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Used the Hand Forged TI again today. It really is a spectacular shaver -- it's extremely nimble and stiff, and it takes an incredibly sharp edge so easily I swear you could freshen the blade by just waving a hone in the general direction.
http://www.geocities.com/mparker762/...and_Forged.jpg
Honed on translucent arkansas, of course. It's got a thin coat of oil, which looks wierd under flash.
Hot Shower
proraso pre shave
5/8 Dorko
Colleens Oak & Moss shaving cream
silvertip badger brush
Taylor of OBS St James After shave
-Washed the face (liquid soap+water)
-C&E BB and C&E Sweet Almond Oil (cream) for both pre-shave and for the first two passes.
-The Winner 9/16 medium full hollow round
-DBR
The cream was an excellent performer. Too bad I don't really like the scent and that the Nomad soap doesn't perform nearly as well (as it has a nice scent, but their soap formulas do not seem to match their creams). The Winner justified its name with its performance. The shave was so good it gave me goose-bumps. The strange part of this experience was feeling the bumps but no hair :eek:. DBR is almost done (maybe 2 more weeks of shaves) so I can switch exclusively to Old Spice as I don't really like the DBR scent (don't hate it but I prefer OS).
:y Best shave ever. Also fastest - under 10 min actual shaving, ZERO cuts / nicks / abrasions
1 week (or more) growth
Hot shower
BB Wrks Bio conditioner (almost irritated my skin so washed right away)
Rooney Super Med
Lucky Tiger Shave Lotion
Tony Miller strop
8/8 Filarmonica Novodur Barber's Use round point
Trumper's alum block
ice cube
Lucky Tiger AS Toner
L'Occitane AS Balm
The Fili is emerging as my absolutely best shaver after its only second appearance. NOS honed (more like touched up) by me, and the overall experience beat W&B 7/8 wedge, 7/8 Satinedge, 6/8 Goldedge, three different models 6/8 Pumas... Basically, just wiped the beard. I was elated and disappionted it was so short.
For those aware of my struggles to select and keep only a few razors, this Fili coould well be my only razor and I would be perfectly happy. Suddenly the decision to sell other razors becomes easier. Now, don't get me wrong, I intend to keep more razors, and am expecting a good 5 or so to arrive next week, hehehe...
Cheers
Ivo
Lol Ivo, I'm glad you enjoyed it. In case you're getting rid of some, you know which one I have my eye on :w
Ilija,
maybe I missed something in our PM exchange (where I offered to just give it to you, if you want it)
So, then, the cat's out of the bag, read closely: I had just asked Tony H for your address this Friday (and got it), because I wanted to send you a small gift. The razor would probably have been a Swedish steel German-made razor called Macy, in pristine condition (at least compared to the gunks I usually buy) - 5/8. I thought it's nice. Since you don't have a Swedish steel blade (to my knowledge) I thought you might like to try it... as an early Christmas present from me. Attached pictures below
Anyway - this is OFF! I'll just send you the one you really want. Even though this means I'll have to be on the lookout for another one like it... As we all know, this might be enjoyable, after all...
Cheers
Ivo
Ivo, thanks a lot for the gift. I have this problem accepting them unless it's very minor (in the order of a drink in a club, but then I buy one right back). I really don't know what to say as I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and indecision in equal doses. So here's the deal. Try it out and send it to me ONLY if you don't like the shaves you're getting from it better than the ones you have in your rotation. However I'd like this to be an exchange of gifts, so drop me an e-mail with a list of what you have and don't have and your shipping addy. That way we both get to try something new. In any case I REALLY appreciate what you're doing and I'm kind of overwhelmed. It's taking me about 15min to write these few lines and they're still not coming out right.
Monday
Hot Shower
Conditioner to soften Beard
Tony M. #1 strop
Colleen's unscented soap
F. Fenney wedge
AOS Sandalwood Gel
C&E Sandalwood edt
This is the best shave I've achieved yet. I just got this razor from Bill E. and it rules. I've never been able to tolerate against the grain passes, but I'm trying again on my neck and under jaw area. It went very well today - BBS with no irritation. Just had to share this one! :y
Plan was to test my honing on an EW and see how I like it. However, the SRP TI arrived (honed by Joe). How could I resist?
12 hour stubble
Hot shower
Rooney Super Med
Lucky Tiger Shave lotion
Tony Miller 3'' strop
SRP TI
Trumper's alum block
ice cube
Nivea AS balm
SRP TI - WOW!
