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GIVEAWAY! Challenge PIF - We're Gonna Need A Bigger Razor!!

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Shark Week's over. It's been a week full of surprises. Sometimes, the S³ made for a brillant smooth shave, sometimes the shave was just plain and simple tuggy. There was no clear rule evident to me, why the performance differed this much...

Today, I loaded the S³ into the vintage 1918 Gillette Old Type. The shave was a "middle of the road" one with the S³ in its seventh outing. Not overly smooth, not overly rough, but there was a tad of tugginess, which didn't bother me.
2 passes and touchups. Almost BBS. The combo of the vintage razor and the modern blade performed well.

Poor Sharks... they didn't get one single drop of blood from me in course of Shark Week! 😋🤣

Happy shaves!
 
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BradWorld

Dances with Wolfs
Sharko Arko Travel Shave. Shark Platinum.

First time with a Shark Platinum. What a dreadful blade. Tuggy. Very rough and uncomfortable. Used it with a Blackland ERA Level 5 OC. The shave results were decent. DFS+. But it was not fun getting there. Ymmv is the name of the game here. Lots of people love this blade. It’s not for me. I came close to swapping it out several times, but persevered. Still no blood in the water. 🩸

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Shark Bait -- Shave 4 (6&7 blade use)

Razor: Yates 921M (face) & H (head)
Blade: Shark Super Stainless
Brush: Omega boar
Soap: Eleven -- Barbershop
A/S: Skin Bracer

My apologies to team Shark for neglecting my Shark duties for a week. Life happens.

I contemplated starting a new blade, but the Super Stainless had been treating me so well, I had to give it one more night of service. I also wanted to get a baseline and remind myself of its performance before moving on to the next blade.

Tonight's shave was smooth and comfortable. Took quite a bit of buffing and extra effort to get to DFS+, but I am quite satisfied. No blood in the water yet for this happy Shaver of Sharks.

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Shark Super Stainless Blade #1 - Shave #4

TL;DR -
Nice DFS shave, smooth and comfortable, no blood, no drama

Equipment: Merkur 20C, Shark SS(4), PdP 63 Shave Soap

The Shave: Shark Super Stainless Blade continues to give me an excellent shave, smooth and comfortable. I skipped shaving yesterday, then lathered up with PdP 63, and swam with the Shark SS. No blood, no drama, just a wonderful DFS shave

Shark Week: Thank you, @BigJ, for organizing this year's Shark Week and letting @AnimalCatcher, @Chard52142, and me run this Challenge PIF in conjunction with your Shark Week event!!

Acknowledgements: Thank you, @AnimalCatcher and @Chard52142, for supplying these amazing Shark and JAWS Blades, and @AnimalCatcher for supplying the stickers, the stamps, and the After-PIF prizes!! This has been a great PIF!!
 
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Blade: Shark Platinum
Razor:1969 (O4) Gillette Super Adjustable 6-7-7
Brush: Vie-Long (horse hair)
Soap: Stirling Soap Co. - Arkadia
Aftershave: Mennen Skin Brace - Cooling Blue

As Shark Week comes to an end I'm happy to have survived without any bloodshed. My reward was some amazingly smooth shaves. Looks like a few beauties of the sea decided to join me.
 
Blade: Shark Super Stainless
Razor: Timeless Ti.95 OC
Brush: Razorock
Soap: Williams Expert
Aftershave: Amity Blue Freeze (Aqua Velva with added menthol)

First shave with the Shark Super Stainless wasn't bad. To me, it seems similar to the Shark Platinum in cutting ability and smoothness. A bit of irritation, but I suspect the next shave will be a better one.
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Shark Platinum Blade #1 Shaves #6

Last night's shave was still pretty good. The Shark Platinum left me with a BBS with a minor but painless love bite.

I, again, paired the Shark Platinum with a Fatip Grande and used @COdiak's Frankmenth soap. I lathered the soap in my Captain's Choice Cobalt Seaworthy lather bowl with my Cherry Semogue Owner's Club finest badger brush. I finished my shave with some Barrister & Mann Terror aftershave splash.

Again, instead of showering before shaving, I opted to take a shower after shaving. I soaked my SOC in a cup of cold water and also soaked an almond sized dollop of the Frankmenthsoap in cold water in my lather bowl for 20 minutes. During this time, I prepared my face and beard by periodically dousing them in (cold) water.

After the soap and brush were soaked sufficiently, I made a thick yogurty lather in my lather bowl. I completed a two pass shave (WTG and ATG). Before each pass, I wet my face with some bloom water on my face then painted on the lather from my bowl until I built a thick and protective layer. I wound up with my usual BBS shave.

The shave was still good but I wound up with a painless weeper on my upper lip. My alum block couldn't staunch the bleeding, but I did stop it with my styptic pencil. Still, the blade felt as sharp as (but maybe a tad less smooth) than with the previous shave.

Afterward, I showered and rinsed off the alum block and styptic residue with some more cold water. I finished my shave by splashing some B&M Terror after shave splash and enjoyed the cooling sensation.

All in all, I would give the shave a 99/100.

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Shark Super Stainless Blade #1 - Shave #5

TL;DR -
Tad rough, still close, but lots of cleanup

Equipment: Merkur 20C, Shark SS(5), CTS Cowboy Spice Shave Soap

The Shave: The Shark SS Blade gave me 1 more shave, it was close but not smooth. CTS Cowboy Spice laid down a nice lather, and there was no blood, but it took some work to get a decent shave. I think I'll release this shark out into the wild.

