The Scandal Sheet: Straights and other stuff

[Darth Scandalous]

You have quite the razor collection. A lot of history in your den. Very cool.

Thank you. I didn't really start off with the idea of collecting, as much as buying stuff that looked interesting and going from there. As it is, I have tried to at least limit the crowd to razors that I actually will use, which means I've sold or traded away around 15...all interesting but not razors that I looked forward to shaving with for one reason or another.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Had a top flight shave this morning. Really good. Really, really good.

Straight was Kyoei 39, Yasuki steel... brilliant. MdC Rose lathered up with my favorite brush. I didn't use preshave until prior to the ATG pass, as I had tried the other day, and that wasn't a fluke. Worked great.

I'd been using a Nacet in the New all week and it was still going strong. But I had the itch to try a Bic in it today.... well. Wow. Very smooth, just as effective, very enjoyable. And close! So close. The Veg tingled a bit but no sense of having over shaved.

I'm REALLY going to have to consider the role of my other DEs now. Because I'm going to have a hard time reaching for anything else. On that note, my New LC has cleared customs. So we'll see if it can compete.

Been listening to Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. I listened to this album a lot when I discovered it several years ago but it's been a while since I listened to it. Still great.

Be well.

 

[Eric_75]

Wishing you a blessed and peaceful week ahead, Matt.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Thank you, Eric, and the same to you!

Quick write up today as I have things to do. The razors: Okina and Fatip Retro, Feather (1). Soap: MdC Agrumes. Brush: Proraso Pro. Finish: Myrsol Limón.

Brilliant shave again, and despite my concerns to the contrary above, the Fatip will always have a place in my den, as long as Feather keeps making blades, anyway. This combo is equally effective to the New SC, *almost* as close, and very pleasant.

One of these days I am going to have to just shave my whole face with the Fatip.

Be well!

 

[APBinNCA]

Wishing you a blessed and peaceful week ahead, Matt.

Oh man, now I'm listening to the whole album! I wonder if it's on Tidal...

Yep and the sound is even better, saved.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Another very nice shave today. Sankan 1200 for the straight, New SC for the DE work below the jaw. Soap and splash were MdC Agrumes and Myrsol again. Used what may be my second favorite brush, this unassuming Vielong is really doing it for me.

I was hoping my LC would arrive today as tracking showed it at the Minneapolis hub last night, but they sent it out to a town about an hour west of here overnight (?). I'm sure they'll figure it out. I've had mostly good experiences with USPS, especially my local guys, but occasionally the Minneapolis hub will throw things in the wrong tub. I had one where I mailed a razor from work, downtown Minneapolis, and it went from the hub back to MY suburban PO first (I guess they looked at the return address?). The funny thing is, it was an ebay-generated label and they have the IMB (intelligent mail barcode) so there's no reason for a sorter to even be looking at the address. But, whatever. Patience, grasshopper.

Speaking of DEs, the second shave on the Bic was just as brilliantly smooth and close as the first. I really like this SC. I am toying with the idea of sending it to Backroads to get plated.

Wife and I had a "date" last night, wandered through the Menards garden center getting ideas. At least that was the plan. We came home with a lilac, a Korean dwarf and it's already in the ground at the corner of the house. Mrs. Scandalous just loves lilacs. I think she didn't expect me to agree to it, but when I just grabbed the nicest one off the shelf her face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. It's got a ton of buds so it should bloom soon, assuming it takes. I noted that it looked pretty happy this morning so that's a good sign.

Be well, all.

 

[thombrogan]

Lilacs for the win!

 

[Eric_75]

It's a non-shave day for me but I use aftershave every day. Today I'm going to break out the Stephan Lilac.

 

[cajunrph]

Mrs. Scandalous just loves lilacs.

My wife is a lover of all things related to flowers. I often remind her that before I met her, the back patio had two motorcycles parked on it, now it is a wall-to-wall jungle. As in queue up Gun-N-Roses "Welcome to the Jungle." Gotta love them, gotta love them.

 

[huck1680]

My wife is a lover of all things related to flowers.

Yes my wife loves them too and usually buys a bouquet every couple of weeks or so. In the very early stage of our relationship I bought her a really nice bouquet and had them sent to her office. Big points there. She asked me how come I don't buy her flowers anymore...I told her she does a much better job than I would. Now you might think the "bloom" is off the rose but no, things are really good...I'm just saving up for something really special.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Had a nice shave today, and faster. I changed up the order of my passes a little, especially on the neck area and consolidated my second pass-- managed to get more consistent stubble reduction and the final pass and cleanup were a breeze. I think I'm going to tweak it slightly tomorrow but I'm pretty happy with the results. I guess you can still learn things after a few years of doing it the same way.

Straight was Ribbon 100, soap was Beeswax, brush was RR400. DE was Fatip Retro, Feather (2). Finished with the Veg.

Looks like my New long comb is finally back in town and out for delivery so I imagine that will get the nod tomorrow.

Be well!

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Well, lookie here. Already got a Bic loaded up for tomorrow.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Continuing my experiment with more optimal passes today and I think I have a winning combo. I won't bore you all with the details, but my neck hair is biased more or less 90 degrees off from my cheeks. More or less. With a straight, sometimes it's easier just to do a whole pass in the same direction, say all north to south, for instance, because you've already got your grip and angles and everything set. But, that's not necessarily optimal for stubble reduction if that's WTG on part of the face and something else on the rest. So I am just being a little more intentional about shaving WTG/XTG/ATG in that order, in all areas, and I figured out a way to do it easily and efficiently today. Knocked several minutes off the shave and the end result was just as good, probably better, because it lead to less buffing and messing around.

