So, in the name of objectivity I shaved today with a new Blue Box
Platinum blade & duplicating everything I used on the earlier shave (#3) except for obviously it was a new blade and I used my trusty "Ol' Betsy" English "ball end"
Tech instead of the
Baili. I used the same
Cashmere bush and most importantly the same soap. That soap be
Santa Maria Del Fiore Sapone De Barba as sold by
Italian Barber:
Santa Maria del Fiore Sapone da BarbaSanta Maria del Fiore Sapone da Barba is a very soft traditional Italian shaving soap, some people call this style ...
www.italianbarber.com
Prep was exactly the same. The results surprised me for I got the same silky smooth shave as I did on shave #3 with the prior blade using the
Baili!! It was if I were using an injector as it was that smooth!! Now before I get carried away I need to reassess the fact that the only thing that changed was the soap (factoring in I had used the prior blade in the
Tech two times before). No doubt the SMDFDB is a superb soap, but it was really a "game changer" in this respect!! If I recall I used
Arko for the first shave on the first blade with my
Tech as it's sort of a standardized set point more or less. I do not recall which I used for shave #2.
In all honesty it appears that a better soap allowed this blade to really shine and also ram home the fact that there is more to traditional DE shaving than just using a good blade, razor, prep & yes, even technique. All those factors may be for naught if we don't create the best "highway" in the overall mosaic. I am going to try next other top tier artisan soaps with it.