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Damn Comfortable Shave

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Wednesday's shave was very good.

View attachment 1040620

This is my Pipe Razor. Today I honed it on the finishing side of my Double Convex Arkansas 8x3 stone, perhaps 100 round trips (or less). If I'm remembering and searching correctly its edge was previous very very good (by my standards of several months ago). This razor was made by Geo. Wostenholm & Son in Sheffield, England, some time after 1892 by the England marking.

Anyway, the edge is really good. Can it be maxed out even more? Perhaps, but there's no rush. It's in the league with the Wade now. I'm not saying they're one another's equals, but they're close enough to compare side by side.

View attachment 1040621

Good kit. Good shave.

Happy shaves to you,

Jim

This might be the closest straight razor shave I've given myself! Pretty sure it is!
 
I wrote a long response, but it disappeared.

I don't see the Arks and the ZG as an apples to apples comparison because the ZG has a very large range.

For everything past a mid range stone such as the Washita I'd go for the convexed Ark (the DCA) over anything else I have.

However, the ZG is a great stone. The ZG has a very large range with its slurry stone and it will flat out get a razor sharp! Probably easier to use following a mid range stone, but could be used with just a bevel setter.

I'm not even thinking of getting rid of any stones but the stones I used today are the only stones I've used since I got the DCA and the Washita. My coticules, my other synthetics, my ZG, my flat Arks - they're not being used.

I know Jarrod's mentioned the soft side of the DCA as a bevel setter. I think of it as a bevel setter only in the sense that it pre-sets the bevel for the hard side of the DCA to finish. In other words I wouldn't use it as a bevel setter on a razor which didn't already have the actual bevel set. Perhaps Jarrod uses the DCA for that purpose and I'm not being critical of anyone who does it that way. I'm just saying I find the DCA useful primarily when the bevel was previously established with flat stones and I'm finishing on the DCA (using both sides of the DCA).

I like having both sides of the DCA. I use the black finishing side as a solo stone only when all I'm doing it maxing out an already sharp edge meaning the soft side was previously used on the edge.

That's not much of an answer, but it's all I can come up with.

Please don't think I'm knocking the ZG. I think it's a great stone.

Happy shaves,

Jim
Very helpful - thanks
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Thats a good sign.

It remains apparent this morning how good the shave was yesterday.

Not long after yesterday's shave I noticed what I've never noticed before following one of my straight razor shaves - Dolphin Skin - and have rarely noticed after a safety razor shave. That term used to sometimes be used to describe how the closeness felt after shaving with one of the highly touted for closeness DE razors but which one I do not recall, perhaps the iKon Tech.

The Tech though is not my cup of tea. Besides, I think I bought the last one in existence.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
It remains apparent this morning how good the shave was yesterday.

Not long after yesterday's shave I noticed what I've never noticed before following one of my straight razor shaves - Dolphin Skin - and have rarely noticed after a safety razor shave. That term used to sometimes be used to describe how the closeness felt after shaving with one of the highly touted for closeness DE razors but which one I do not recall, perhaps the iKon Tech.

The Tech though is not my cup of tea. Besides, I think I bought the last one in existence.

Happy shaves,

Jim

As good as you remember from years ago?
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Thursday's shave was pretty good.

12-5-19.Torrey136.DB.Zenith.Copper.Manchurian.640.JPG


This is the Torrey 136 I honed yesterday. It's shave test results? The edge is good, but it is not as good as the edge on my Wade and not as good as the edge on the razor I shaved with yesterday, the Pipe Razor. Still, it's not a bad edge. I'm pretty sure it will improve with more time on the Double Convex Ark 8x3. The only question is whether to use both sides of the DCA or just stick with the finishing side of the stone.

7-15-19.Torrey136.White.640.JPG

Of course I could be very wrong and need to do more work on coarser stones but I'll begin with the DCA. Hopefully this weekend. My goal is to have this edge as good as my best edges. Why settle for less than that. I want all my edges to be the very best they can be and also equal to my very best edges.

Not saying the shave was bad. It was a pretty good shave, mostly DFS I'd say.

Dragonsbeard.SkinFood.Splash.HyaluronicAcid.480.JPG

My skin feels very good. I really like this combination. It works great for me.

Happy shaves to you,

Jim
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
As good as you remember from years ago?

Great question, Mike.

I'd have to qualify my answer by saying that I wasn't trying yesterday to achieve a super great shave and I was aware there was a little area on the right side of my chin which could have used a tad more work. However, I wasn't doing anything yesterday which required a great shave so I let it go. Not saying it was a patch of unshaven whiskers or anything like that, but I knew one more pass or a bit of buffing would improve it. I knew that when I quit shaving but didn't care enough about it to do more work.

What about my neck? Generally I don't even try to get a neck BBS with a straight razor. I'm unable so far to figure out how to go E-W (Right to Left) on my neck. I can do SE-NW and NE-SW and such as that, but I need to do E-W. Or, I have always thought I do.

So, during yesterday's shave I did my usual angles of approach none of which were E-W on my neck.

However, the results yesterday were far better than usual. Even on my neck.

