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Flask's newbie adventure

I worked the second shift in a small machine shop and could always tell when the Boss' wife had stopped by in the morning some 5-6 hours later.
Did I mention this was a machine shop with all sorts of smelly cutting oils and such? :scared:

I found the sweet spot on my Slim by first starting out on #1 for the first shave, then bumped it up a click on each successive shave until I found the most comfortable setting, which for me is #4.

Thank you! You nailed it! Yesterday's shave with the slim was first pass on 4 and the second pass on 3. Now that I've tried a bunch of settings, the slim on 4 is totally where it's at.

Super comfortable and still pretty effective!!
 
It's been forever since my last post, I don't even know where to start. I don't want to bore everyone with a book, I am probably going to have to break all this into a few different updates.

First up, I scored a P-4 SuperSpeed on fleabay for $13 shipped. This is my birth quarter year and I'd been looking around at a bunch of different P-4's once I'd figured out that was a thing. I love it, hearing about that really gave me the inspiration I needed to learn the Gillette line and history. The B&B wiki is a unbelievable resource for this information and I watched a view videos that helped too.

I was pissed when I learned I missed the Slims by a few years. I wasn't too sure what I thought about the black handles Gillete used on a lot of models in the 70's. It was hard to get a sense from the photos. When I found the one I purchased, in pretty good shape I made a lowball offer and they accepted. Once I gave it some hot water/soap brushing I was pleased to discover it's in 8/10 shape, it looked great to me.

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After using it two big things surprised me. I didn't hate the black handle at all, in the hand I dig the vibe it gives off. Even more surprisingly I LOVE it's performance. The weight, the geometry just works for me better than any other razor I have right now. Let's list those off.

  • 40's SuperSpeed gifted to me by @BradWorld that's been loaned out to a new local wetshaver friend.
  • A RR GameChanger 68-P on semi-permanent loan from a co-worker
  • This 1970 SuperSpeed birth quarter razor
  • Another 40's SuperSpeed gifted to me by a local member
  • A 60's flaretip SuperSpeed that was gifted to me by a local member
  • A 1967 Slim found and pretty much given to me by a local member
  • A pre-war fat handle Tech loaned to me by a local member

I'm using the Slim the most and I'm still working out my setting. The last two shaves have been three pass 3-4-3, a pattern I read here on the forum somewhere and I feel I'm on to something there. I like everything about the Slim. If I had, reluctantly, to pick a fault is that's it's a tad heavier than I'd prefer. The GameChanger suffers from the same weight issue for me, which is the RR HD handle it's got I'm sure. It feels unbalanced in my hand.

The LupoDC I had for a little while had the RR vintage SS handle and I much preferred that to the HD on the GameChanger. I'd like to try one of Rosseforp and Cal's GT handles just to figure out if it's a weight thing or a thickness thing that I dislike about the HD on the GC. Or both. It's also very likely I'm just used to these vintage Gillette handles and I need to readjust to the HD by using it more. 😂

With this stable of respected razors, I'm shaking my head that the 1970 SuperSpeed is pushing all the buttons for me right now. I'm getting my best shaves from it, easily. I'm seriously working on bonding with the Slim though and I'm feeling good that I have two razors I've "discovered" I enjoy shaving with more than others. I mean, I've gotten to try so many and am having the chance to really learn what I like, it's great.

I've only shaved twice with the Tech and find it mild. Super mild. It it working? mild. I need to try a greater selection of blades with it for sure. I've been participating in the Adventure PIF and have been locked in to a Timor blade for the last 9 shaves. But I just started on the super smooth and sharp Eddison blade now - really looking forward to using that with the Tech.

Ok, there's more but I need to wrap this entry so I'll finish with some soap reviews. I ordered a batch of samples from Maggard's and got it a few days ago.

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The Arko is for a friend, actually. I still haven't tried it myself and won't get to yet. I did get to smell it again and still think it's not horrible at all. So far I've only tried a few:

Catie's Bubbles Tonsorium
Strong scent. I didn't know exactly what a fougere-type soap smelled like so I picked this to help me figure that out. Ahh! I get it now. Earthy isn't quite the right word, but it's organic smelling for sure. "Loamy" comes to mind, or mossy. Fougere's are often described as "dry" like a haybale but this smells like a wet haybale to me. It's partnered with a strong citrus that fills out the top end, it sits nicely with the fresh mossy base providing a sweet sharpness.

