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Pretty Much What You'd Expect if Dovo1695 had a Shave Journal

Let's talk about razor handles for a minute. Nearly all of them look the same. They might be made of different metals, or hollow, but pretty much all of them are just a 3" long pieces of straight metal. Why is that? Is it because it's the ideal shape, or because it's the cheapest thing to make? I have no idea. I made one this morning and for better or for worse, it's not straight.

Why make a handle in the first place? Well, I was recently encouraged by @thombrogan to try a lightweight (<20 grams) handle with my Lupo .72. All of mine are solid stainless steel or brass and nowhere near 20 grams. My first thought was to drill the center out of a pine dowel, and epoxy a 5mm nut to the top, but I didn't have a dowel, or a nut, and didn't feel like driving to the hardware store. Rather than abandon the project altogether I grabbed a bit of this off my workbench:

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Instamorph is really handy stuff. It's a thermoplastic that turns translucent and pliable at 150F, can be formed like clay into whatever shape you can imagine, and then it slowly hardens at room temperature. It's unbelievably strong when it hardens. It can be used over and over. I've used it for dozens of projects. Since it remains pliable for a while at low temperatures, it's also a really fun material for kids too.

It took about 2 minutes to form the handle. That's an awful long stretch not to do anything dumb, so I decided to add a bend to it like an umbrella handle. My thought was that straight handles make it too easy to apply pressure. Most razors have the neutral shave angle with the razor handle at a 45 degree angle to your face. That's exactly the wrong angle to be applying pressure, because it's easy to apply 50% of the force towards the face, and 50% down towards the ground. The first rule of DE shaving is don't use pressure. Why would handles make it so easy to do it wrong?

The virtue of the umbrella hook is that the ergonomics of it favors to pulling rather than pushing. Pulling at a 45 degree angle tends to pull the razor away from the face and down. Now that's a good force vector for shaving with no pressure.

While the handle was still soft an pliable, I poked the assembled head of my Lupo .72 into it leaving a nice little hole for the threads. I set it aside to cool for 5 minutes, and when it was hardened I threaded the Lupo head onto it. Nice an secure. It looks something like this:

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Perfect. It actually gave me a damn good shave. I'm someone who favors mild razors like the RR Mamba .53 and the GC .68 SB, so I have a natural tendency to apply pressure. The Lupo .72 has enough blade exposure that this is completely counterproductive. The umbrella handle worked like a charm. It was as close to a zero pressure shave as I've had in a long time. I'm not sure whether it was because it was lightweight, or because my cockamamie umbrella eronomics idea inexplicably worked. Either way, it's keeper.
 
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thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
We have that same type of polymorph here. My Bride used it for prosthetic teeth for a costume, but the plastic changed shape in the cold between sculpting and became unusable as choppers.

Luckily, you’ve affixed it to a Lupo in a Mary Poppins umbrella handle that’s perfectly perfect in every way. Perfection is unsettling.

Can‘t wait to read more of your journal
 
Pre-shave: Coffee
Razor: Lupo .72 w/ Exposition handle
Blade: Permasharp Super (5)
Brush: Left hand (brushless)
Soap: Mogno?


I think I may be onto something with the J-shaped razor handle. The ergonomics really does lend itself to pulling down and away from the skin (rather than pushing down and towards the skin like a straight handle). The big drawback to the Hairy Poppins handle though, is that it's so fundamentally different from a straight handle, that it's impossible discern whether or not a light-weight handle is preferable in and of itself. Since that was the whole point of making my own handle in the first place, it was a bit of a fail. Never change more than one variable at the same time.

Given that limitation of the Hairy Poppins, I decided to make a proper lightweight straight handle this morning. Really all that I needed was a round stick with a 5mm hole. Where to find such a thing? Luckily, I didn't need to go far. A Bic Round Stick (that's literally the brand name of the pen), was sitting on my desk.

Making a Bic razor handle is simplicity itself. A pocket knife is handy. A Spyderco Ladybug that's sporting ZDP 189 steel is preferred, but anything sharp will do.

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I present to you the "Exposition" handle. I gave it a weigh on the scale, and it clocked in at a portly 2 grams. If 20 grams is the "light-weight" category, I think perhaps there should be an "ultra-lightweight" category. I think @Cal and @Rosseforp are on that committee. I will have to ask them about that.

Shave Report:

Tragically, I used the last of my Bic Chrome Platinums a few months ago, and those would obviosly have been the perfect blade. I made do with a Perma-Sharp on it's 5th use. Interesting shave. Using a light handle seems to heighten the acuity with which one senses pressure (more on that later).

The Exposition handle actually seemed to flex perceptibly during the shave, but it's impossible to know if that's actually true. What I can say with certainty is that the Exposition handle decreased the efficiency of the shaving passes. It was the first time I had to due multiple buffing clean-up passes with the Lupo. Whether that was due to me using far less pressure than usual, or infinitesimal flexing of the handle I don't know. I think it was the former. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Acuity to pressure is a fantastic thing when you're shaving. I think the lightweight handle made very, very light pressure feel like heavy pressure. Very interesting indeed. I'm going to have to experiment much more with this to figure out what's going on.
 