My cheeks, lips, and chin were definitely Dolphin Skin. My neck was largely Dolphin Skin, but perhaps not 100%.

Dolphin Skin feels like the skin of a dolphin. It's shockingly smooth. I'm not sure how to compare Dolphin Skin to BBS. To me BBS is softer than Dolphin Skin, but is one smoother and closer than the other? I don't know. I don't even know how to talk or think about it.

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Having said all that, some of it being in the nature of caveats, and also saying that my memories of straight razor shaves delivered by highly skilled, very experienced professional barbers are memories decades old and memories formed when my skin and whiskers were very young, I'd say yes, yesterday's shave was in the same league as those shaves.

As you know, but most people don't, that's been a very long time and elusive goal for me. Yesterday's shave was certainly the closest I've come to it.

When I say that, I also mean that yesterday's shave was a Damn Comfortable Shave. Close and smooth without also being Damn Comfortable don't count.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
Having said all that, some of it being in the nature of caveats, and also saying that my memories of straight razor shaves delivered by highly skilled, very experienced professional barbers are memories decades old and memories formed when my skin and whiskers were very young, I'd say yes, yesterday's shave was in the same league as those shaves.


That
, is an accomplishment!

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Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Great photo, Mike. I've had only one experience in the wild of a dolphin coming right up to me, and sticking its head out of the water, and hanging out there a few feet from me for a number of minutes, but that experience was very memorable.

[At Edisto Beach, South Carolina, I think, in the creek or maybe the sound, probably the creek (area between the ocean and the sound, the sound being water between the barrier island and the mainland; I think creek is the right word but maybe that's regional so I'm using the Florida Keys terminology of the area between the keys, called creeks.] Not that it matters a whit.

I don't recall ever touching a dolphin, but maybe I have. I've not done any of the paid swim-with-the-dolphin things but everyone tells me they've enjoyed 'em. So, Dolphin Skin is just a term from some B&B folks, a term I adopted.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
I've never seen one. I refuse to go to Marine World and they dont come up the cricks here lol.

A friend I had in New Zealand however, said she swam with them when she was younger.
 
"A groundbreaking new study published July 17 in Biology Letters has upended some of that thinking, demonstrating that in regard to dolphins, at least, it is based on faulty assumptions and measurements. "How smooth is a dolphin? The ridged skin of odontocetes," co-authored by Professor of Biology George V. Lauder, makes use of an innovative new technique to disprove the earlier supposition.

To do so, the team used a new modeling technology, spreading a high-fidelity molding compound over a small patch of skin on a living animal, rather like a liquid Band-Aid or Silly Putty. Then they made a 3-D model, via gel-based profilometry, mining data from surface measurements to create miniature topographic maps of those surfaces. An older study had looked at the skin on living dolphins but was not able to make such precise measurements or modeling. "

"For the most part," said Lauder, "dolphins are very, very smooth."

Not my words. Theory that ridged skin helps dolphins debunked - https://phys.org/news/2019-07-theory-ridged-skin-dolphins-debunked.html
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Friday's shave was substandard.

12-6-19.SolidComfort.Z-Copper-boar.640.DB.Kit.JPG


On the face of this razor's blade it says Solid Comfort. It's a German blade which looks very much like the blade of a Torrey 136.

Dragonsbeard.SkinFood.Splash.HyaluronicAcid.480.JPG

I honed the blade the other day using the DCA. It's very clear from the shave test that the blade is not shave ready so it's back to the stones for a lot more work.

Other than the edge today's kit was fine, but the edge is almost everything, right?

Happy shaves to you,

Jim
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
My shave this Saturday was stellar.

12-7-19.PipeRazor.Horse.DB.640.Kit.JPG


I was right the other day. The edge on this Pipe Razor is in the same league with the edge on my Wade. It might be even sharper. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is. The shave today once again was very impressive. I've just shaved so I can't comment on how it will feel in an hour of course.

PipeRazor.Face&Pipe.640.3-3-19.JPG

This razor and the Wade have a couple of other things in common.
  • Both are Sheffield razors.
  • Both are thin at the spine so the angle is likely more acute than some razors (and more acute perhaps than some gentlemen believe "right").
No, I've not measured anything. I'm just going by how they feel and look to my untrained and semi-experienced eye.

Dragonsbeard.SkinFood.Splash.HyaluronicAcid.480.JPGPurple Dawgs will eat you alive.jpg

Go, Dawgs!

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
My shave this Saturday was stellar.

View attachment 1041546

I was right the other day. The edge on this Pipe Razor is in the same league with the edge on my Wade. It might be even sharper. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is. The shave today once again was very impressive. I've just shaved so I can't comment on how it will feel in an hour of course.

View attachment 1041547

This razor and the Wade have a couple of other things in common.
  • Both are Sheffield razors.
  • Both are thin at the spine so the angle is likely more acute than some razors (and more acute perhaps than some gentlemen believe "right").
No, I've not measured anything. I'm just going by how they feel and look to my untrained and semi-experienced eye.

View attachment 1041549View attachment 1041551

Go, Dawgs!

Happy shaves,

Jim
Can't beat a nice Sheffield.
 
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