The soap itself is great, rich and buttery, it reminds me a lot of CK-6 in feel and performance. My "normal" almond-sized amount in the bowl was waaaay too much, I could have gotten 9 passes with more lather to spare. This sample jar is HUGE! No wonder it was 2x as expensive as the other samples, it's actually a good value as there's probably 25-30 shaves in here.

Good soap, I'm not sure fougere is my thing. I have another fougere type to try in this batch

Dr Jon's 8th Dimension
Mild scent. This reminds me of being a kid in my buddy's single dad's house watching Simon and Simon sitting on the cheap leather couch in the musky basement. With flashes of clean smelling citrus to keep it from getting too creepy down there.

The big surprise here is the Dr Joh V3 vegan base. I honestly thought it was tallow based while I was lathering and thought to myself "Wow, this is nice. I guess I just like tallow soaps more." The I looked it up and felt really, really stupid. It is slicker than Catiy's Bubbles, as slick as CK-6 but less buttery which I like. This soap performed in there with Mike's Natural for me. This makes me want to try Dr Jon's Bandit even more - Who doesn't want to smell like the interior of 70's Trans Am?

burt reynolds br GIF


Great soap, may look for a different scent from him.

Noble Otter Orbit
Mild scent in the jar, but the scent really blooms during lathering. Eucalyptus/citrus mainly, it's nice. The base is great, took a bit of effort to lather big payoff, it great structure and good slickness. It's COLD! Like space! This is a summer soap for sure, the synthetic cooling agent works well. It's not over the top at all, but I was surprised. Maybe not what I would have picked when it's mid-40's outside in the mornings had I known it was going to make me cold for a few hours. Don't bother using a scuttle with this soap, you know?

Great soap! Nice mild scent, this is sort of a specialty soap with that cooling agent.

I'm leaving out brush developments or my crazy B&M Mélange story, but that'll be good content for the next entry along with a few more soap reviews.
 
The Arko is for a friend, actually.
Sure it is 😏.

Excellent write up as usual brother! And how wonderful you found and like a birth quarter razor!

I am from 1975 and the black Super Speeds are about what is left from Gillette DEs by that time (together with the Super Adjustable). Haven’t found the birth quarter yet, but I am sure it will come.

Enjoy!

Guido
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
Sure it is 😏.

Excellent write up as usual brother! And how wonderful you found and like a birth quarter razor!

I am from 1975 and the black Super Speeds are about what is left from Gillette DEs by that time (together with the Super Adjustable). Haven’t found the birth quarter yet, but I am sure it will come.

Enjoy!

Guido
Yeah, the Arko is always for a friend.

I'm from the year Disneyland opened, I have two of my birth razors, an A4 Red Tip and an A4 Flare Tip. I couldn't find a decent A4 Blue Tip, but got a real nice B4 Blue Tip from @mgweatherly recently I have yet to try out.

~doug~
 
Yeah, the Arko is always for a friend.

I'm from the year Disneyland opened, I have two of my birth razors, an A4 Red Tip and an A4 Flare Tip. I couldn't find a decent A4 Blue Tip, but got a real nice B4 Blue Tip from @mgweatherly recently I have yet to try out.

~doug~

Wow, that's very cool, almost the birth razor trifecta! I say that in the spirit of the Breeder's Cup yesterday.

intense horse racing GIF


@Rosseforp, now I've got my eye's peeled for a A4 Blue tip for you. We have to finish your birth set!

Like @Guido75 mentioned, the 70's birth razor options are sorta lame. The Black Beauties, yeah, but I like my Slim a lot. I was thinking about an overseas Tech, I think they were still making English Tech's in 1970, that would be cool. For some reason I see a lot of P-4 travel razor sets, they must have made a bazillion of those.
 
If you don’t want someone to have a slick, easy-to-make lather for an exceptional shave, I have concerns about your friendship.


hahaha! As you should be! No no, Arko is serious business. I was just vamping on the "Akro is a drug" theme these guys started, tongue in cheek.

No, it's performance is exactly why I got it for my friend. I've been evangelizing wet shaving and I'm setting him up with a 40's superspeed, a RR synthetic, a tuck of AstraSP's and this tub of Arko as his first kit. All of that, I should mention, was PIF'ed to me. This place is amazing! I'm trying to pass that spirit along.

