Brushless shave cream ?

A little story by 10Pups :<0) ........................................You can skip the story and get to the topic which is pictured below.

I work for Home Depot but my position there is ummm not the usual apron in the isle kind of job. I am fortunate enough that my construction skills can be used to help give back to the community by the company. Home Depot has been focusing on helping vets and in this case we are helping an ex Navy man who is soon going in for back surgery. While he recovers he will be in a wheel chair and his house is not very wheel chair friendly. Before Team Depot ( a group of volunteers from corporate and stores) comes in to paint, landscape, replace door knobs with levers etc. I go in and do things like build wheel chair ramps fix sidewalks, gates, remove lawns, things that take more than 1 day to finish.

With rain coming I told Kelly (the vet) that rain is in the forecast on the day the Team is supposed to come and if it does rain we will not be there but would reschedule. He was concerned about knowing exactly what was going on and wanted to know who would call or who he could call. Rightly so considering you may or may not have 25 guest all over your house :<0) I have some business cards ( straight razor honing cards) so I gave him one and told him to call me anytime.

The fun begins the next day when he walks out onto the ramp I am building at his front door and says he noticed my card has straight razors on it. I smiled and said, yes sir I have been using one for sometime and I help guys get started, buy and sell a few here and there. He proceeds to tell me he just got a brand new razor for 70 bucks but he can't get it sharp with his hones. And he has been working diligently with no success at all. I told him to go get his stuff and show me. I will fix it for you. Well he comes back with a Solingen razor, a 118 Carborundum, and a hone marked 44~20 (which looks like a barbers hone.) Now there is another lengthy story about his father doing some barbering during the depression to make ends meet and he picked up some skills along the way and has used a straight for many years. Even did some shaving ( of others) himself back in the day. I assume it was somewhere around 1953 because his initials and that date are written in the lid of the 44~20. So getting back to his razor...evidently he has lost his honing skill but his determination. This brand new razor had a small frown and enough hone wear on the middle of the spine that you would pass it by if offered on the bay. Never the less I said I could fix it so I took it home. After working 12 hours that day just ran it over the 1k to see exactly what was going on and pooped out before I could determine anything. I told him so the next day and proceeded on the next night. It looked as though I had some new bevel all the way down the edge so I went through the whole progression to see what happened and I sort of felt like he needed it back despite my desire to do this right. I test shaved it the next morning and it did okay so I took it back with the intention of giving it back ( if he needed it) but explaining I wanted to do more. Now how do you tell a 90 year old guy who was in this straight razor game before I was even born that he really messed up ? I started out by telling him I shaved with it this morning. Boy he got a kick out of that. Then I just started explaining what I found and he said things like "too much pressure eh" , " uneven strokes you think?" as I went along. So I got to take it back home to fix it right. Last night I just set the edge to the hone a straightened out that frown and started to reset the bevel before I felt sleep overtaking me. This afternoon I get a call from Kelly and he wants to know my address so I tell him. He says okay I'll be there in 2 minutes and hangs up. So I drop what I am doing, clean up my workbench, lay out the hones and figure I will show him how I do it and how to refresh with his own stuff when the time comes. He was here over an hour telling me stories about this and that while I work his razor on the 1k, a little on a 101 Carb and back to the 1k etc. Then he says he has to go so I quickly show him the new bevel and how it is progressing and he says hold on I got something for you. He goes to his car and comes back with this..

What the thread is about in the first place :<0)
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You guys never told me about this stuff :<0)

I got the whole explanation of why when your 90 you need this stuff and how to use it.

I will post back tomorrow and let you know what I think.


If you made it through the story I hope you enjoyed it as much I have enjoyed the company of my new friend Kelly. Still every bit of gentleman he was when he served. Of which I am thankful for being able to give back at least, a little.

Fun read. I hope you guys get to finish the work soon! More importantly I am glad he has a razor and you took the time to help.

Just hilarious! It's part a come on story with a surprise ending or a sight gag that gets you roaring. This one will keep me chuckling for a few hours.

Great story - not only the Vet and his razor but you and Home Depot.

That logo looked familiar so I checked the reserve/back up shave den inventory and found this...

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They sell mostly to the Barber/Beauty trade - you can get this AS in gallon (3.8L) jugs for instance.