So Far: All 3 blades have treated my face well, and they're solidly at the top of the middle pack!
 
Shark Platinum edge 1 shave 3. Wilkinson Sword Classic (plastic) razor, Captain's Choice Land Ho! soap, YaQi Giotto 24mm synthetic.

I didn't manage to add enough water to the soap to begin with, which left me with a rather uncomfortable first pass and a slight amount of irritation that I'm definitely not going to try and pin on the blade.

I wised up for the second pass, and ended up with a much smoother CCS. I don't expect much more out of this blade/edge, but I'll try taking it to a fourth shave.
 
Fifth shave with the Sharp Jaws Platinum blade #1

Razor
: Fatip Lo Storto Originale (aka FOCS)
Brush: Yaqi Black Marble (24mm Silvertip Badger)
Soap: Tabac Shaving Soap Stick (Tallow)

Another top-notch shave from the Jaws Platinum.

This blade remains the most consistent of the three blades in this Challenge as it has delivered one great shave after another. Right from the start, all three of my main passes have been almost perfect. Any little quibbles that I've experienced have been so minor that they don't really deserve mention.

Buffing has also been a mostly trouble-free affair. Early on, I needed to buff quite heavily to get to my preferred level of closeness, but these last few shaves have been flawless. A few buffing strokes here and there and a guaranteed BBS is in the books. :thumbup1:

So, I'd say that the Jaws Platinum has taken the lead in this challenge, followed fairly closely by the Shark Platinum. Unfortunately, due to its inconsistency, the Shark SS brings up the rear.

The Shark SS is next up in the rotation, so we'll see if it can redeem itself.
 
Shark Bait -- JAWS -- Shave 1

Razor: Karve D
Blade: Sharp Jaws
Brush: TOBS badger
Soap: ARKO
A/S: Aqua Velva

After such a great smooth experience with the Shark Super Stainless, and reading about so many poor experiences with the Sharp Jaws blade, I confess to a bit of trepidation tonight as I approached the waters. I chose my most buttery smooth blade holder for tonight's adventure.

I am glad to report that tonight's shave was another smooth and comfortable swim. No blood in the water yet for this happy Shaver of Jaws.

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Blade: Shark Super Stainless - blade #1, shave #2
Razor: Aristocrat 1948
Brush: Muhle
Soap: Captain Fawcett - Scapicchio
Aftershave: Vintage Avon - Bay Rum

Shave two with the Shark SS was very nice.... better than the first. No blood or irritation and a very nice DFS result.

Oops! Forgot to include the Shark Super Stainless blade in the picture.
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Shark Super Stainless Blade #2 - Shave #1

TL;DR -
Nice DFS shave, smooth and comfortable, great smelling shave soap

Equipment: Merkur 20C, Shark SS(1), Captain's Choice Venture Shave Soap

The Shave: I like rotating blades, but forgot to snag my intended blade (2 story house, too lazy to go back down stairs) so I grabbed a ready-blades, one of the Shark Super Stainless, and loaded it up, whipped up some Captain's Choice Venture lather, great scent, great soap, and received a very nice, no drama, DFS shave, smooth and comfortable.
 
Fifth shave with the Shark Super Stainless blade #1

Razor
: Fatip Lo Storto Originale (aka FOCS)
Brush: Simpson Special S1 (18mm Best Badger)
Soap: Tabac Shaving Soap Stick (Tallow)

A surprisingly smooth shave from the Shark Super Stainless!

Well, I guess that there's still life in this blade. I had almost hoped that it would deliver another lousy outing so I could just trash it, but it managed to surprise me with a very good, close shave.

My three main passes were all quick and smooth with none of the tugging and roughness that I experienced during its last use. Efficiency was much better which led to just a minuscule amount of buffing required to get to a BBS. All in all, I'm extremely pleased with today's result.

However, I am a bit worried that it will continue with its Jekyll-and-Hyde routine. Will it remain mild and calm like its Jekyll persona on its next use? Or will it revert to its Hyde personality and pummel my face again like a punching bag?
 
Shark Platinum shave #7 (one half)
2 day growth

Razor: Twig
Pre: Warm shower with Kurt's Castile unscented.
Soap: Arko stick
Brush: 26mm Yaqi Timberwolf synthetic
After: Lubriderm Men's 3-in-1 lotion

First shave of Arko August. I snapped the blade and loaded half into the Twig and got to work. The tough part, across under the sideburns, went much better than expected. 3 passes has me Baby Seal Smooth with no drama. All items preformed quite well. I was actually surprised buy how well the blade/razor did with 6 uses already on it.


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Went back to the Jaws blade for today's shave.
Gillette with Jaws Blade
Shavette with Shark blade
Yaqi brush
Captain's Choice Island Time sample, great scent and a pretty good lather. I have suck troubles with making lather with a sample like this. I just take a few small chunks out and do the best lather I can do, which is not very good.

Had a good shave, smooth with no weepers or irritation. I am liking both the Jaws and Shark blades will be picking a couple of boxes of both in the near future.

9/10 on the shave.
 
Shark Bait -- JAWS -- Day 2 (shaves 2&3)

Razor: Blackland Era -- OC5
Blade: Sharp Jaws
Brush: Blackland synthetic
Soap: ARKO
A/S: La Toja

First disappointing shave so far. The razor/blade combo left much stubble behind. Unrelated to the blade, I may need to take another break from shaving as some skin problems are re-surfacing :( I will have to see how the skin looks tomorrow.

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