I mused for a while about what soap to get him and I'm hoping the Arko will make a believer out of him.
 
Time for what seems to be Flask's weekly update.

First I want to share the B&M Mélange story.

1667758887243.png


I'm a big big Dune fan, read it when I was a little kid and it's held tough at the top of my list of favorite sci-fi books, even through the cyberpunk era (Neuromancer was a contender for a while).

So when I read mention of a B&M soap called Mélange that was all dune themed I was very, very motivated to get my hands on a set. I've seen pictures of the original set which had some fantastic themed packaging included, would have been great. I did read that some people heard that other people found it really strong - like have-a-reaction strong. I jumped on a BST posting and scored the soap, unexpectedly, a month or so ago. I didn't care if I hated the scent, just having the tub was going to be satisfying for me.

Once it arrived I was surprised to discover it wasn't awful at all. Super spicy and a very strong pine scent, with something like ozone. I don't want to say Pine-Sol but there, I've said it. It's more evocative of the desert than the Spice Mélange itself which was often described as

"And the smell—bitter cinnamon, unmistakable." Jessica remarked.

HAHAHA. Yes, I'm a super nerd.

As Mister-Clean-running-around-in-the-desert as it is out of the container, the scent is much milder lathered up. Really, it's not objectional at all. On the face it's mostly a dry smelling pine with a little spice. It's not going to be my go-to scent but it's not bad and will be fun to pull out once in a while when I want to see the future.

It was at that point I made my mistake.

Based on the words of caution about this soap, I was surprised to find it not weird at all. I used it a few times and nothing. No reaction, just normal shaving and soaping. Different people have different reactions, that's one thing I'm learning for sure, so I just chalked it up to YMMV. So when I saw that there was a bottle of the matching Melange spash available at one of the big vendors I said, sure flask, get it! You'll have the matching set and won't that be cool! Great for photos, right? And I don't hate the scent. I order it and it arrives, I excitedly take my stupid pictures, then I lather up with the soap of Shai-Hulud and splash on the AS.

I'm not a veteran and I have no experience with what being in or near a gas attack feels like. But now, in a way, I feel like I do.

At first there was nothing, like a calm. Then, for a moment, I thought I might be passingly smelling the natural gas stove in the nearby room? But no, in a few movements I realized it was the splash, it was FUMY. Like industrial accident fumy. My eyes started to water, I stared to get a little nauseous. I sort of tried to wash it off but that was futile.

I really couldn't pick out scents at that point, everything was just a fumy haze. Luckily I was working from home that day because the office would have sent me home about 10 min after getting there for policy violations I'm sure 😭. The physical symptoms resided in about an hour but I felt strange all day, slightly drugged and punchy. I was still smelling it when I went to bed 12 hours later and I had strange and uncomfortable dreams that night. Seriously!

The demon scent was dispatched with the next day's morning shower and I lathered on the 2x the normal quantity of clubman that morning to help with the emotional scaring. Turns out the online comments were partially right about this set, the soap is fine but the AS is quite possibly an ATF violation.

Whew!

I've tried a few more soaps and aftershaves over the last week I'll conclude with these:

MWF

I don't think I need to review this for anyone, I'm pretty sure I'm the last person on the planet to try it. I can see why so many guys have used this for decades and see no reason to use anything else. If this was the only soap in the world I'd be just fine using it forever. I liked the mild scent, it was easy to lather up and paint and it's slick. I was given a baggie of MWF chunks, maybe 2oz worth. No, that didn't feel sketchy at all :). I bowl loaded and lathered it which worked awesome.


A&E Boo
1667762775586.png

Ok, let's be completely honest here, this purchase was about the label. True, I wanted a K2e base soap to try, yes, the scent description didn't have anything scary sounding, but that label just did it for me somehow. I planned to limit myself to one holiday soap and that was PAA's Atomic Pumpkin. But I saw this limited release and my will crumbled. I'm not going to get picked to be a green lantern, I'll tell you what.

The good news is that the scent is nice, I was worried I'd hate it and it would sit on the shelf mocking me for years. The desciption is Palo Santo, black leather, jasmine, lavender, coffee, smoke, resins and vetiver. Palo Santo?! Had no idea what that was going to be like - it's not bad at all. Incensish, basicly. The vetiver and jasmine feature strongly for sure. It's a very fall scent like SW Samhain but its more outdoorsy, fresh, dangerous even. The scent got really mild in the bowl and the lavender really came out at that point.