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Pressure Acuity: Nostalgia, Shave Training, and Vulcanization

Using the Exposition handle on the Lupo .72 reminded me of an exercise that I used to do back in my late teens/early 20's when I was a conveyor belt technician. I worked for an industrial supply company that specialized in conveyor installation & maintenance. I was on the belt crew, which afforded me the opportunity to travel all over New England to visit pretty much every industrial/manufacturing facility of interest. My favorite project was the "Big Dig" in Boston. We had the contract for the belts in the mineshaft, so I got to join the union and become a proper Sand Hog (Local 88 baby!).

It was a lot of grunt work hauling equipment, and tracking belts but my specialty was splicing. Splicing is when you take the two ends of belt and you vulcanize them together in a massive press with 10"x8' long I-beams under 100psi, @ 220C. This is a very delicate surgery believe it or not. A modern conveyor belt is marvel of engineering and is basically a sandwich of alternating layers of rubber and fabric. Each of these layers needs to be dissected with a razor blade, and peeled apart layer by layer, so that each free end of the belt was a mirror image of the other. This is tricky to do, because 99% of the strength of the belt comes from the fabric. If you nick the fabric with the razor blade, you seriously degraded the integrity of the splice. This is a big problem when you have a 1 mile long conveyor belt loaded with 100,000lbs of mine tailings that ascends 200ft vertically up a mine shaft at it's terminus. You had to have really, really good hands.

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How do you get them? A pad of Post-It notes and a utility knife. I started by practicing cutting just the top Post-It without cutting the 2nd sheet. Then cutting two sheets without nicking the 3rd. Then 4 sheets without nicking the 5th. I got all the way up to 9. That's acuity to pressure. Give it a try with a utility knife, a fresh blade, and a pad of paper and you'll see exactly what I mean. I'm 100% serious; try it before your next shave. It'll only take 5 minutes, and by the time you get to 3 sheets your acuity to pressure/sensation while shaving will have at least doubled.

Anyhow, shaving with the Bic handled razor reminded me of that. I'm going to keep playing with it. :)
 
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We have that same type of polymorph here. My Bride used it for prosthetic teeth for a costume, but the plastic changed shape in the cold between sculpting and became unusable as choppers.

That's a terrific idea. This may be the highest and best use of PolyMorph. I think the trick might be to keep them in while they're cooling/hardening. I'm going to scare the bejesus out of my kids tonight. 😃
 
Shouldn’t your self-selection as a pogonotomist be enough trauma for them?

Sadly, they've not just become inured to the oddness, they've internalized it. They've absorbed my peculiar obsession with autodidacticism by osmosis I think.

My 10 year old just bought a 200 page cursive writing workbook of her own volition because the adults she corresponds with (aunts, uncles, grandparents) all write in cursive and she was never taught it in school. She's nearly finished it. My 8 year old son has been teaching himself to code in python with some app called "Code Combat", with the end goal of programming a robotic arm we built recently. My youngest has apparently taught himself to read at a 5th grade level, and has been secretly reading ahead in Harry Potter (which we've been reading together as a family) in the voluminous free-time afforded by the pandemic non-schooling, and has been spoiling key plot points such as Dumbledore's death in "The Half Blood Prince". He's six.

Truly, the sins of the father have been visited upon the sons. They're nerds now. Werewolf teeth are the least of their worries. 😋
 
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Not to worry, I have a plan for that. I'll pay for therapy with all the money I've been saving by shaving with DE razors... 😋

Warning: The following is for mature audiences only; self-delusion & rationalization may be disturbing to some readers.

Speaking of money, I looked at my tab over the years at Italian Barber, which is where I've done most of my shopping for DE supplies and tallied up the damage. So far I've spent $358 there since 2015. Add to that tally a $30 EJ DE89, $30 at MRBS for Mogno and sundries, and the $155 I've spent on my Mamba, GC .68 SB, and Lupo .72 on the BST forum, and the total damage is about $575.

That's really not too bad over the course of 6 years. It's about only about $8 per month. But wait, I'm a firm believer that things only cost what you paid minus what you can sell them for. I think I could easily get my $150 back on the 3 SS RazoRock razors, and probably $50 for a "newby lot" of a dozen zamac razors. Thus my total spend - equity was only $375, or $5 per month.

Fortunately, I have a plan to make it all back and then some. I'm going to buy another razor. Behold the latest object of my latent Razor Acquisition Disorder:

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Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
My favorite project was the "Big Dig" in Boston.
I visited Boston during the "Big Dig". Found out what it is like getting stacked up at Logan when I saw the same football stadium for the 15th or 20th time. The "Big Dig" was a pretty awesome project. Oh yeah, I also learned how to "bang a left" when the light goes green. :thumbsup:
 
I visited Boston during the "Big Dig". Found out what it is like getting stacked up at Logan when I saw the same football stadium for the 15th or 20th time. The "Big Dig" was a pretty awesome project. Oh yeah, I also learned how to "bang a left" when the light goes green. :thumbsup:

Yikes. Waiting for the light to turn green to bang a left probably confused the hell out of the other drivers. Doubtless there was a lot of friendly honking and polite shouts of encouragement like "This ain't a pahking lot!" and "Move your f*kin cah!".

