How do you soak your boar brush?

[TinyT]

Are you sure you don't want to consider bowl lathering then?

I have tried it, and it works fine but I really find it unnecessary. The lathers are no more consistent than with face lathering, plus I don't like bowl clinking. There's just something very direct about face lathering which I like. My shave routine is very simple. No prep, not even a shower. Wet the face, lather up, shave, cold water splash to finish and done. I believe that with a carefully cultivated technique, repeatable perfect shaves are achievable with this straight forward approach. I'm fairly sure my Grandad had an even simpler way of shaving, though he sometimes used Brut or Old Spice as an aftershave.

 

[TinyT]

Hope this isn't too many pictures, let me know if I need to cool it on the photos. Hope you all are getting some great shaves!

We love pictures!

 

[TinyT]

Shave 9: Merkur Super Platinum


Merkur 34C
Merkur Super Platinum (2)
Cella
Omega 10051

My last shave with this blade wasn't great but everything deserves a second chance.

I started soaking the brush as usual.

I wasn't too worried about examining the bristles to see if the water wicked all the way to the handle, as yesterdays experiment proved that the water is getting there. After 3 or 4 minutes I found out.

After letting the water dribble out I gave the brush 2 gentle shakes. The water is visible towards the base of the knot.

I dripped a little bit of water onto the tub of proraso and loaded for probably no more than 10 seconds. If I'd done another 10 there would easily be enough for a 3 pass shave, but I'm only doing 2. Straight off the bat the lather felt great as I started face lathering. A little thick, so I dipped, lathered, dipped, lathered, 3 times in total.

First pass, WTG. Right ear to jaw line, a couple of starter strokes, then 1 long smooth one right the way to the edge of the jaw and under the ear. The blade could be smoother and the lather's a fraction thick. I should have dipped 4 times. A bit of tugging right and left corners of the jaw, but the lower lip area was done quite nicely. A little tuggy also, but comfortable. Keeping my mouth closed and just dropping my jaw a fraction to follow the contours of my face is much more effective than over stretching the skin by too much face pulling. It's my most sensitive area.

The left side of my face, moustache and neck went a little smoother and easier.


Second pass.

There's plenty of lather left in the brush.

I lathered and dipped 1 more time. Right ear, WTG again. Much better. Pretty smooth actually, though I doubt whether the Merkur will become a favourite blade, it just doesn't have that sharp and smooth feel. They're quite expensive, too. I was clearly absorbed in the shave, because it wasn't until I'd almost finished my neck that I realised I'd forgotten the upper lip. I finished up, cold water splash and dried off, resisting the urge to clean up. Comfort is my priority, and my restraint rewarded me with an irritation free shave.

It could certainly have been closer, and the uneveness, especially directly under the jawline, tells me that it's not all the blades fault. My angle has been less consistent since I've been following my growth pattern with a fanatical attention to detail. Practice will help with that. But the lather was good. Maybe not perfect but not far off. It stayed wet even on my neck, right to the end, and I shaved slowly.

I'm still a long way off my perfect shave, but irritation free shaves are starting to become the norm.

Baby steps.

 

[TinyT]

View attachment 1032509

Dry brush

View attachment 1032515

10 min soak

View attachment 1032517

Dr dittmar soap

View attachment 1032518

Loaded, 60 swirls or apps 30 secs

View attachment 1032519

Worked lather

View attachment 1032521

To gauge how much extra water added

View attachment 1032522

1 tsp added

View attachment 1032523

1.5 tsp added. I called it at that point.


I usually don't bowl leather but it's difficult to know how much water you need to add when there's no means of measuring how much water stays on your face. That was A LOT of lather. It's an Omega Proraso.

Was that with a dripping wet brush, like Marco's method or did you flick or squeeze the brush before loading?

Yes, that was A LOT of lather, lol. For me, the perfect lather would be just enough for the required passes, no more, no less. That is difficult to judge.

 

[TFAshaver]

I have tried it, and it works fine but I really find it unnecessary. The lathers are no more consistent than with face lathering, plus I don't like bowl clinking. There's just something very direct about face lathering which I like. My shave routine is very simple. No prep, not even a shower. Wet the face, lather up, shave, cold water splash to finish and done. I believe that with a carefully cultivated technique, repeatable perfect shaves are achievable with this straight forward approach. I'm fairly sure my Grandad had an even simpler way of shaving, though he sometimes used Brut or Old Spice as an aftershave.

