11nd April to 17rd April 2020

After the usual 1-2 minute hot towel prep:

Kirby Beard/Iridium Super
Col. Conk superbadger
Pens BB shaving cream
no after shave needed
Jean Desprez 'Versaille' EdT (vintage juice)

So glad to have grabbed the Kirby for another great shave! Gotta be one of my favorites and even better when paired with this blade and cream.

The Versailles frag called to me this morning. One of THE best dry downs, with lots of silage and staying power. Found this NOS bottle at an estate sale years ago and whew, it's quite intense at first. Half hour later the base notes show through, which is amazing.

BBS results,

Martin
 

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SOTD Monday, 04/13/2020

Day 2 of my time with the Brass TAR (Tom's Adjustable Razor), and all I can say is wow! I'd always liked my Gibbs Adjustables despite the razor blade modification required. My only negative was how light they were requiring me to focus on both tremor control as well as technique. The issue was somewhat mitigated with my repaired Rex Ambassador. The additional weight helped somewhat, but the narrow sweet spot sometimes makes it difficult when doing the back of my dome.

The beauty of this razor is that it checks several boxes for me. First is that I really like open comb razors, thus my affection for my French Le Coq Cage head and Famex razors. I love the open combs on both razors, but particularly like the slight adjustability of the Famex. The issue is that both razors are still relatively light. Second is the broader range of adjustability with the TAR, much wider than the Famex. After yesterday's shave, I felt more confidant cranking the TAR up to 4 for today's first pass on the face. I did readjust it to 3 for that first noggin pass.
But the final box is the beautiful 156 gram (rounded) weight, allowing me to fully concentrate on shave technique.

The shave itself was a pleasure. I used Evans's (@MrEE) Badger/Boar hybrid brush. The knurling on the handle completely negates any handle slipperiness. It built a beautiful lather with one of my favorite mentholated cream soaps, Kapo, which is manufactured in Bulgaria. Since it already contains some slight mentholation, I only needed to add three drops of M-Bomb to get it to the appropriate level of iciness. With the TAR set on 4 it mowed down my whiskers on the first ATG pass to the skin line except for a few of the usual places - around my Adam's Apple. After readjusting it to 3 it took care of my dome stubble with the same level of aplomb - again leaving some rough spots in the usual places on the back of the head.

My final ATG buffing pass at 3 cleared the stubble around the Adam's Apple with the exception of a very minor weeper below it which stopped following the post shave wash with Glyce glycerin soap. I set the TAR to 2.5 for my final ATG dome buffing clean-up. The real joy for me in this shave was my ability to completely focus on shave technique. The weight of the razor eliminated any need to think about tremor control. The noggin second pass was completed bloodlessly. Thank you TAR for another beautiful BBS. I feel clean, smooth, cool and refreshed. Stay safe and healthy out there! All the best to everyone!

RAZOR: Brass Version TAR (Tom's Adjustable Razor)
BLADE: Suneko (2)
PREP: Cold water rinse
BRUSH: MrEE's Aluminum Handled Brush w/ Badger/Boar Hybrid Knot
CREAM: Kapo Fresh salted w/ 3 drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with Glyce Glycerin soap followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Murray and Lanman Florida Water AS/Cologne Splash
 
Monday AM 2020-04-13

Rooney Stubby 2 Porcelain Finest (24/50)
Crabtree & Evelyn Sweet Almond Oil shaving cream (vintage)
Paradigm Titanium II/UFO Little Titan
Schick Plus Platinum (12)
Ginger's Garden Almond aftershave
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13/4/20

SOTD.jpeg

Soap - Palmolive Stick/RSC Cream
Brush - Vig Shaving Boar (20mm/55mm)
Razor - Ball End Tech
Blade - Personna Red (2)
Post - Witch Hazel
AS - Akcay Tobacco

I'm not one for photos usually (you can see from the photo above why!) but today I did one to show my new brush, a boar brush I bought from Vig Shaving for the paltry sum of $1.60 shipped.
Well how does the brush perform? I'd say like one worth what I paid for it. In the time of cleaning/soaking it, it must have lost close to 20 bristles and in it's maiden outing it must have lost another 10 bristles. It was a real struggle to build and hold any lather as well, I loaded the normal amount of soap I use for face lathering Palmolive but it wasn't having much luck so it needed a large dollop of RSC cream to get the lather going. From the side of the loft to the top there seems to be almost a 20mm differential.
I'll give the brush a few more gos to see if it improves though, as even if I have a terrible shave I'm not really seeing anyone to laugh at them.
 
donnie_arko said:
13/4/20

View attachment 53498

Soap - Palmolive Stick/RSC Cream
Brush - Vig Shaving Boar (20mm/55mm)
Razor - Ball End Tech
Blade - Personna Red (2)
Post - Witch Hazel
AS - Akcay Tobacco