I miss Boston. I do not miss driving in Boston. 😋
 
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Pre-shave: Coffee
Razor: Lupo .72 w/ Exposition handle
Blade: Permasharp Super (6)
Handle: Exposition
Brush: Left hand (brushless)
Soap: Mogno?
Post Shave: Coffee

Another interesting shave with the Lupo .72 and the Exposition handle. Today I learned that shaving slowly does not work for me. I was moving at about 1/4 my normal speed in an attempt to focus on zero pressure. I did achieve something close to zero pressure. I also got a terrible shave. The razor felt less smooth, the razor skipped a bit and clean-up passes were necessary. I also got much more irritation from this shave than I have from previous ones which is kind of surprising. There is definitely something to be said for speed and inertia when it comes to cutting.

A lighter handle obviously shifts the balance point of the razor, and seems to afford greater pressure acuity, but it doesn't seem to cut as efficiently. I'm not making any judgements yet though. It's quite possible that increasing the speed will improve the performance.

Tomorrow, I'll shave at a normal pace, and see what happens.
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
Warning: The following is for mature audiences only; self-delusion & rationalization may be disturbing to some readers.

Speaking of money, I looked at my tab over the years at Italian Barber, which is where I've done most of my shopping for DE supplies and tallied up the damage. So far I've spent $358 there since 2015. Add to that tally a $30 EJ DE89, $30 at MRBS for Mogno and sundries, and the $155 I've spent on my Mamba, GC .68 SB, and Lupo .72 on the BST forum, and the total damage is about $575.

That's really not too bad over the course of 6 years. It's about only about $8 per month. But wait, I'm a firm believer that things only cost what you paid minus what you can sell them for. I think I could easily get my $150 back on the 3 SS RazoRock razors, and probably $50 for a "newby lot" of a dozen zamac razors. Thus my total spend - equity was only $375, or $5 per month.

Fortunately, I have a plan to make it all back and then some. I'm going to buy another razor. Behold the latest object of my latent Razor Acquisition Disorder:

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I actually have a listing of all of my DE razors (35+) and what I paid for them. Then there are the stones for the SR's and the ten SR's. Don't forget the 4 or 5 hanging strops and pasted balsa. Most of DE's when I was on a pretty slim budget, and never spent more than $65 for a razor. Raising two kids gets expensive.
Once I started with badgers though, all bets were off, so I grabbed me an Executive and haven't looked back.

Also never added everything up, it's a hobby.
The SWMBO has about a million purses...
And I'm retired now, so it's time to spend that money before the kids get all of it!
 
I actually have a listing of all of my DE razors (35+) and what I paid for them. Then there are the stones for the SR's and the ten SR's. Don't forget the 4 or 5 hanging strops and pasted balsa. Most of DE's when I was on a pretty slim budget, and never spent more than $65 for a razor. Raising two kids gets expensive.
Once I started with badgers though, all bets were off, so I grabbed me an Executive and haven't looked back.

Also never added everything up, it's a hobby.
The SWMBO has about a million purses...
And I'm retired now, so it's time to spend that money before the kids get all of it!

You raise some important points. You can't take it with you and it's good to have hobbies. That said, I'm still in the "trying to somehow save $500k to put 3 kids through college" stage of life, so I try to keep my hobbies cash flow positive whenever possible.

That's where clippers come into the equation. By making the transition from having a pogonotomy hobby (shaving) to having a tonsorial hobby (shaving + hair cutting), things quickly go into the black. I spent $60 on some Wahl clippers that I've been using to cut my own hair for the last 30 haircuts, so that puts $600 back into tonsorial balance sheet. Including that, it means I've made $225 over the past few years. As a bonus, I'm started getting way better haircuts than I ever got from my barber after the 2nd or 3rd haircut. Even the first was better than many I've gotten over the years.

Now I just have to figure out how best to "reinvest" the surplus back into the hobby. :w00t:

I've gone on a bit of a razor buying spree, so I'm thinking of upgrading my clippers from a Walmart special to something a bit more professional grade. Can't decide between the Oster Classic 76 or the Wahl Magic Clip.

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Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
You raise some important points. You can't take it with you and it's good to have hobbies. That said, I'm still in the "trying to somehow save $500k to put 3 kids through college" stage of life, so I try to keep my hobbies cash flow positive whenever possible.
For the last 15 years the most expensive toy I bought myself was a ScanGage 2 I paid $160 for to put in my Cavalier, to help me get better gas mileage!
The penny's it helped me pinch has allowed me to retire with enough money to put my kids through college, and it looks like we have enough to also upgrade our housing in the next upcoming months. :punk:

Keep saving like I did, there is light at the end of the tunnel! :a29::a29::a29:
 
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