I am not big on its looks but all the talk of lead tempering and what not just convinced me I need to try a TI, and the SRP popped up as an opportunity. What can I say, scales don't match (pinning is bad,) finish on scales not that impressive... But the blade - a true beauty, great balance, very comfortable grip... seemed a bit bigger for 6/8 and I measured the toe as 13/16... Anyway, the blade felt stiff, sturdy, and overall great! This one is catapulted at the very top of my rotation. Testing still in progress, but I have the feeling it would out-perform a couple of my current favorites. (For the record, currently, with the TI, I have 7 favorites. At least 7 potential others I haven't used yet...)
Wish I had more growth :( Nicked myself once :rant: This is still a good number for me, I am just mad it detracted a bit from the first TI experience. By the way, shave was not that smooth, which was expected (because of the short time between shaves) and I prefer imperfect comfort over irritated smoothness. Alum block was OK and showed a couple of spots on the neck where I almost got aggressive. I am glad I stopped myself on time.
Nivea not up to par, after some other (better and more expensive) toners / lotions I have tried... I used to think Nivea is great :shrug:
Hot Shower
Conditioner
6/8 Dorko
Colleen's Moss & Oak Shaving cream
Silvertip badger
Pinaud Bay Rum
Good shave.......Ummmmm!!
31 Oct. '06
Fromm #72 5/8 RP
Burma Shave soap and brush
This is the first str8 I ever owned. First pass was pretty quick at around eight minutes but the reverse pass took longer for a total of about twenty five minutes. I can probably cut that down further if I make a greater effort to do the reverse in a more orderly manner rather than moving from one spot to another somewhat haphazardly.
I'll give you some advice that comes from experience... Shaving is similar to stropping in the fact that speed comes slowly with practice. Just focus on doing your strokes properly and with time your whole 2-3 pass shave, prep and cleanup included will take you about 15 minutes without subtracting from the overall experience or causing any damage to your face.
- Hot shower
- Washed face with Dove "Cool Moisture" green tea and cucumber body wash (what can I say? My wife's in charge of shower soap...) :) Actually it's pretty good stuff...
- Left face wet
- Massaged more hot water into my beard, first with my hands, then with...
- Vulfix 375 Super Badger
- Colleen's Desert Ironwood soap (Mmmmmmmmmm....) :D
- 20 laps on my bitchin' new Tony Miller heirloom latigo hanger (sweet!)
- 7/8 Bartmann 'High Class' spike w/Brazilian rosewood scales (thanks John Crowley!)
- Lumene Skin Tech for Men sensetive skin balm (I use this about 1-2 times per week, especially now that the air is getting a bit drier... Normal daily AS is Trumper Coral Skin Food...)
A full day of "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh......." :tu
Same brush (rooney), same soap (GDS), same razor (TI LE).
Life is good.
I decided to enrich my experience by both using a more conventional grip and to go 2-handed. No nicks, but the shave quality isn't as good. I guess it takes, practice.
TEW test today
2 or so days' growth
hot shower
KMF Lavender + Shea cream
Same brush (my everyday now - Rooney Super Med)
Tony Miller 3'' strop
6/8 TEW round point
7/8 Satinedge spike
Trumper's alum block
ice cube
L'O CADE AS balm
I don't even know why I dug out the KMF cream, as it had not given me good results in the past. Now I got great lather (because of the superior Rooney brush) but still not crazy about the scent.
TEW performed very well (honed by me) for right half. For comparison, switched to the DD (honed by Joe C) on the left half. Both razors gave me two tiiiny nicks on both sides of the face with both hands. TEW - never even understood it, just saw a red spot smaller than a pencil dot. DD spike - at least I knew when the tip did it. Absolutely minor nicks, didn't even need cold water.
Evaluation: feel is defintely very different. The DD sang more and is much, much sharper, with superior glide. No surprises there - Joe C vs Ivo the Noob honing, after all... However, both sides are equally smooth, with no irritation :y
Felt pretty good about both overall shave and honing abilities on the hollow TEW
Cheers
Ivo
Ivo, it looks like Taylor needs a bit more work on the hone. I get these unexplained blood-wells around the time when my blades need touchups. I have two different yet not mutually exclusive theories:
1) A dull blade will agressively rip out a hair and slightly injure the surrounding tissue.
2) When you shave with a duller blade, you press more so the blade is more likely to dig into surface irregularities instead of gliding over them.
So try 1-5 1-5 1-5 and shave again.
Ilija,
thanks for the tip. i would imagine it's not theory 1, as aggressively pulling hair would hurt me so that I will notice. you are one tough guy if the blade aggressively rips your hairs and you don't feel it :D
my money is on theory 2
anyway, I would say I had to be much more careful with the DD, and the TEW allowed more slack, with (more or less) equal results
Cheers
Ivo
Hot Shower
15/16 Dorko
C&E Nomad Shaving Cream
Silvertip Badger brush
C&E Nomad after shave balm.
Damm nice shave and a nice smell...