I bowl lathered it and discovered K2e likes a lot more water than I'm used to using. But once I got the mix right it really lathered up fast and dang. I can really see why this base is spoken highly of. Rich but not super buttery, slick but with a stout structure that feels and looks good. Post shave slickness was fantastic, seriously might not have had to relather for the 2nd pass. And my cheeks felt fantastic an hour later, hydrated and protected. Good stuff. Hope I can find a scent I love in this.

Murphy & McNeil Triskele

A barbershop scent, Triskele has got a strong talc or scented powder smell. Lathering it up a serious flowery blossom thing happens. It's nice, a little cloy for me maybe. I guess my preferred barbershop style leans darker. Mike's Barbershop is at the top of that category right now, over Razorock's, B&M Seville and this Triskele.

The soap itself is great, special even. I had 6-7 shaves out of this sample, I both face and bowl lathered and every time it was really easy and quick to work with. What was different about this M&M was that I noticed that my skin felt abnormally great an hour later, smooth, fresh, hydrated. I'm not super comfortable describing my skin as glowing, but there you go. I kept rubbing my cheeks for quite a while to enjoy the sensation. This has got a very very nice post shave feel.


SV 70th

Ariana Grande Dancing GIF by Jimmy Fallon

ok, I just tried a SV 70th aftershave sample and it's FANTASTIC! LOVE IT. It conjures a ski holiday in the Alps, or being in an e 80's Warren Miller ski movie. It's both outdoorsy and sophisticated at the same time, I really dig it. It's got that bergamot thing I love but mixed with something else I like. I'm reading now - Calone, an aquatic note. For me it's the smell of snow at elevation. Interesting. Update - this AS is really sticking around, strong scent but there was not much sting at all in the splash.

Southern Witchcrafts Samhain

This is a stong scent, both in the jar and in the bowl. Its earthy and rich smelling, pumpkin forward for sure but there's an incense kick and some sweetness from the bourbon/tobacco. Lathered up it gets sweeter, the bourbon comes forward. It smells like the gift shop at a fancy pumkin patch farm, full of candles, wierd tchotchkes and those scent bags full of leaves the ladies love. It's a nice scent, evokes fall in a huge way.

The soap itself is super soft, softer than I'm used to and it took me a bit to get the lather built up and looking right. Shaving with it was great, awesome performance, it's a little thinner than CK-6, I'd call it medium structure and it felt slicker even.

Ok, off to fix my mother's fence. Again.
 

Raven Koenes

My precious!
Time for what seems to be Flask's weekly update.

First I want to share the B&M Mélange story.

View attachment 1552674

I'm a big big Dune fan, read it when I was a little kid and it's held tough at the top of my list of favorite sci-fi books, even through the cyberpunk era (Neuromancer was a contender for a while).

So when I read mention of a B&M soap called Mélange that was all dune themed I was very, very motivated to get my hands on a set. I've seen pictures of the original set which had some fantastic themed packaging included, would have been great. I did read that some people heard that other people found it really strong - like have-a-reaction strong. I jumped on a BST posting and scored the soap, unexpectedly, a month or so ago. I didn't care if I hated the scent, just having the tub was going to be satisfying for me.

Once it arrived I was surprised to discover it wasn't awful at all. Super spicy and a very strong pine scent, with something like ozone. I don't want to say Pine-Sol but there, I've said it. It's more evocative of the desert than the Spice Mélange itself which was often described as



HAHAHA. Yes, I'm a super nerd.

As Mister-Clean-running-around-in-the-desert as it is out of the container, the scent is much milder lathered up. Really, it's not objectional at all. On the face it's mostly a dry smelling pine with a little spice. It's not going to be my go-to scent but it's not bad and will be fun to pull out once in a while when I want to see the future.

It was at that point I made my mistake.

Based on the words of caution about this soap, I was surprised to find it not weird at all. I used it a few times and nothing. No reaction, just normal shaving and soaping. Different people have different reactions, that's one thing I'm learning for sure, so I just chalked it up to YMMV. So when I saw that there was a bottle of the matching Melange spash available at one of the big vendors I said, sure flask, get it! You'll have the matching set and won't that be cool! Great for photos, right? And I don't hate the scent. I order it and it arrives, I excitedly take my stupid pictures, then I lather up with the soap of Shai-Hulud and splash on the AS.