Interested to hear how that works, and compares to something like Cremo.
I've started using Cremo right out of the shower as a pre-shave with great results. I was using it just to keep my beard wet while I got ready - it's now part of the routine.
Looking forward to your update on all of this...

Team Depot showed up on time as the rain held off until that night. I still have to texture the ramp and a few other punch list items but the house is ready for chair now.



Razorfeld I get a kick out of this story too :<0) But to back it up here are some pics.

The porch scene. Me holding the 118 Carb waiting to see what it did to the razor.
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The 44~20 hone
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I am cleaning the strop for him too.
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The soaking the black off it now.

The razor is coming along. No makers mark but it sure has some solid steel.
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The pivot pin is loose but won't be after I fix the bevel

He has had this stuff for awhile so I am going slow with it.


MJC... I am just a speck in all this. HD spent 85 million on 1500 Vet homes between 9/11 and 10 /11. Celebration of Service. The division I am in has added 3 more, this being the 2nd. I have 1 more to do in Jan.

Fun read.

And it answers one question for this baby-boomer: Yes, you can still shave with a straight at age 90.
I had been worrying that I might have to go back to the cartridge stuff I used in the 70's when real old age creeps up on me... 👴

Now I just need to worry about my honing skills going down the drain as I grew older.
Much less of a worry...


B.

This just gets better...
The Strop is 50 years old and the Hone is 61 (1953)
It's great that you are there and able to bring them back in to service.

I've been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity for 22 years.
Great memories and you do get more out of it then you will ever know.
Meet the SWMBO 20 years ago when we worked on the same house.

And many don't know about the great work that Home Depot, Dow, Lowes, Whirlpool and a host of other companies do to give back.
Please keep us posted on the progress..

Smooth shaving...

I did neglect to mention that this was the "Celebration of Service" where Home Depot and Habitat for Humanity << ( great bunch of people) team up every year for a month long effort to help vets in need. That's why I said I am just a speck in the whole scope of things. Local churches bring lunch for everyone and local builders pitch in also. To be around that much positive energy is hard to describe.

I hope that the brushless cream that you have is better than the stuff I have. I have tried two different brands,neither come to mind right now, both are pretty weird stuff to use. i was hoping that it would be something I would enjoy and could use on short trips. I blade rinse, and this stuff just does not come off the blade easily. I found that I have to wipe on a wet towel for mine to come off the blade. The story is awesome. It takes a multi faceted skill set to do prep and d-list construction jobs.

I tried Cremo once and it did not do the trick for me but when used as part of an uber lather combination was fine.

Bob

Well I gave it a whirl this morning and as Rezdog said it was weird. 1 whiff into the jar (which I strongly suggest you avoid) reminded me of Noxema Grandma used to rub on your chest when you got a cold. It's not so bad in small quantities but I think I am either getting small reminders of it's scent over the after shave or the first whiff is still stuck in my nose.
Kelly had told me to use it sparingly or I was just wasting it. The picture below drove the point home for me. I applied a small finger swipe to each side after the hot towel and then added some water on top to rub it in. At first I thought it was going to lather up some but it quickly disappeared as I spread it around. The first pass was uneventful and not as smooth as if I had used my regular lather of MB's soap at first. I went ahead with it by itself and by adding more water as I went it did smooth out and the razor seemed to work normally. Looking at the blade there wasn't much more than whiskers on the edge to wipe off, which was kind of cool to see. First pass was just as close as normal.
2nd pass I added more with water and then proceeded to lather up normally. This is where it performed enough for me to notice a difference. It worked a little better than the AoS preshave oil and made those hard to get whiskers under the chin come off more cleanly.

All in all I would say it's not bad and maybe with more time I could learn how to use it more efficiently. You know how it is with new stuff. I am also no expert on describing soaps and cremes so I hope you can glean some info out of all this on your own.

So I would say it may very well be possible to use it on it's own and maybe advantageous for those with dry skin. My face does feel like it has been moisturized better than say an after shave balm.

Evidenced by the date and the amount left I would say that your get your money's worth, that's for sure.
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and Rez...No, there was no real mess of any kind to speak of. Maybe like Kelly said " Use sparingly" I would also think you could carry a very small container of this stuff to last a long time :<0)