Fair, my routine is a bit more complicated, but that does add a fair amount of time. My shaves are usually 35 minutes. Luckily I work in the afternoons/nights mostly. I find face lathering to be more what I like to do, but I do the method where I start paste like and end up with a thick/dense/cushion style of lather. It works for me, but I might be trying some much different ways including a shave stick, less dense, and even runny in the future. I just like building the lather right now, just for the fun of it. I mostly face lather or bowl lather.

 

[rudyt]

Some guys say they have no problem using a boar brush with a shave stick. I tried loading heavy and still get poor results on the second pass. I'd love to see a film of someone loading his face and then getting two good passes from his boar brush.

I've never had a problem getting 4 full passes with a single application of a soap stick and a boar using any of my current sticks (Speick, Tabac, Palmolive, Arko, Valobra, La Toja, and Cella).

My trick is to keep wetting the end of the stick itself, and to not soften the stubble. My stubble is like sandpaper and the soap transfers easily this way. I apply soap until I can just barely see it, not so much that it's opaque.

Sorry, the world is not ready for me to do a shaving video - there are plenty of less grisly looking old guy shavers on The YouTube.

 

[Timeclo]

Shave 9: Merkur Super Platinum


Merkur 34C
Merkur Super Platinum (2)
Cella
Omega 10051

My last shave with this blade wasn't great but everything deserves a second chance.

I started soaking the brush as usual.

View attachment 1032575

I wasn't too worried about examining the bristles to see if the water wicked all the way to the handle, as yesterdays experiment proved that the water is getting there. After 3 or 4 minutes I found out.

View attachment 1032577

After letting the water dribble out I gave the brush 2 gentle shakes. The water is visible towards the base of the knot.


View attachment 1032578

I dripped a little bit of water onto the tub of proraso and loaded for probably no more than 10 seconds. If I'd done another 10 there would easily be enough for a 3 pass shave, but I'm only doing 2. Straight off the bat the lather felt great as I started face lathering. A little thick, so I dipped, lathered, dipped, lathered, 3 times in total.

First pass, WTG. Right ear to jaw line, a couple of starter strokes, then 1 long smooth one right the way to the edge of the jaw and under the ear. The blade could be smoother and the lather's a fraction thick. I should have dipped 4 times. A bit of tugging right and left corners of the jaw, but the lower lip area was done quite nicely. A little tuggy also, but comfortable. Keeping my mouth closed and just dropping my jaw a fraction to follow the contours of my face is much more effective than over stretching the skin by too much face pulling. It's my most sensitive area.

The left side of my face, moustache and neck went a little smoother and easier.


Second pass.

View attachment 1032580

There's plenty of lather left in the brush.

I lathered and dipped 1 more time. Right ear, WTG again. Much better. Pretty smooth actually, though I doubt whether the Merkur will become a favourite blade, it just doesn't have that sharp and smooth feel. They're quite expensive, too. I was clearly absorbed in the shave, because it wasn't until I'd almost finished my neck that I realised I'd forgotten the upper lip. I finished up, cold water splash and dried off, resisting the urge to clean up. Comfort is my priority, and my restraint rewarded me with an irritation free shave.

It could certainly have been closer, and the uneveness, especially directly under the jawline, tells me that it's not all the blades fault. My angle has been less consistent since I've been following my growth pattern with a fanatical attention to detail. Practice will help with that. But the lather was good. Maybe not perfect but not far off. It stayed wet even on my neck, right to the end, and I shaved slowly.

I'm still a long way off my perfect shave, but irritation free shaves are starting to become the norm.

Baby steps.

I haven't heard much good words on the Merkur blades either. I have couple to try but I'm not too excited to try them out. My favorite blades are pretty cheap like Astra SP or Shark SS.

 

[Demolition]

Earlier this year, I tried a Merkur Super Platinum blade for the first time. It was the free blade that came with the 34C HD razor that I bought back in 2013. I didn't bother to use it because of the horrible reviews. But, I found it while rummaging in the cabinet where I keep my shaving junk and decided to try it.

Well, right off the bat, I can say that it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The first shave was not great and I was thinking of ditching it, but I figured I'd stick with it for one more shave. Surprisingly, the second shave was much better. I've heard that this has to do with the coating on the blade wearing away which exposes more of the actual edge. Makes sense.

By my fourth shave, I was quite happy with it. Moderately sharp, yet still forgiving. I didn't have any problems with nicks or razor burn, so I kept using it to see how long it would last. However, by the time that I got to the tenth shave, it had gone downhill. There was a lot of pulling and I couldn't get a close shave without effort. It felt like the blade just went blunt all at once. Other than that, it seemed to be a reasonably good product, overall.