I'm not a veteran and I have no experience with what being in or near a gas attack feels like. But now, in a way, I feel like I do.

At first there was nothing, like a calm. Then, for a moment, I thought I might be passingly smelling the natural gas stove in the nearby room? But no, in a few movements I realized it was the splash, it was FUMY. Like industrial accident fumy. My eyes started to water, I stared to get a little nauseous. I sort of tried to wash it off but that was futile.

I really couldn't pick out scents at that point, everything was just a fumy haze. Luckily I was working from home that day because the office would have sent me home about 10 min after getting there for policy violations I'm sure 😭. The physical symptoms resided in about an hour but I felt strange all day, slightly drugged and punchy. I was still smelling it when I went to bed 12 hours later and I had strange and uncomfortable dreams that night. Seriously!

The demon scent was dispatched with the next day's morning shower and I lathered on the 2x the normal quantity of clubman that morning to help with the emotional scaring. Turns out the online comments were partially right about this set, the soap is fine but the AS is quite possibly an ATF violation.

Whew!

I've tried a few more soaps and aftershaves over the last week I'll conclude with these:

MWF

I don't think I need to review this for anyone, I'm pretty sure I'm the last person on the planet to try it. I can see why so many guys have used this for decades and see no reason to use anything else. If this was the only soap in the world I'd be just fine using it forever. I liked the mild scent, it was easy to lather up and paint and it's slick. I was given a baggie of MWF chunks, maybe 2oz worth. No, that didn't feel sketchy at all :). I bowl loaded and lathered it which worked awesome.


A&E Boo
View attachment 1552704
Ok, let's be completely honest here, this purchase was about the label. True, I wanted a K2e base soap to try, yes, the scent description didn't have anything scary sounding, but that label just did it for me somehow. I planned to limit myself to one holiday soap and that was PAA's Atomic Pumpkin. But I saw this limited release and my will crumbled. I'm not going to get picked to be a green lantern, I'll tell you what.

The good news is that the scent is nice, I was worried I'd hate it and it would sit on the shelf mocking me for years. The desciption is Palo Santo, black leather, jasmine, lavender, coffee, smoke, resins and vetiver. Palo Santo?! Had no idea what that was going to be like - it's not bad at all. Incensish, basicly. The vetiver and jasmine feature strongly for sure. It's a very fall scent like SW Samhain but its more outdoorsy, fresh, dangerous even. The scent got really mild in the bowl and the lavender really came out at that point.

I bowl lathered it and discovered K2e likes a lot more water than I'm used to using. But once I got the mix right it really lathered up fast and dang. I can really see why this base is spoken highly of. Rich but not super buttery, slick but with a stout structure that feels and looks good. Post shave slickness was fantastic, seriously might not have had to relather for the 2nd pass. And my cheeks felt fantastic an hour later, hydrated and protected. Good stuff. Hope I can find a scent I love in this.

Murphy & McNeil Triskele

A barbershop scent, Triskele has got a strong talc or scented powder smell. Lathering it up a serious flowery blossom thing happens. It's nice, a little cloy for me maybe. I guess my preferred barbershop style leans darker. Mike's Barbershop is at the top of that category right now, over Razorock's, B&M Seville and this Triskele.

The soap itself is great, special even. I had 6-7 shaves out of this sample, I both face and bowl lathered and every time it was really easy and quick to work with. What was different about this M&M was that I noticed that my skin felt abnormally great an hour later, smooth, fresh, hydrated. I'm not super comfortable describing my skin as glowing, but there you go. I kept rubbing my cheeks for quite a while to enjoy the sensation. This has got a very very nice post shave feel.


SV 70th

Ariana Grande Dancing GIF by Jimmy Fallon

ok, I just tried a SV 70th aftershave sample and it's FANTASTIC! LOVE IT. It conjures a ski holiday in the Alps, or being in an e 80's Warren Miller ski movie. It's both outdoorsy and sophisticated at the same time, I really dig it. It's got that bergamot thing I love but mixed with something else I like. I'm reading now - Calone, an aquatic note. For me it's the smell of snow at elevation. Interesting. Update - this AS is really sticking around, strong scent but there was not much sting at all in the splash.

