The studio is a great pen. You will like it. I have it in EF as well and like you already eluded to takes the same nibs as Safari/Al-Star.300+ Shaves in 2024 121 of 300+
May 2024 GRUME 9/31
Shave Date 5/10/2024
Razor: 1967 Slim Adjustable TTO.
Blade: Rapira Platinum Lux (1)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Ariana & Evans Spartacus (10)
Brush: PAA Atomic Rocket 26mm Synthetic
Post-shave: Alum Bock, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Mother Bear Winter Balm, Nivea Post Shave Balm, Sterling Executive Man A/S
Rating: 27.5/30 9 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 8.5 for smoothness, neck stubble, BBS on the face, and DFS+++ neck.
Notes
The first WTG pass today was on setting 9 of the Slim, this resulted in a rough first pass with the Rapira. Bumping down the setting to 7 for the XTG pass made a huge difference. Again the neck received no ATG work, today in addition to the N-S pass I did some S-N passes on the neck. I did an ATG clean-up pass on the right sea lion fur patch, with great results no blood, and not much more irritation than any other blade with a similar pass. I took it easy on the left side where the nicks were before, using ultra-light touch and bumping the setting to 3, but I still drew a slight amount of blood, nothing like the butchering of two shaves ago, but still blood, when normally I see none. I will see how the Rapira behaves in one of my Techs or the Rocket tomorrow, it is likely setting 9 on the adjustable Slim is too much for this blade. The Atomic Rocket is a fine brush, it does sling some lather, I saw a bit fly over my shoulder onto whatever furbaby was sitting behind me this morning, but I kept it mostly off the walls. 10 Shaves into Spartacus and I see a slight indention in the tub, I can see where it is receding some. I am not being conservative with my brush loading and I rinse out copious amounts of later at the end of the shave, but my goal isn't to conserve soap, it is to use up my stash before 30 years go by. Once I establish how many shaves I can get out of a croap, I'll have a better idea of just how long my stash of soaps will last. Hard soaps will be a different story than the Croaps, but I have few of them in comparison to the croaps.
I sat down to rewrite my mom's poem and fix the mistake I noticed after sending the initial poem off, with a beer or two. It took many takes before I got it right, about 10. Now I have plenty of scrap Rhodia paper to write on, and I had green fingers from cleaning out a pen and reloading with Pure Pens John Frost. I mailed it off last night, unfortunately, all options to send the letter would arrive on Monday, from 68 cents forever stamp to $33 priority mail. Mom got the 68 cents stamp, she wouldn't want me to waste money.
As I mentioned in Don's (@huck1680) journal, in a moment of weakness seeing his new LAMY 2000, I google searched LAMY Studio, and the river store was selling them for $44 and some cents, the cheapest I've found it by far, they usually sell in the $65-70+ range, the seller was The LAMY store, so it seemed legit. We shall see, I know Amazon is notorious for selling fakes on many items. Checking last night and the same pen was over $50. I was limited to an EF nib option for that price, but I have a few extra LAMY nibs headed this way from Pure Pens, so that wasn't an issue. It should be in on Saturday, I also saw a LAMY 2000 for a huge discount, but I resisted that, for now.
That is all for a Friday, I wish all a blessed day, and may all your shaves be the best.
View attachment 1843838