Absence makes the heart grow fonder

[Darth Scandalous]

I've been experimenting with my ark, my favorite so far is WD40, followed by water and dish soap. I think a lot of guys use mineral oil.

Rereading that, it sounds like I use WD40 followed by soap and water. What I meant was, my favorite is WD40, my next favorite is Dawn and water.

With regards to sippin' whisky, if they wanted you to drink it slow, they shouldn't make it go down so smooth.

 

[steveclarkus]

A while ago I built the three balsa wood strops and diamond pastes necessary to follow @Slash McCoy’s ‘Merhod’.
I remember that the very first razor I did on it blew me away, I never knew things could get so sharp.
But little by little I moved back to the softer feel of my natural stones.
I kept one razor with the balsa edge but hardly used it and didn’t keep up with the maintainsnce advised by The Method.
Lately I’d been considering giving my balsa strops and pastes away to any struggling beginners as I felt it was a great experiment but that I’d probably never go back to using them with any regularity.
So for that past year I’ve been using stone and have been happy.
But today just on a whim, I took my method edged Gold Dollar back through the .5, .25, .1 diamond progression for this mornings shave.
As I was finishing the process I was struck by the brilliance of the shine on the edge and spine.
As soon as the shave began I felt a softness and smoothness to the shave.
I’d genuinely forgotten how sharp an edge the balsa delivers.
Also I hadn’t remembered it feeling so soft.
Maybe my shaving has improved since I last tried the method edge, who knows, but the edge id done was a real winner.
Where it really stood out was atg especially on my neck and top lip. Soooo much more efficient and easier than my stone edges.
I thought my stone edges were pretty good but the balsa edge makes them pale by comparison.
Today I got one of the closest most comfortable shaves I’ve done in ages, probably made all the more special due to the long absence.

I made the same trip as you and came back to film and balsa rather quickly.

 

[Tomo]

I think you may be right, do you use oil with it or plain water?

I’ve tried just about everything and I like Speick shaving cream with water the best. Oil feels a bit too slow and heavy for me on the arks. I get a smoother stroke with soap and water. I don’t think it really matters all that much. Personel preference really.

 

[rbscebu]

For the past week I have been in the process of moving. Not having the time for pre and post shave blade maintenance, I spent the week shaving with a generic Chinese stainless steel shavette and a Feather Hi-Stainless DE half-blade. It was good but different to shave with. I was also reminded that most of the edges on my traditional SR's need a little more work on them to get them to the Feather DE blade edge standard.

This morning I returned to my regular Method edge traditional straight razors. It's good to get back to my normal routine.