SOTD: Saturday 6 July - Friday 12 July 2024.

ekeko said:

Saturday 6 July

My first few shaves with the Muramasa since I bought it (cheers @Keltoi) have been excellent. The range of settings is plenty enough to balance wtg, atg, and pickups without causing irritation, even with average soaps. Today the M de C Vetiver was anything but average. Smooth, creamy, long lasting and great scent. The Rubberset vintage bristle can still layer the lather albeit the original bristles are quite hard and maybe show their age. The bristle length however does tend to compensate for its inherent hardness. So all in all a happy chappie am I.
Have a great weekend fellas!

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pjgh said:

Saturday 6th July

Czech & Speake Oxford & Cambridge (Old Stock) Shaving Soap & Vulfix Coronet w/Pure Bristle
Gillette Sensor Excel & Gillette Sensor Excel (NOS) (1)
Brut Original Aftershave

Oh, my ...

The Gillette Sensor was the first premium razor that I bought after a handful of years shaving with various disposables and any old bar soap I happened to find on whichever sink I happened to find myself at ... Wilkinson Sword Retractor was my favourite, although memory has merged that with the BIC but once I'd conceded that my memory was at fault and the Wilkie was indeed red (not orange) it all came back into focus.

Anyway, the Sensor ...

Yes, bad habits, poor technique and I got to the point that I'd had enough and thought, "there must be something better than this" ... so, to the internet and to this very forum which changed my ways. All of them. Equipment, yes, but more importantly technique.

... and so today I revisited the Gillette Sensor format with this Excel handle and a magazine of period cartridges that I snagged off eBay a few weeks ago. Today, I know my beard map. Today, I have good technique. Today, I lather with a boar bristle brush and a premium soap (thanks again @McShaver). Today, the Sensor delivered a stunning shave!

Intrepidation at first, those very first clicks of the pivot ... and that one or two strokes under my sideburn to the get the flow started. Then straight into it and resisting that temptation with whip around quickly in every which direction without lather discipline that would lead to a bad shave. Long, purposeful overlapping strokes following the same map I would with a traditional safety razor, stubble reduction, re-lather and pick up the stragglers.

Beautiful! I did three passes coz I was really enjoying myself. End result and face feel is much akin to the Gillette Twinjector (the originial Trac-II but with injector blades). I've long maintained that the static head Trac-II was superior to the various pivoting razors that followed and would still say that of the Contour, but having re-tried the Sensor with good technique ... I would say it pips the Trac-II. I'd say it pips the Mach3 as well. Curious now to try the disposable Sensor3 that seem to be retired by Gillette but abundant on Amazon and eBay.

Really, really enjoyed that!

Glad, too, that I didn't dither over that Sensor (Original) Silver Edition that popped up on eBay. Few an far between nowadays. It'll be with me in a couple of days. I bagged it as an ornament, actually, for prosperity - silver plated special, never used and with original can of foam in the display tube. I may well use it if the handle feel is substantially different.

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mpf9ret said:

Well Done Paul,
I shaved with a Schick Super 11 today, and like you found that improved technique - results in a decent Shave.

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