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I'm a big fan of skin stretching. The best technique I've found is what I call "pneumatic stretching" (PS). Basically, you stretch the skin by inflating your cheeks while you shave. By adjusting the air pressure in your cheek, you can adjust the closeness of the shave. It offers more control...

I sliced mine into 1/4 inch strips and put it in a plastic screw bottom shave stick tube from Maggards. Also, I can confirm this thing lasts forever. I've been shaving with it pretty much exclusively since Nov and I'm not even 1/3 through it.

Yup, the dovometer measures the mm compression of a pen spring. The scale is linear, so a dovometer of 18mm (Mogno) is roughly double the hardness of 10mm (Arko). Mogno wears like carbide; I'm 60 shaves in and I've barely dented it. Rigid is relative for sure. I always found the Fatip...

Nice! I'll be curious to hear your impressions.

I'll be damned. I forgot that Derby was made in Turkey. I've tried the Derby Extra and Premium. Not my favorites. I've never heard of Derby USTA though. The price is certainly right at $4.50 per hundred. That and a box of Arko would have me shaving for 3 years. I might have to give those a try.

I just realized that I started this review about 3 years ago but never finished it. The Silver Stars were more or less on par with a Derby, but the Minora was phenomenal. It's a top 5 blade for me. I've been looking for a reasonably priced source for them ever since.

I had the same experience with ZaZa. Great packaging but wretched blades. I couldn't even finish the shave. I had high hopes for ZaZa, because Arko comes from Turkey as well. My dreams of Turkish Tuesdays were thwarted. Anybody know of a good Turkish blade brand?

I own one straight razor that's worth more than I spent on my first car (NOS Iwasaki Tamahagane Western Straight). It's a piece of art that has never left it's box. Other than that, I use what works best. I'm down to a $7 RazoRock Tech II, a Game Changer 68, Mogno & Arko, a Shavemac badger and a...

My heart skipped a beat. The last 12 months have been so objectively awful, I thought you were going to say that Feathers have been discontinued. Not trying to rain the parade, but the Feathers I saw at that price on Amazon were "Hi Stainless" not "New High Stainless". Different packaging...

Another relevant term sometimes attributed to Veblen is "performative shaving". Performative shaving occurs when shaving becomes an end unto itself, and is articulated to others. It is characterized by a competitive obsession with marginal reductions in whisker length, often measured in...

I always upvote Thornstein Veblen. His "Theory of the Leisure Class" was so prescient it's astonishing. He explained the the kardashians and Instagram 120 years before either even existed. He also coined the terms "invidious distinction" (seeking power by inspiring envy), and "pecuniary...

Thanks! It's just my shave den though; I try to keep it as authentic as possible. My soaps seem to perform better when they can relax in their natural habitat between shaves. That way, when I pluck them off the shelf, the stress is that much more acute. A frightened soap is a terrified whisker.

Yikes. I just finished the 12 sticks of Arko that I bought back in 2015. The problem with Arko is that it actually grows at a rate of 3.87% per year. It doesn't sound like much, but 12.25 sticks of Arko is 917g, which means that it's growing at a rate of 36 grams per year. In other words, you...

Given that you might be in the market for a new shave stick, have you tried Ach Brito Mogno yet? It's a Portuguese shave stick that's downright excellent. It has supplanted Arko as my daily driver. It's better than Arko. May God strike me down, but it's true. It's $5.00, lasts 200 shaves, smells...

Sorry. False alarm. I thought I smelled Lilac Vegetal for a moment there. Turned out one of the office windows wasn't fully shut (we're downwind of the municipal compost pile).

Sadly no. The age old adage is "a fearful soap is a terrified whisker". A scary soap name can be helpful in intimidating whiskers, but it's an order of magnitude less effective. The classic film "Jurassic Park" lends a good analogy. Being cornered by a pack of velociraptors is scary, but it's...

My suggestion would be for him to do a single pass shave with the grain only for a while. Keep it simple.

Spyderco ladybug in ZDP-189. Handy little knife that disappears into a pocket, and holds a razor sharp edge forever!

Another idea. Test tube bungs come in lots of different sizes. The can be found on ebay pretty darn cheap.

I'm not sure why I find this so unsettling, but I do. It's a shame to see them go under, regardless of who buys the remnants of such an iconic American firearms manufacturer. Given the price of ammo these days, and the waiting lists for firearms, it's hard to imagine how they could have screwed...