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My "Ah-Ha!" Moments

Sometimes, I will discover something related to shaving, which may be painfully obvious to seasoned shavers (my "Ah-Ha! Moments). Those times where the mental switch is flipped, the light bulb finally illuminates, and something works.

Instead of boring the community by starting a new thread and cluttering up the main forum with stuff that is likely already well known, I'll put it here.

An example of one of my AH! Moments happened a while ago:

I have struggled mightily with those pesky whisker directly under my nose. No amount of puffing, stretching, even "pig nose" enabled me to get those buggers. I had been shaving that area south-to-north as I had for years with the fifth blade on my carts, but that method just didn't work for me with DE.

One day I tried going E-W with the corner of my DE razor and even a diagonal ATG and low and behold, it worked! Ah-Ha!

Of course I posted it in the general shaving discussion forum, and probably invoked a flurry of "thanks, Captain Obvious" and "no s*** Sherlock" sentiments from some members, who of course were too nice and too diplomatic to actually post that.

So, that is my warning to anyone that is still reading this: you might learn something, but more likely you will roll your eyes.

Today's AH! Moment:

Since I began TWS with DE and SE razors, I have used a lather bowl. Save those very few times when using some old-school puck soaps like Williams or Arko, I have ALWAYS put my soap or cream into my lather bowl and whipped it with a damp brush, adding water, ect, etc...

This method works very well, and I have gotten very good results in attaining my preferred lather consistency. I also end up washing a ton of unused lather down the drain after my typical 3-pass shave. Let's face it, soap is cheap, even my MdC, on a pre-shave basis, but I'm still wasting a lot of lather.

MdC has a long-standing reputation for easy lathering, with very little product, so today I decided to use some for an old-school face lather and the results were fantastic.

I wet my Razorock Plissoft synthetic with warm water, swirled it on my MdC Rose soap about 20 times and went directly to my face. Adding warm water as needed by dipping the brush tips, I was able to create a perfect, slick lather. The shave was close and comfortable, very nice.

So, today's AH! Moment was many-fold:

I had more than enough lather for three passes, used less product, was forced to actually scrub my face with the brush to create the lather, the brush was always warm on my face as I dipped it into hot water, making the shave even more luxurious.

The main take-away was that the added time scrubbing my beard actually seemed more beneficial in hydrating my whiskers. When bowl lathering, I wash my face, then re-wet with hot water right before brushing (painting) on the lather. I'm usually a bit hasty, and probably don't scrub as much as I should, whereas face lathering requires a good scrub.

So, I'll still use my beloved Captain's Choice bowl for creams and croaps, but for hard soaps I am all-in on face lathering.

This AH! Moment has been thoughtfully brought to you by me...

...and I did warn you that it would be painfully mundane.

😆😆😆

Tune in next time for my latest AH! Moment, otherwise known as: "I can't believe he didn't already know this!" There may not be many more, or any more for that matter - I'm suggestion resistant, and a slow adapter.
 
Hey! We all can't know everything! :lol:
None of us do!
Glad you found a way to shave those "buggers" from under the nose!
I guess you could say he know nose how to approach it.

In terms of the face lathering with that Plissoft, nothing comes close to the feel of that particular knot. Nothing better than using it with LaToja. If you haven't tried your brush with that, I would strongly suggest it.

Happy shaves, my friend!
 

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
I had a similar Ah-ha moment a couple years back. I used to exclusively bowl lather. And to this day I believe it is an important part of my shave journey, I learned a lot about building the "right" lather for me. But the day I spread some Arko! on my face and took my damp brush to it... "Ah-ha"!!!
 
Sometimes, I will discover something related to shaving, which may be painfully obvious to seasoned shavers (my "Ah-Ha! Moments). Those times where the mental switch is flipped, the light bulb finally illuminates, and something works.

Instead of boring the community by starting a new thread and cluttering up the main forum with stuff that is likely already well known, I'll put it here.

An example of one of my AH! Moments happened a while ago:

I have struggled mightily with those pesky whisker directly under my nose. No amount of puffing, stretching, even "pig nose" enabled me to get those buggers. I had been shaving that area south-to-north as I had for years with the fifth blade on my carts, but that method just didn't work for me with DE.

One day I tried going E-W with the corner of my DE razor and even a diagonal ATG and low and behold, it worked! Ah-Ha!

Of course I posted it in the general shaving discussion forum, and probably invoked a flurry of "thanks, Captain Obvious" and "no s*** Sherlock" sentiments from some members, who of course were too nice and too diplomatic to actually post that.