I thought about buying a pack to see if that was an anomaly or if these Merkur blades were actually half-decent, but the price floored me. A 10-pack cost almost $10. For $5 more, I could get 100 Astra SPs. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I wonder if Merkur blades have such a bad reputation because many of the people who use them are new to wet shaving. Think of all those newbies who buy a 34C as their first razor and use the included blade for their very first shave. How many of them would have the insight to blame their own poor technique? I'd say very few, considering how many newbie posts we see where they cut themselves up and immediately toss out the blade.

 

[TinyT]

Fair, my routine is a bit more complicated, but that does add a fair amount of time. My shaves are usually 35 minutes. Luckily I work in the afternoons/nights mostly. I find face lathering to be more what I like to do, but I do the method where I start paste like and end up with a thick/dense/cushion style of lather. It works for me, but I might be trying some much different ways including a shave stick, less dense, and even runny in the future. I just like building the lather right now, just for the fun of it. I mostly face lather or bowl lather.

My shaves also last around 35 to 40 minutes but that includes everything. I probably spend about 10 minues cleaning up after drying my face. I face lather for probably 5 minutes and take about 5 minutes getting prepared before that so the shave itself lasts anywhere between 15 and 25 minutes at a guess. One day I'll time it with a stopwatch, but speed is definitely not a priority. I believe @Esox said something like first get good, then get quick. Wise words.

I'm not saying that I'll never bowl lather and I have nothing against it. I have spent quite a bit of time looking at and thinking about shaving bowls. I've seen some very beautiful hand turned ones, but they're quite expensive, easily the price of a razor and I'm really trying to keep things as simple and direct as possible at the moment. My preoccupation is with the development of technique.

 

[TinyT]

Anyway, I wonder if Merkur blades have such a bad reputation because many of the people who use them are new to wet shaving. Think of all those newbies who buy a 34C as their first razor and use the included blade for their very first shave. How many of them would have the insight to blame their own poor technique? I'd say very few, considering how many newbie posts we see where they cut themselves up and immediately toss out the blade.

You may be right about this. The first blade I used was a Shark ss and I didn't like it, but I perservered and used it for 8 shaves in total. It never cut me but I still didn't like it, lol, and now that I've finished going through my blade sample pack I'm going to cycle back the other way. By the time I reach the shark again I'll have well over 50 DE shaves under my belt, so I'll have a better idea about how it really compares. I expect a blade to reach double figures too. The 7 O'clock green and Astra SP managed to, and I didn't ditch the 7 O'clock yellow or Perma-sharp, just put them to one side, both with 3 shaves on them.

Reflecting on yesterdays shave, the second pass with the Merkur Super was probably as good as I've had; no weepers, nicks or irritation and close to DFS everywhere above the jawline. That's not bad from 2 WTG passes and I have tough whiskers.

I also think that practically all blades can be effective in the right razor, combined with a well developed technique. I guess I'll find out about that. There will still surely be favourites though.

 

[Esox]

I believe @Esox said something like first get good, then get quick. Wise words.

I was told that when I started my first job at 15 as a siding installer. It was wise advice then and still is now.

 

[TFAshaver]

Well today was my Fourth use of my Omega 10049.

I will just report on the lathering with the brush. Here is a photo of the brush before being soaked during my shower:

Here is the Brush after soaking during my shower:

Here is the brush after the excess water was shaken out:

The Brush did a great job today and I was able to get ample amounts of soap into the brush doing a loading of one minute. Here is what the brush looked like after that minute:

Here is the brush after face lathering for about 3 minutes and adding water about 7 times:

Here is the brush after a 4 pass shave with a clean up (I tried a cheap razor that only got one pass then restarted with the Gillette Fat Handle Tech I own to get a good shave):

And Finally, here is the brush after being rinsed, shaken out, and stropped on a towel, but before being hung up to dry:

Overall, the brush performed very well today, and overall the brush is now soft and providing a nice gentle scrub when being used. No irritation from the 5 latherings, and it kept the lather great for the whole 40 mintues of shaving today. Hope you all are having great shaves with your boar brushes!

 

[TFAshaver]

Fifth Use of the Omega 10049.

Today was a great shave, and I used the brush a little different today, I bowl lathered some AOS Olibanum and Pepper cream in my Daiso bowl.

Here is the brush after being soaked:

Here is the brush after doing a four pass shave:

Finally, here is the brush after shaking it out and stropping on the towel for today:

The tips are really starting to split and the knot is starting to get a nicer shape. The pure surface area I have to work with at the tips is quite a bit more than the first shave with the brush. The Omega sticker is almost worn off though. Hope you all are getting some great shaves with your boars!

 

[TinyT]

Shave 10: A Bowl Lather?!