Southern Witchcrafts Samhain

This is a stong scent, both in the jar and in the bowl. Its earthy and rich smelling, pumpkin forward for sure but there's an incense kick and some sweetness from the bourbon/tobacco. Lathered up it gets sweeter, the bourbon comes forward. It smells like the gift shop at a fancy pumkin patch farm, full of candles, wierd tchotchkes and those scent bags full of leaves the ladies love. It's a nice scent, evokes fall in a huge way.

The soap itself is super soft, softer than I'm used to and it took me a bit to get the lather built up and looking right. Shaving with it was great, awesome performance, it's a little thinner than CK-6, I'd call it medium structure and it felt slicker even.

Ok, off to fix my mother's fence. Again.
I'm a big Dune fan! Thank you for the heads up on the soap!
 

Raven Koenes

My precious!
I wouldn't say I'm a big Dune fan, but it is one of those movies that always draws me in.

~doug~
I got an allowance for doing chores when I was a kid. It was $1.25 a week, enough for a paperback book. I would walk down to our local bookstore, Readers World. I would pour over the Sci-fi selection. I bought Dune and then the second book. This was in 1972. The third book didn't come out until 1976. It was a good time to be me. :001_smile
 
Good afternoon my shaving brethren.

It's been a whole week already, feels like I was just writing my last journal entry 15 minutes ago. The last entry was a book, no more of that. I'm going to try categorizing today's entry. See if that'll keep me a little more concise.

Razors:

After posting about the birth year superspeed I'm enjoying so much, @mgweatherly reached out. He happened to have my brith year SuperAdjustable84 - the EXACT razor that was next on my list - and basically gifted it to me. What an amazing, generous person. I just received the razor and it looks and feels brand new, I'm a little overwhelmed.

1668283919031.jpeg


He'd put in quite a bit of restoration work on this. Repainted the numbers and obviously cleaned/polished the heck out of it. I've been compariing it to my Slim and it's cooler in some ways. He did a gap check with feelers and all settings are on the money. I'm very, very excited to try this out. I'm very into the idea two of my four "live on the shelf" razors will be birth years.

Fighting for slot #3 on the shelf is a new GameChanger 84OC I got off the BST at a great price from @cf1. It's brand new, basicly. Even included the original box and wrappings. cf1 is good people, thank you sir.

Now the loaned out 84OC I have is going back to the local shave library (a local B&B member). That friend also surprised me this week with a hand-turned razor stand! He's fired up the lathe for some garage fun and gave me one of his warm ups/prototyles. He sized it exactly for the Slim/SuperAdj and sure enough it fits perfect. I've been plying him with the samples I've been trying just so I don't start to feel bad.

Brushes:

I'm getting ready for Decemboar and ordered two new boars. I only have one right now, an Omega that has a great knot but has too small a handle. It's got maybe 15 shaves on it so it's not even really broken in yet. I thought for the event I'd get a few brushes that I enjoyed more to put that break in time into. I mentioned that to my friend and he pulls a brand new Semogue SOC boar out of a drawer somewhere. That brush was pretty much at the top of my list of boar brushes, but I decided to go a little more modest. So I was SO EXCITED about this gift. Now I'll have three really solid boars to break in over the fun next month - and the next year or so I suspect.

In fact, I decided to celebrate by getting bored and painting on it. Here's the before, along with the new stand and razors:

1668284885441.png


And the after flask was bored episode:

1668285313004.png


So, yeah. I don't hate it. looks better in the hand than in this photo I think.

Soaps:

I got a chance to try a few more soaps and aftershaves.

SV Optunia
Another sophisticated scent from SV. The SV Opuntia was sophisticated, a musky bergamot balanced with vetiver and there are floral notes in there too. It's sort of hard to ID anything specifically it's really complex. It's strikes me as a vintage scent, perhaps classic is the right word. I think of Ad Men or Executives in the 60's. I like the SV 70th more but this is nice.


Chiseled Face - Tradewinds
Mild Scent. A mildly Old Spice vibe with a healthy dose of almost fougère scent (turns out it's cucumber) and a salty fresh zing. In the bowl the main scents flipflop and it's a zingy fresh cucumber with a bit of that old spice on the edges. It's nice - if you are an old spice aficionado then this is your must have spring soap. Lathered up it feels like you have a well tended, quaint costal vegetable garden on your face.