So, that is my warning to anyone that is still reading this: you might learn something, but more likely you will roll your eyes.

Today's AH! Moment:

Since I began TWS with DE and SE razors, I have used a lather bowl. Save those very few times when using some old-school puck soaps like Williams or Arko, I have ALWAYS put my soap or cream into my lather bowl and whipped it with a damp brush, adding water, ect, etc...

This method works very well, and I have gotten very good results in attaining my preferred lather consistency. I also end up washing a ton of unused lather down the drain after my typical 3-pass shave. Let's face it, soap is cheap, even my MdC, on a pre-shave basis, but I'm still wasting a lot of lather.

MdC has a long-standing reputation for easy lathering, with very little product, so today I decided to use some for an old-school face lather and the results were fantastic.

I wet my Razorock Plissoft synthetic with warm water, swirled it on my MdC Rose soap about 20 times and went directly to my face. Adding warm water as needed by dipping the brush tips, I was able to create a perfect, slick lather. The shave was close and comfortable, very nice.

So, today's AH! Moment was many-fold:

I had more than enough lather for three passes, used less product, was forced to actually scrub my face with the brush to create the lather, the brush was always warm on my face as I dipped it into hot water, making the shave even more luxurious.

The main take-away was that the added time scrubbing my beard actually seemed more beneficial in hydrating my whiskers. When bowl lathering, I wash my face, then re-wet with hot water right before brushing (painting) on the lather. I'm usually a bit hasty, and probably don't scrub as much as I should, whereas face lathering requires a good scrub.

So, I'll still use my beloved Captain's Choice bowl for creams and croaps, but for hard soaps I am all-in on face lathering.

This AH! Moment has been thoughtfully brought to you by me...

...and I did warn you that it would be painfully mundane.

😆😆😆

Tune in next time for my latest AH! Moment, otherwise known as: "I can't believe he didn't already know this!" There may not be many more, or any more for that matter - I'm suggestion resistant, and a slow adapter.
As a noob (6-8 months in) I’m still getting an-Ha! pretty frequently. Whenever I read of someone not liking a particular razor because of the height of the head I wonder why as I can’t get ANY razor under my nose with the correct angle. That “flatter” or slim head buys you what? An extra 1/8” of a vertical inch you can reach under the nose with the correct angle? My tough whiskers are on neck and jaw. My mustache is an easy shave and always slightly buffed, so to me a big head doesn’t matter. Here’s looking at you, Timeless, one day….
 
Well, it appears I'm becoming a face latherer.

When I started TWS, I gravitated towards bowl lathering, and eventually bought a Captain's Choice bowl. It is a lovely bowl, very well made, and works great but since I have begun face lathering, I find that I have almost no desire to use the bowl. Much like @Phoenixkh I may relegate it to storing car keys and pocket change. 😄

And brushes. I started with an inexpensive badger, bought a few synthetics, and thought I needed a top tier badger. Well, I grabbed a lightly-used Paladin from the BST, and didn't care for it at all, which leads me to my brush AH! moment:

I've become boar-ish.

Don't get me wrong, I still have a few badgers, including a nice Rudy Vey, some vintage handles re-knotted with badger, an SOC Mistura, and I love using my Razorock synthetics for a quick shave (no soaking required), but I have been reaching for my cheap Omega boars most often. They just work, especially for face lathering.

Of course the others also work, the boars just seem to be my preference. Besides being good scrubbers, they seem to be better at releasing the lather (flow through?) which was my gripe with the Paladin.

If I were designing a brush, aesthetically it would be a Paladin. To me, they are impeccably designed, just perfect - the handle shapes, resin colors, the brush shape - all perfect to gaze upon...but...

I couldn't get my example to release the lather. I tried more soap, more water, asked for help, and nothing worked. The knot was incredibly dense, which I believe contributed to my "problem". Of course this is not unique to Paladin, and is a subjective dislike on my part, which brings me back to:

I love my inexpensive boar brushes. They work, especially when face lathering. Ah Ha!
 
I've decided to keep my experimentation in electroplating confined to my journal. Even though I am doing this with the intent of ultimately replating some of my vintage razors, it didn't feel terribly appropriate to post this material in the "General Shaving Discussion" forum.

So, if you want to follow my future electroplating exploits, you will need to come here.

As I stated in the other thread, i am not a chemist, and have no idea regarding of the toxicity of any of the liquids or gasses produced in this process. If you intend to try this, please handle all chemicals with care, and wear any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that you deem necessary, which may include, but not be limited to, latex or nitrile gloves, safety glasses, and a respirator.