The straight was my Heljestrand MK 3 and the DE was the new New LC. MdC Rose for the soap and Oumo for the brush. The New LC is pretty much as described by others. Similar to the SC but smoother, maybe a touch milder. The main difference besides comb length is that it doesn't clamp as close to the edge on the bottom as the SC, so you can flex the blade downwards if you push on it-- but in use, it doesn't seem to make a huge difference beyond feeling maybe a little more forgiving. The comb is more reminiscent of the Fatip OC both in feel and in how it engages the skin ahead of the blade. I was using a brand new Bic so it may actually get a little more efficient over a few shaves. I didn't really do any head to head comparison with the SC (I'm sure I will eventually) except for one troublesome neck hollow and as it turned out the SC didn't really do any better. So. Pretty happy with this one.

Be well.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Straight today was Rigarazor. I think it might be time for a refresh on this edge. The vendor/maker's edge was really quite nice but it felt just a touch harsh today. Just a touch. Some extra time on the strops helped but I've found that getting ahead of it means less work on the stones. So that will be in the to-do pile for the coming week.

Speaking of to-dos... been working on another set of scales for another razor that had a cracked scale. I have a set in oak that I cut to fit the frameback I rescaled last week, but decided to use the acrylic clipboard instead. These would work but they're a little long for the current razor. So I tried using a slab of resin that Mrs. Scandalous had poured. After a lot of work to shape it down, I think it looks really nice but this particular resin gets a little pliable with body heat now that I've got it thinned down to an 1/8" or less. I may still pin it together for the heck of it, just to see how it works. Pliability cuts both ways, because razor scales are always under tension and the tension shifts as you open and close it. So it won't crack on me, but it may want to warp. We'll see. Once I get the wedge and the blade pinned in, that should give it some stability.

Back to the shave, I used Stirling Beeswax soap, lathered with my Yaqi two-band. Shaved a few more minutes off with the new, more efficient 3-pass strategy. The New LC was just right-- no drama, sneaky efficient (went to do some more buffing on my right jawbone out of habit and realized there was nothing left to buff) and nice and close. Maybe not quite as microscopically close as the SC, but I didn't exfoliate as much skin either. So. A very smooth result. Finished with Bignoli Agrumi di Mediterraneo. Lovely orangey citrus scent.

Be well.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Frameback Friday today, I grabbed the Dahglren which despite having a bit of a rough life, shaves beautifully. Soap was Agrumes, brush was the Simpson's E3. Did some extra scrubbing with the floppy silvertip and it felt nice.

I am much less fastidious with my DEs than my straights, I load a blade and leave it until it's time to change, just a quick rinse and a shake and leave them to dry. So they get some soap scum and water spots. But my new New LC is basically pristine, so I've been disassembling it and drying it carefully after every shave. The point of that story is that I was a little pressed for time this morning so I grabbed the still-assembled SC instead, even though I was intending to use the LC again.

Anyway, the SC is still doing it for me. It seems like it's more efficient, even with a blade that is starting to wear a bit, than anything I've used yet, and today anyway, it was also very smooth. No nips, no overshaving, no nothing. My splash was Myrsol and there was about a minute delay before the menthol burn kicked in. Which means that I definitely didn't irritate my skin.

Got my lawn mowed yesterday afternoon, the mower started on the 5th pull even though I didn't put any fuel stabilizer in last fall. Bought two bikes for the youngest two kids, (7 and almost 13) who have definitely outgrown their old ones.

Listened to Junior Brown's Semi Crazy this morning. He's very talented, doesn't take himself too seriously, but a nice fun country style with some Texas swing thrown in. He uses a double necked guitar that he designed himself, he calls it the "guit-steel." It's a Tele style neck and then an abbreviated pedal steel. Somehow he's managed to rig up a stand so he can go back and forth between the two fluidly, chicken picking on the one and steel lines on the other. Pretty fun.

Be well.

 

[huck1680]

Bought two bikes for the youngest two kids, (7 and almost 13) who have definitely outgrown their old ones.

Yeah...watch this Grampa!

 

[thombrogan]

If you do go the stabilizer route, Ethanol Shield has been a heaven send for my yard stuff and Sta-Bil has been useless.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

If you do go the stabilizer route, Ethanol Shield has been a heaven send for my yard stuff and Sta-Bil has been useless.

I probably won't. The mower is the only gas engine we have besides the cars and I've never done any kind of maintenance on a push mower besides occasionally adding oil and knocking the burrs off the blade. I've been absolutely brutal to the two or three I've owned and they all just kept on ticking.

This one was second hand from my folks, a housewarming gift after living in an apartment for many years and honestly it started better yesterday than it did when they dropped it off last year. And that's after I managed to bend the shaft slightly when I hit a small stump I didn't know about.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Just a brilliant shave today, you can see the whole cast below minus the Veg which I forgot to add to the shot, wouldn't have fit anyway. Did a bit of initial lathering last night with the new Rudy group buy brush. It's nowhere near broken in but I think Semogue must start the process with these because it's usable already. LOTS of backbone, and scrubby of course, but my face seems to tolerate boar scrub more than others. The straight (Shell 71) was better than I remembered and I remember it being pretty damn good. The LC was damn near perfect too.

We're off to go garage saling. Be well.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Garage saling was...eventful. The shortest got a stuffed elephant that's as big as she is. Mrs. Scandalous got a vase and a couple other things. The teen got a functional and not overly girly handbag. I got a barely used Ryobi drill press. Then, the teen talked us into going into the local hole in the wall used guitar store...wanting an electric guitar to learn on(I have my doubts about how long this commitment will last). I said if we could share I would consider it. Talked them out of a purple one with godawful intonation and found an old Teisco (budget Japanese brand) that somebody had obviously fixed some of the hardware problems on, which turned out to be an easy player and definitely in budget. And a really quite serviceable amp for not a lot more. So wins all around.