I hope my shaves progress as quickly as yours have.
Did you use anything other than Brasso on that razor? It looks great!
Did you use anything other than Brasso on that razor? It looks great!
I hope my shaves progress as quickly as yours have.
Did you use anything other than Brasso on that razor? It looks great!
don't get me wrong... I don't get off scott-free for the things I say and do... I got a Russian wife and you don't cross a Russian without paying for it somehow, someplace... especially with a bunch of straight razors in reach...
again with the Joe Elliot Rattler.. i went back to the Ardennes coticule i have and watched a rasupur video and tried to emulate his method... edge came off pretty good and then i remembered i bought this ridiculously large & heavy granite surface plate (on sale for 1/2 price) and some lapping film at woodcraft last month when i got the seraphim straight in anticipation that i might need more film than he was going to send me... i got a 15u, 5u and .3u. combo pack so after a some time on the coticule i did some lapping on the 5u and .3u.
cuts arm hair nicely, the edge looks really polished so I prepared to shave using a sample of EJ cream sea buckthorne and and a best badger brush, face lathered and put blade to face... wow, smooth as can be. 1st pass best yet, 2nd pass, even nicer.. already at DFS no cuts, slices, pressure was good.. i figured i go for a third to see if I could get BBS. ALMOST! damn smooth, but i can feel some micro-stubble. I am happy... no cuts, no slices, but i think i applied a bit of too much pressure on the ATG since my face looks great, but even WH gave me a some feedback...
finished up with some Thayers CUCUMBER (avoiding my slang) and followed up with some Weleda Calendula Oil.
i am getting there, not 100% and i look at my DEs and wonder when i am going to get a chance to use them...
I was also hoping that no one was going to bid on that 'bay "large" filarmonica with the crack at the back of the blade, but once it hit $40 in the afternoon (sold for $90?) i forgot about it. Thought if it was cheap enough I could have tried to put a thumb notch in there....
all in all a good shave!
i decided to shave this morn with the seraphim 6/8 GD. That thing is sweet. I also decided to break out a EJ canvas/leather strop that looks surprisingly similar to the DOVO strop at AOS. It says Germany Ringlender or something like that. I did about 20 laps on the canvas followed by 40 on the leather.
What a difference in draw feel. wow it was way smoother than the ShavingStar big momma and much smaller. makes me want to try out some more strops soon...
the shave was excellent, no nicks, but still some barely visible razor burn, especially on my neck... i am pretty sure it's looking more about the angle than presuure. 2 WTG passes and i was ready to get on with the rest of my day. I'd love to shave in the morning, but i just don't have the time nor do i feel awake enough at pre-5AM to do a good job... I did pick up Weleda baby calendula cream and it's nice and soothing and moisturizing. it absorbs nicely and feels great.
I am absolutely enjoying shaving with straights and I'd love to try one of these Pumas ( i saw a NOS 4/8 go for ~40 bucks on the bay this morning) or filarmonica's but i don't know if i really want to commit such funds right now.
Are most people even really using them more than 2x before flipping them?
I have an engagement on this Saturday that I think i cant show up with some odd slices in my face, so i decided yesterday that i would either use a DE or a hydro 5 until Sunday. I decided on a NEW with wal-mart wilkinson blade. with one pass it was DFS, with 2 it was BBS and I was done....simply amazing... fast forward to today...
so i have been trying to win some "overlooked" straights on the 'bay and came away with this Freddie Reynolds. It showed up today.. It has an interesting blade profile to me, the spine and edge aren't exactly parallel and the point juts out a bit past the spine.. there is minimal hone wear, still has grind marks on the blade and looks like a half to quarter hollow. looks like plastic scales and I just had to try it out...
after being cleaned up... it wasn't too bad to begin with, some tarnish and overall dulled finish.
I dulled edge on some glass, polished it with Brasso, honed on my DMT C/F and finished on the coticule and tried to shave some arm hair off. It cut so fine that i ran up stairs, stropped it, on canvas and this prima rindleder leather (my stropping seems to be much better) and went to town...
i was a bit nervous as the edge looked straight, but one side of the upper bevel wasn't exactly straight, I tried to hone it straight but it kinda stayed the way it wanted to.. blade to face and focused, but not too much concentration F'n Magnificent. . I could not believe again how smooth it cut. I think my technique is vastly improving concurrently and I only went with 2 WTG passes and the face is DFS smooth and irritation free.
I could get used to this...
4 more shaves, 3 more straights procured...
2 johan engstroms... one frameback and one super skinny spine extra/full hollow, both around 5/8s squares. the frameback had a minor chip, heavy wood? scales and the skinny spine had really light plastic?micarta scales maybe to look like yellowed ivory? honed both using my dmt c/f and coticule and films and actually tried to wet-sand the skinny spine into mirror shine and almost got there. i think my mistake was not enough sanding at the 500-1000 grits. my set only has like 220, 500, 1000, 1200.
i also have a pre-filamornica jose monserrat 14 on it's way... I also have a set of naniwas coming and I think it's time to take a acquisition break... except i would really like to try a boar brush.
the shaves have been coming along nicely, they are super close, but I am getting some irritation... and a cut line here and there. I have been using a DB 1.5 scuttle from a PIF but I don't think it's for me...
i think my honing is good enough to keep me shaving, my stropping is coming along. i feel a lot of stiction in some of my shaves especially when i try to use a superlather mix... i opened up the blade a bit and i think that may be the culprit in closeness and irritation.
i may give my face a rest for a while, even though my skin feels smooth, i can feel the slight irritation. I finished off this XTG/ATG DFS afternoon shave with some alcohol based AS and it was rough.... though last evening i did only 1 WTG pass that felt great CCS, so i thought it would be okay 12 hours later to finish off the other passes.
I really want to rescale (or have someone do it) some, if not all, of these blades.
If you want to rescale and have the tools and time, I would recommend doing it yourself. If not, contact a honemeister, some also make scales. There are a few threads on this forum showing some work that a few are doing, quite nice!