My original post, from the other thread:

Ok, so I can't just sit and wait for my power supply and nickel stock to arrive from the 'Zon, so I went to Home Depot today, and grabbed a bottle of Zep Root Kill and a short length of thick-wall 1/2" copper pipe (to use as the "donor").

20221230_180813.jpg


Anyway, after opening my package from Italian Barber 🙂 I patiently waited for my wife to go off to work before turning her kitchen into my laboratory.

I had a bunch of old phone chargers, so I chose one that was 5v and 500mA. Cut the end off, stripped the ends of the individual wires, plugged in the charger, and used my multimeter to determine which lead was positive. I used a small red tie strap to mark the positive lead (this will come in handy later). Since this was a temporary set up, I just twisted the leads from the power supply to a couple of alligator clips. If I were going to use this regularly, I would have soldered the wires to the clips.

Next, I measured 3 cups of distilled water into a wide mouth Ball jar and nuked it for about 1.5 or 2 minutes - the temp of the water was just over 115F. I then dumped 2.4oz (by weight, using a digital scale) of the Zep crystals into the water. I had already dropped a "flea" into the jar to use on my magnetic stirrer.

After setting the jar on the stirrer, I turned it on to agitate the solution and completely dissolve the crystals in the warm water. Once done, and I had a beautiful clear blue liquid, I switched off the stirrer.

Next, I inserted an 8" length of the copper pipe, which I had cut earlier, into the solution and connected the positive leads to the end of the pipe (the red one, remember the red tie strap?). I used a large spring clamp to weight the top of the pipe to keep it from moving.

After spraying some .40 caliber pistol brass with brake cleaner, wiping then with paper towel, I clipped one to the negative lead and submerged it into the solution, suspended with a wooden chop stick. The experimental subjects:

20221230_172219.jpg


Polarity is very important. The positive lead MUST be connected to the donor metal - the part that will shed atoms/ions during the process, into the solution to be attracted by the part you with to plate, which is always connected to the negative. Short version:

Negative lead to the part you are plating.
Positive lead to the plating material.

On with the show:

I plugged in the power supply and switched on the stirrer. Using the stirrer, I was hoping to agitate the solution to get even coverage around the entire brass casing. My understanding is that otherwise only the side facing the donor material will be plated, or the side facing away will be thinner. Think of it as getting a sun tan, only the side facing the sun gets tan.

20221230_180914.jpg


The extra alligator clips on the rim of the jar were used to hold the chop stick in the center, as it wanted to slide to the edge of the jar.

Anyway, I let it run for 15 minutes, and got this (you can see the difference from the unplated case):

20221230_172243.jpg


Pretty ugly. I don't have a buffing wheel, so I polished the copper plated case with some Never Dull wadding, by hand, wiped it with an old cotton t shirt, and got this, on the left. Much better:

20221230_172312.jpg


I'm thinking I need a bench buffer to get a dazzling shine, but may try a small buffing wheel on my Dremel tool al LOW speed to see what happens. Don't want to be launching metal parts into HER drywall. That just creates more work for her maintenance man. 😆

Anyway, pretty happy with the results. No real mess and critically important, no stink.

My plan is to nickel plate over this copper pistol case and buff it out. After that, I'm going to try the same process on one of my brass Gillette New razors.

Anyway, that's it for today. I've gotta go have a shave with the new stuff I got from Italian Barber today (Razorock brush and soaps 🙂).
 
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Congratulations on your experimentations!
gene wilder frankenstein GIF by foxhorror


Please just remember not to alarm the local populace with strange noctural lights and flashes.

They can take it the wrong way.
james whale riot GIF by Maudit

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!!

Well, now I can remove the lightning rods I was using to power my experiments, since this just arrived at my door:

20221231_143152.jpg


My power supply and the nickel plates which I will use to create my nickel acetate solution. I also ordered a solid rod of 99% pure nickle to use for the actual plating process.

Soon, I will have a jar of beautiful green liquid on the shelf next to my lovely blue liquid. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
 
Nothing to see here, really.

I think I am going to create my nickel plating solution today. I'm going to let the process run for 24 hours, to get a solution that is well saturated with nickel.

I'll post the process with a few pics later.

I also wanted to link to my original thread in "General Shaving Discussion" for easy access and reference.


Stay tuned for the ensuing hilarity.🤣
 
Ok, my lovely bride went to work...time to cook up some mayhem in her kitchen.

First, I needed to create my nickel (acetate?) solution.