The soap performance is great, if a little behind Catie's, Mike's and B&M. But this is splitting hairs really, it's awesome. It's closest to Mike's in the way it lathers. It's got a little more structure than Mike's and I couldn't get it quite as slick and shiny but still I feel bad saying it was less than great.

B&M Anglique Fougère
Strong Scent. Fougère forward, it's citrisy and somewhat sweet. Where Catie's Bubbles Tonsorium, another fougère-citrus scent I've tried recently, is very green and wet, Anglique Fougère goes woody, smoky and sweeter. They are in the same ballpark, scent-wise, but present and finish much differently.

I don't feel like I need to review B&M soap for everyone. I will mention I saw a video that Will made on how to lather Omnibus and learned I was not using near enough water. Like A&E, Omnibus wants a ton of water and a little longer but rewards you with a very thin but structured lather that's snot-slick and will stay shiny on your face for far longer than you'll need.



I tried a Zingari Man sampler of Explorer but I cooked it!

Sometimes I'll boil water for the scuttle, and it was cold this morning! But rather than a modest 100-110 degrees I accidently left it on my black tea setting which is closer to 200 degrees. I noticed when I was pouring it but I was like, well, it'll be a REALLY warm lather!

No, in fact, it was a frothy nightmare I could never make lather. I'm sure Zingari Man is good soap, but it struggles when it's getting cooked. Bubbles, bubbles everywhere. I'd stop lathering for a moment and I could see the the soap almost instantly revert to almost gaseous form. Hey, Flask - hot water in the scuttle, not scalding water. Dynamically changing up to face lathering saved that shave.
 
  • 40's SuperSpeed gifted to me by @BradWorld that's been loaned out to a new local wetshaver friend.
  • A RR GameChanger 68-P on semi-permanent loan from a co-worker
  • This 1970 SuperSpeed birth quarter razor
  • Another 40's SuperSpeed gifted to me by a local member
  • A 60's flaretip SuperSpeed that was gifted to me by a local member
  • A 1967 Slim found and pretty much given to me by a local member
  • A pre-war fat handle Tech loaned to me by a local member
Nice selection there to use!

So you are liking the closed comb more I assume as I don’t see open combs (yet)? I think with a pre war Tech you can shave heavenly by the way - punches above its weight!

Cheers,

Guido
 
Nice selection there to use!

So you are liking the closed comb more I assume as I don’t see open combs (yet)? I think with a pre war Tech you can shave heavenly by the way - punches above its weight!

Cheers,

Guido
Right! Guido, you nailed it.

Not long after that post, I felt I really needed more experience with an open comb. I was able to borrow a GameChanger 84OC and used it on a week old beard - that felt so good. I really like the feel of the open comb for sure, especially for more than a day or two of beard. Seems to help lift the hairs and it encourages me not to use much pressure.

Not too long after playing with the loaner @cf1 hooked me up with a practically new 84OC on the BST. Thank you sir!

The razor collection now:

  • A RR GameChanger 68-P on semi-permanent loan from a co-worker
  • RR GameChanger .84OC
  • 1970 SuperSpeed birth quarter
  • 1970 Super Adjustable 84 birth year
  • 40's SuperSpeed gifted to me by a local member
  • 60's flaretip SuperSpeed that was gifted to me by a local member
  • 1967 Slim found and pretty much given to me by a local member
Thanks man, I appreciate your feedback. I've sure been enjoying getting to know and explore all these different models. There's no Timeless Ti95 SC in there, of course. LOL. But I'm not far enough in my journey to be lusting over the high end modern masterpieces yet, but I suspect that's just a matter of time.

I seem to be following a well worn path here. I may skip the Karve CB stage and just jump to the next tier. We'll see. I'd like to be able to semi-consistently nail a 2 pass DFS with the tools I have before I spend big.

I don't want to be the bad golfer with a $5500 set of clubs :)

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I'm mostly using the Slim and '70 SS for daily shaves and the GC 84OC for longer growth shaves right now and I feel like that's working great for me. I've given back the tech I borrowed, but like you I think that's a great razor and it's on my list. I'm keeping my eye out for a cool pre-war tech, maybe an English one.
 
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