this was optimal; it's possible I could have done without the light pressure laps.

Anyway, got another great shave. Same general results with no edge fade during the shave. The conditioner helps soften those really tough flat-lying whiskers on my neck so I don't need to do a touch-up pass on them (I can't go against the grain here because of the wierd angle). I put the conditioner on after washing my face and leave it on while stropping, then apply the hot towel on over the conditioner, wipe off and lather up.

I really like the gold-dachs soap, not as much as Harris or T&H, but quite a lot anyway. My Harris Arlington was about gone with just a thin layer around the edge of the wooden bowl, so I dropped the gold-dachs in on top of it (fit perfectly) giving me a arlington-gold-dachs lather. My only knock against the gold-dachs is that the lather collapses a bit quicker than does the Harris or T&H soaps. Shaves great, though, and smells incredible. According to the ingredients, it looks like it's scented with sesame and lavender.

Hot shower

Proraso pre shave
silvertip badger brush
4/8 Femaud
Lemon & Cedar shaving cream

witchhazel

Hair conditioner
hot towel
W&B 1/4 Hollow 7/8 + honed by me
Burma shave brush
Honeybee chamomile soap
ice cube
Lucky Tiger AS Toner
L'Occitane CADE AS

Did a conservative pyramid on the W&B because the last time it pulled a bit, then 15 on the lithide and a good stropping. No wire edge dedected under 30x magnification.

SHave was OK to GOOD. The Brush and lather carried the day, but for some reason the point scraped me several times - lightly but still I did not expect it, because I was careful...

What do you know, after the shave I inspected the edge under the b notch - at the rounding of the point, I saw sth like a chink, then the loupe revealed that a piece was broken off! A tiny jagged frown right in the round point!

I am really pissed :rant: as I had not seen this before. No wonder I nicked myself... Tried to remove the tiny frown with 25 on the Lithide but I don't apply pressure, an the frown is the same as it was before. Do I need to go to the Norton 4K? I was goig to make this a prety razor with new custom scales but now I am putting this on hold until I can get the edge fixed.

I was about to go out with my friends but now with these nicks (they are kinda long, from the scything motion with the razor) I am a bit embarrassed... at least they aren't too deep...

Bummer.

Ivo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by izlat

I was about to go out with my friends but now with these nicks (they are kinda long, from the scything motion with the razor) I am a bit embarrassed... at least they aren't too deep...

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I tell my friends they're duelling injuries, which they kinda are, sorta, if you've got a sufficiently flexible definition of "duelling".

Hot Shower

5/8 Wilbert Autocrat rp
Vulfix 374 silvertip
Tony Miller strop
Taylor's Lavender cream
Old Spice

Nothing like Old Spice on a cool fall morning.


Terry

Sat:

Rooney small style 1
Gold-Dachs "Rivivage" soap
Handamerican strop
5/8 Henckels Friodur
Pinaud Clubman A/S

The friodur had a wire edge that gave me a paper cut when I first put it to my face, so I gave it 20 light laps on the translucent arkansas, and proceeded to have myself a very good close shave, marred only by a nick on an ear when I was shaving my sideburn area.