Share your shave of the day!
August 3, 2024
- Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts w/Maggard SHD 30mm Fan
- Razor: Chiseled Face - Legacy Raw Titanium (#69)
- Blade: Wilkinson Sword Classic (2)
- Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Port-Au-Prince - Soap
- Post Shave: Old Spice - Original - Aftershave
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Balm
- Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. - Varen - EdT
$Discord
$ShepherdsofStirling
Progress AlbumGreat shave. Everything clicked. This blade in this razor is just incredible. I really enjoyed the scent of Port-Au-Prince today.
Port-Au-Prince has always been “the scent that could have been great” to me. The lemongrass has always been a turn off, both because I’m not a fan of the smell, and also because it has given me a small amount of frag burn (I assume it’s the lemongrass because it’s a known common irritant, and vetiver is not).
The Ariana and Evans method of continuing to use soap even though it burns you in an attempt to “teach” your skin to grin and bear it seems to be working. No tinge anymore. My nose also might be learning to ignore the lemongrass, as today it came across as just good ol’ Vetiver.
Ariana and Evans method of continuing to use soap even though it burns you
I didn’t know that was a thing! I’m fortunate enough to not be sensitive to A&E’s fragrances. I’m certain that many years of (the real) Old Spice finished tanning by skin long ago.
While other artisans would say “discontinue use if irritation occurs”, Charky would tell people to keep trying. One of the many ways he rubs me the wrong way.
AA24 - Day 3 - Saturday Retreat
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Brush: Zenith Multi-Color (2006 XSE) 21mm Unbleached Boar Knot
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Blade: Gillette Platinum [3]
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Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Varen - Soap (Mutton Tallow)
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Post Shave: Catie’s Bubbles - Retreat - Aftershave Lotion
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Fragrance: Chicago Grooming Co. - Shilo - Eau de Parfum
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Tags: $ShepherdsofStirling $RawHoggin
Really nice 🍀🐑Shepherd of Stirling🐑🍀 shave today with Varen and Retreat.
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August 3, 2024
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Brush: Zenith r/Wetshaving 31mm x 57mm Moar Boar
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Razor: J.A. Henckels Friodur 14 Full Hollow Square Point
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Lather: Chicago Grooming - AG 1889 - Soap
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Toner: Thayers - Lavender - Toner
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Aftershave: Chicago Grooming - AG 1889 - Aftershave
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Fragrance: Guerlain - Jicky - Eau de Toilette
2 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave. $headless $FriodomRiders
Another day, another vacation from stropping. Today’s shave was more comfortable and closer than the last two days. How can that be? I’ve done no stropping, and some straight razors shavers strop before the shave, during the shave, and after the shave. Well, all part of the grand plan.
TLDR; My technique is adapting. (Feel absolutely free to ignore the following.)
I thought of this “no stropping” challenge when @djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social first suggested the idea of FriodomRiders. I strop after shaving mostly because I want to make sure that the edges on my (mostly carbon steel) razors get completely dry. With stainless steel, that’s really not an issue. Towel drying will suffice.
In my very early days of shaving (just after the asteroid wiped out the dinasaurs), a DE blade was supposed to go one month of (1-pass) shaves. No stropping. Since taking up the hobby and also understanding the value of multi-pass shaving, I tend to toss a DE blade between 8 and 12 uses. No stropping. Artist Club blade? Twenty-ish uses. No stropping. GEM twenty-ish uses (but 31 was no problem). No stropping. @sgrdddy@sub.wetshaving.social has put a few (😉) shaves on a single Nacet blade over the years. No stropping.
You get the point.
If machine-made blades provide great shaves and don’t need daily stropping why in the world do straight razors? I think the answer is just tradition and perhaps, honing technique that relies on stropping for final edge condition. I think I’m relying on the former because I know I don’t do the latter.
Since I knew I would try to go 31 days with one edge, I chose to create an edge that is slightly less refined, and I worked to create convex roundness at the apex. I expect that this type of edge is more durable at the expense of a little closeness. The shaves I had on days 1 and 2 were very comfortable and slightly less BBS than my normal 2-pass routine. Pretty much what I expected. For today’s shave I played with angle and pressure a bit and was quite surprised to have shave quality that equals my normal straight razor shave. Perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks!
In past years I have kept a microscope photo record of edge degradation. I’m doing that this year as well, but I think it isn’t really necessary to update edge condition daily. This time around, I plan to make one photo each week. I made a photo of the edge condition before use, included it at the end of my honing video, but did not post it here.
Here is a photo of the razor’s edge on July 31.
Ha! I didn’t know about the connection between no stropping and the stainless challenge, but it makes a ton of sense!
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Pre-Shave: Hattric
SR: Beviro closed comb
Blade: Mühle (1)
Soap: Proraso Red
Brush: Nom Gustav Pure Badger
After-Shave: Speick
This Beviro safety razor is most likely made by Mühle, the head is the same, the store that has created the brand Beviro also is heavily focused on the Mühle brand, the Mühle blade should be included in the package (it was not in mine). The head also very closely resembles the Mühle closed comb head (same shape of the “teeth” on the edges of the main plate).
It was a very mild, but still effective shave. The safety razor is pretty simple, not the most affordable one and the availability outside the czech republic might be limited, but I like the design and it simply works. The major downside is the handle that is not slippery per se, but also not grippy.
Overal score of this shave: 8/10
Day 3/31 of Looking for Serenity in Austerity
- Brush: Semogue Owner’s Club (cherry wood and boar) (3)
- Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 50 (7/8", hollow ground, stainless steel, masonic deco) (1)
- Lather: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
- Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
- Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
Sigh. Of. Relief.
I found the time today to hone my razor, and now it’s smoooooth! ☺️ No more tuggy shaves for this face this month.
About my process: I’m using a Naniwa combination waterstone with a 3k side and a 10k side. This time, I killed the edge and then honed it on the 3k side, frequently checking the edge on a strip of styrofoam until it pushcut easily without much resistance along the entire edge. Next, I switched to 10k and repeated the procedure. After a while, the pushcuts become effortless. First only on some parts of the edge, which then tells me where to apply light pressure with my fingers until I have effortless pushcuts along the length of the edge. I’m using both trailing and leading edge strokes, but only apply pressure during the trailing edge bit. I have a pasted canvas strop which I use exclusively after honing, and a few laps on it make the edge feeling smoother during the first shave in my experience, but also seemingly sharper: the pushcuts in styrofoam are like the blade melts into it. I’m thinking this is the edge being deburred and possibly the bevel convexed by the pasted strop, but I can’t know for sure.
This is pretty much also the process I’d use at home, the only difference is that I have a big bag of styrofoam packing peanuts for edge testing (the @gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social method) at home and my muscle memory works better with those than the strips of styrofoam I managed to scrounge up in my vacation location.
The brush is starting to resist splaying less, which makes it easier to lather. It’s still hogging the lather and the tips haven’t started to split yet, so there’s still some work to be done.