I have to admit I have a high tolerance for pain. When I woke up after a wild night out (went to sleep fully dressed) I got pissed off b/c "someone spilled red wine all over my pant leg." It turned out that I did the spilling and it sure as heck wasn't wine :eek:
What the hell did you do? Please don't say commando shaving:roflmaoQuote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
It all started with helping a frosh kid who couldn't really handle the century club, puke his little guts out. By the time I tucked him in and went to meet the rest of the crowd at the spot where they had a bonfire going, I had to go alone, with no ilumination, through a dark forest. Lost the trail and had to cut through the woods to get to the main trail. On the way, I made acquaintance with a tree trunk.That sucker took me about 6 months to heal.
Edit: For all of you non-CDN members, frosh = freshman.
Inebriated stab wounds do not count!Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
but ripping hair sober does :D
I wasn't really inebriated when the injury happened. Only did a century club.
Hot Shower
5/8 Torrey spike
Tony Miller strop
Vulfix 374 silvertip
Taylor's Lavender cream
Taylor's Mr. Taylor AS
Terry
gitting better with this straight edge shaving. no more razor burn but a few small cuts if I'm in a hurry. otherwise all is fine.:nj
02 nov. '06
Clauss 11/16 SP New Departure Razor
Ever Ready brush
Ivory bar soap
Used the Ivory soap because I was trying out a scuttle recently purchased at an area antique store and didn't have any shaving soap available that fit in it. The scuttle worked well, the water stayed hot so the lather was warmer than usual. The soap worked well enough. I used to use Ivory when I shaved with disposables but this was the first time with a str8.
Fri:
Rooney brush, GDS soap, 5/8 Puma, Harris face milk. Good shave.
Hot shower, cream rinse soak on whiskers
Hot towel
Classicshaving vanilla soap
Vulfix 2234
NOS 7/8 Crown & Sword
Alum block
Pinaud Bay Rum A/S
I'm getting tired of leaving some sideways growing stubble on my neck with straights :mad: and went pretty aggressive there today including a 4th pass with re-stropping the razor and water only. Still left a little bit that I can feel if I look for it but knew I'd gone about as aggressive as I wanted to when I applied the alum and A/S. No screaming involved but felt a nice burn and saw the skin go red for about 5 minutes.
Shaved with the AC (Pro blades). That thing was HARSH :eek: A moment of carelessness gave me one nick (but I would have got a nick from a straight as well), but that wasn't the issue. Just the feel on the skin was unreal. It also needed unusually frequent rinsings. The shave itself was cleaner than a straight shave but not nearly enough to justify leaving my old friends. I may still get one as a traveller.
Did you use the pro or super pro blades? The super pro blades are a bit easier (though not much).
In my experience, the first day with the feather is the best, after that my skin got thinner and thinner, and after a few days my face would start bleeding randomly, sometimes in the middle of the day I'd discover places where it had started bleeding.
I used Pro. I'm sure the first shave knocked down the sharpness factor a bit, so I'll see how it shaves tomorrow. Gonna have it for a few days until Dave comes in to drop off the leather for the bench hone. After that I'll give my face a day's rest and go back to my babies.
4th Nov.
Never posted here before, so here goes...
Used Dovo 6/8 - face and Bengall 7/8 - head.
Wahl Barbers shaving cream
armani mania aftershave balm
Body shop moisturising cream.
Did face first - went a second pass against grain for first time in ages. Second pass just with warm water - really good shave.
Head - decided, first time ever, to try an against the grain pass on back of head. Mistake. Have decided shaving head twice a week is not too inconvenient after all.
That's just plain scary sounding.Quote:
Originally Posted by mparker762
Hot Shower
5/8 Aevos
Colleen's Cavendish Black shaving cream
Silver tip badger brush
Alum block
C&E Nomd After Shave Balm
Dovo brush
Taylor's St. James cream
5/8 Puma
Great shave, it's 12 hours later and I'm still BBS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mparker762
I love the Taylors St James cream
Sure is… yikes! I have a Feather AC and use it pretty regularly. In fact, I used it every day for about 3 weeks while awaiting the return of some razors from honing and traveling for a week. And I must say that my experiences were much better in general – I certainly didn’t experience any unprovoked episodes of spontaneous facial bleeding… :eek: Not to be patronizing or anything – believe me, I’m more green than probably 80% of the guys in here when it comes to str8 shaving – but you do have to have a lighter touch with the Feather. I find that while it is much less forgiving than a traditional str8 blade, and thus requires more care and less pressure, in return it provides a wonderful shave.Quote:
Originally Posted by DMS
I’ve found the Feather vs. traditional blade to be a bit of a holy war in here... But honestly I appreciate and use both, and recommend anyone who has not tried a Feather to give it a go. They take a little practice to tame, but once you bring it to heel, it will reward you with great shaves. :tu