I'm not one for photos usually (you can see from the photo above why!) but today I did one to show my new brush, a boar brush I bought from Vig Shaving for the paltry sum of $1.60 shipped.
Well how does the brush perform? I'd say like one worth what I paid for it. In the time of cleaning/soaking it, it must have lost close to 20 bristles and in it's maiden outing it must have lost another 10 bristles. It was a real struggle to build and hold any lather as well, I loaded the normal amount of soap I use for face lathering Palmolive but it wasn't having much luck so it needed a large dollop of RSC cream to get the lather going. From the side of the loft to the top there seems to be almost a 20mm differential.
I'll give the brush a few more gos to see if it improves though, as even if I have a terrible shave I'm not really seeing anyone to laugh at them.
Click to expand...
That's so weird - I stumbled across those cheap boars on AE yesterday and was wondering how they'd perform at that price. I'm curious to see how this one works for you
 
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SOTD 13th April
Pre - Bloom water
Brush - Razorock Monster
Soap - Wickhams Parma Violet
Razor - 1976 Gillette SS Flare Tip
Blade - Gillette Silver Blue
Post - Barts Balm Peppermint

I received this beautiful, special razor last week, its special as its my birth year razor and I'd promised myself I'd have to wait 2 months until my birthday. However, I folded like a bad hand!
A wonderful, smooth, close shave. Acres of wonderful lather, I think as I'm getting used to using more water with these soaps I'm getting tons of lather. This combo of brush and soap provided enough lather for about 5 passes, however 3 passes was enough here.
This little razor is amazing, it's special and I've already fallen in love with it! Don't know why, just have! It's not the closest, not the smoothest (yet!) but it's so nimble and agile and intuitive to use, I feel like I've used it forever. The Gillette blade was a great partner for the razor and Barts Balm was a refreshing and quality post shave treat. This was gonna be a special occasion razor, but I'm already considering using it as my daily driver on workdays as it is so smooth and easy to use. Is this sacrilege? Can I relegate my Rockwell? It is a tool to be used after all. I can already feel myself falling for these vintage classics and falling deeper into this RAD world! I'm sorry to wax lyrical, but today was probably my most enjoyable and memorable shave to date. Looking forward to my Birthday, or possibly sooner.
Stay safe everyone.
 
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Sotd - Monday the 13th of April - the day - same as last Monday and probably like the next to come - the shave was different.

Prep - facial scrub
razor - ATT Calypso M
blade - Nacet (1)
brush - Semogue LE mixed badger and boar
soap - RazoRock - Nomad - vegetarian but not vegan - depends on how you feel about lanolin
post - witch hazel
a/s - RazoRock Nomad
balm - none needed
scent - Creed - Bois de Portugal edp.

Result - all good - another shaving week begins. Apart from the fact I like the Nomad soap - I picked it this afternoon - the camels - granted Bactrian on the soap label - because I got a message from a close friend - who is currently somewhere in the Arabian desert SSW of Riyadh - he's a mining geologist - looking for stuff - I'm not sure what precisely - living out of a Land Cruiser - he thought there wasn't another human around for hundreds of square miles - lots of feral camels though - which - I have to admit is social distancing done par excellence. Got to take your hat off to that. Nice shave - as suspected - the Calypso took the Nacet a treat - the blade will be good for five days - no problem - I've enjoyed rediscovering them. Creed on a Monday? - I know - very decadent - nice shaving ritual - I hope you enjoy yours - cheers - I.
 
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Dazednconfused said:
Razor - 1976 Gillette SS Flare Tip

I received this beautiful, special razor last week, its special as its my birth year razor and I'd promised myself I'd have to wait 2 months until my birthday. However, I folded like a bad hand!
A wonderful, smooth, close shave. Acres of wonderful lather, I think as I'm getting used to using more water with these soaps I'm getting tons of lather. This combo of brush and soap provided enough lather for about 5 passes, however 3 passes was enough here.
This little razor is amazing, it's special and I've already fallen in love with it! Don't know why, just have! It's not the closest, not the smoothest (yet!) but it's so nimble and agile and intuitive to use, I feel like I've used it forever. The Gillette blade was a great partner for the razor and Barts Balm was a refreshing and quality post shave treat. This was gonna be a special occasion razor, but I'm already considering using it as my daily driver on workdays as it is so smooth and easy to use. Is this sacrilege? Can I relegate my Rockwell? It is a tool to be used after all. I can already feel myself falling for these vintage classics and falling deeper into this RAD world! I'm sorry to wax lyrical, but today was probably my most enjoyable and memorable shave to date. Looking forward to my Birthday, or possibly sooner.
Stay safe everyone.
Click to expand...
It's great when you find a razor that you like using. An added bonus in that it's your birth year razor.
 
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