Merkur 34C
Merkur Super Platinum (3)
Proraso White
Omega 10051

First of all a slight correction. Shave 9 was with Proraso white, not Cella. There's no way I could use that for 2 shaves in a row!

As for todays shave, I gave the bowl lathering topic a little thought and decided I need to try to let the kind of shave I want to dictate my methods and equipment, rather than the other way around.

I decided to take both pills and it actually ended up being a half bowl, half face lather.

I soaked my brush for 2 or 3 minutes in the bowl as I filled the sink and got everything ready.

It's fairly small, but good enough for my purposes. I still planned to keep most of the lather in the brush and to use the bowl more as a kind of lather generator, just to get things started, before moving on to my face to finish building. Last night, I considered using my hand for this part but figured there might be a bit more wastage, plus the bowl would be useful to keep the brush in between passes.

Another thing I've been thinking about is soap preservation. I want to get maximum lather with the least amount of soap, and face lathering seems to need a fairly heavy loading, at least for me.


I dribbled a little water on the soap, lifted the brush from the bowl, gave it a couple shakes and loaded for 5 to 10 seconds. It looked a little foamy so I loaded for another 5. I emptied the bowl and got the lather started in it, dipping the brush once. I stopped after what was maybe 30 seconds, certainly well under a minute.

It probably looked a little less blurry in real life, but I don't wear my glasses for shaving so who knows?

It felt really, really nice as I finished building the lather on my face. It would easily have been shaveable after 10 seconds but I wanted to make sure I had slick, not thick so I carried on for a couple more minutes, dipping twice. The lather had a much lighter feel than usual, not airy as such, just kind of floaty.

I started the shave as always, WTG, right ear. Long, smooth, gentle strokes, very little to no pressure. I wasn't really thinking about angle too much, just shaving with feel. There was a bit of tugginess below the lower lip as I've had with this blade before, but it was comfortable enough. The lather was still nice and slick by the time I reached my neck and I shaved it without issue, then rinsed off in readiness for pass number 2.

This was definitely better than my usual lathers at this stage of the shave, and I was looking forward to the second pass. WTG once again, comfort not closeness is my goal. Much smoother than the first pass, especially the lower lip area, and I used confident, smooth strokes from the lip to the edge of my chin.

The lather had started to dry out a little by the time I was onto my neck. I would normally have carried on regardless but a quick glance at the bowl and I thought, it's sitting right there, so I quickly lathered again, dipping one more time. It only took a couple of seconds.

I finished at the right ear, 2 inches from where I'd started, rinsed off and stopped. No touch ups today, a cold water splash, and once again I had an irritation free, no nick, no weeper shave.

There are few rough patches. By the right corner of my mouth, around the left jaw and just under the far right of my jaw below the ear. Of course, a little clean up could've taken care of that if I'd wanted so I'm not to worried. The shave was less close overall than the last one; this is maybe a little to do with the blade and a lot to do with my technique.

The half and half approach worked very well and the lather was really good. Perfect? Not a million miles away. I have no complaints about the brush.

 

[Timeclo]

Some guys say they have no problem using a boar brush with a shave stick. I tried loading heavy and still get poor results on the second pass. I'd love to see a film of someone loading his face and then getting two good passes from his boar brush.

Today was a success. For the first time, I was able to lather up decently with a boar brush and a shave stick. Hope to continue this on!

 

[shave/brush]

Today was a success. For the first time, I was able to lather up decently with a boar brush and a shave stick. Hope to continue this on!

Thanks for posting your shave. I haven't viewed it yet but I will later on when I have more time. I will comment on it. I can't wait to check it out. I think you are the only one who has done this.

 

[shave/brush]

Nice shave. You really loaded the brush heavily. I think that's what did the trick.

 

[Timeclo]

Nice shave. You really loaded the brush heavily. I think that's what did the trick.

Thanks. I tend to load heavy with any boar brush. If I think it's loaded enough, I still load it more. I hate having a thin airy lather with boar brushes so I do my best.

It did take a while to get through the shave (25min) but I got a great lather in the end. Also, the boar's been soaked for around 10-15min so having that well soaked boar helped.

 

[chente12]

Was that with a dripping wet brush, like Marco's method or did you flick or squeeze the brush before loading?

Yes, that was A LOT of lather, lol. For me, the perfect lather would be just enough for the required passes, no more, no less. That is difficult to judge.

Yup, dripping wet. I don't flick the brush because I'm going to add it back anyway

 

[TFAshaver]

Today was a success. For the first time, I was able to lather up decently with a boar brush and a shave stick. Hope to continue this on!

Hey @Timeclo Great shave man. Guess I will have to finally give my palmolive stick a try tomorrow. Glad the boar is working well for you.