Recipe:

3 cups distilled white vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon of salt

I used finely granulated sea salt with no iodine. Why add an unnecessary mineral to my elixir?

Anyway, put the vinegar/salt mixture into another Ball jar and then onto my magnetic stirring plate and mixed until the salt dissolved completely.

Next, I bent the two nickel strips, hung them in the jar, and connected my power supply (PS) leads, one to each strip.

20230104_133956.jpg


Sidebar: I saw some guy on you toob that let this process go for a full 24 hours, so I was going to try that method, thinking it would give me a more saturated nickel potion.

Anyway, I set my PS to 15v and 5a and let it run. My concoction immediately started to bubble, and turn a very light green. I kept a close eye on it as it was slowly warming up.

20230104_134039.jpg

20230104_134110.jpg


Well, after only one hour (one eye on the chemistry experiment, the other on The Price Is Right), I ended up with a beautiful, emerald green liquid. Done.


20230104_134226.jpg


Of course, giddy with the excitement of my limited success to this point, I sallied forth....
 
I feel like we need a different emoji for the posts in this thread, some combination of mad scientist hunched over his work and this: :devil:
 
So, what to plate?

I have my 40cal brass cases, one copper plated, and a $2 Gillette Old Type with a cracked handle.

I decided to try plating a brass bullet case first. So I hung it from my chopstick with a piece of copper wire and let it plate for a few minutes.

This is where the "artsy" part of doing this process comes into play. There is no set rule on voltage or current, other than the higher the values the faster the plating happens. Too fast, however, and you risk uneven or lumpy plating. I set my PS to low values (5v, 2a) for all of the plating done in this post, and let the parts plate for about 5 minutes. The bullet casing:

20230104_134249.jpg


Of course, I couldn't stop there, right? I grabbed my $2 Gillette and had a look at its condition.

20230104_134326.jpg

20230104_134354.jpg


Not great. The base plate was still very shiny silver on the back, and sort of brushed silver on the top. Really, probably nicer the way it is, and best to just leave it alone.

The plating on tha handle is nearly completely gone. The plating on the cap is spotty, and there is some corrosion.

I lightly polished the handle, focusing mainly on the ball end and the ferrule on top, with Never Dull.

The cap was a bit of a mess. I sanded it with 2000 grit sandpaper, followed by 2500 grit. I had to remove some material because of the corrosion, and stopped short of getting it corrosion-free. There are some deep pockets, and I feared that removing enough material to completely remove the corrosion pockets might alter the geometry of the head. Besides, I'm not going for Backroads Gold, more like "Backwoods" or "Bubba" Gold.

I don't mind some "character" in the finished product. My goal is a complete, even plating that takes a decent shine.

After the sandpaper, I polished the bare brass on the head with Never Dull, shot everything with brake cleaner and wiped the parts with paper towel.

Anyway, on with the show. I plated the handle first, but didn't leave it in long enough. The ends (ball and ferrule) were completely plated, but the little crevices in the knurling still showed the base metal.

I put it off to the side and grabbed the head, and plated it for about 5 minutes, then replated the handle for an additional 5 minutes.

After plating, I polished everything with Never Dull, including the bullet case and got this:

20230104_134423.jpg

20230104_134449.jpg

20230104_134513.jpg

20230104_134536.jpg


Not perfect, but at least as good as some of my vintage Superspeeds, and certainly "Backwoods Bubba Gold" quality.

I'm thinking more careful prep will improve the end result, but I'm very happy with my first go.

Now, I better clean up the kitchen before the boss gets home...
 
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So admittedly, I really have no idea what I'm doing...yet.

On this one (New Long Comb), I focused on the cap. Sanded it to try and remove all the nicks, gouges, divots, and deep scratches. 400, 600, 2000, 2500 grit and then metal polish - by hand. Shot the cap with brake cleaner and plated.

The handle was a PITA, and it shows in the result.

I sanded and polished the end and the ferrule but wasn't sure how to prep the knurling. I did my best with polish and brake cleaner, but the initial nickel plating didn't seem to take. The ends plated, but the knurled portion was spotty with the base material showing through. Maybe the nickel was not plating/adhering to the left over plating in the knurling? Not sure.

Anyway, I decided to do a quick copper plate and buff, then plate over the copper with nickel. That worked better, but my handle plating is still a work in progress.

I was going for a two-tone look, and left the base plate polished brass.

The cap came out beautifully, which proves that prep is king. The unveiling:

20230106_163324.jpg

20230106_163603.jpg

20230106_163257.jpg
 
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