Damn Comfortable Shave

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Friday my shave was very nice.

Very nice kit today. I really like this brush, razor, blade, and soap.





Also, the other software is top drawer.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Today I was mind blown by a new brush...

This brush had two or three hand and bowl lathers followed by rinses and air dries before today, but this was its first outing in a real live game shave.

The photos don't do the knot justice. I have a good many Zenith brushes. This is, by far, the ugliest of the Zenith knots. It's lopsided and not just a tad. It's swirly in its interior. It's got a funny shape. I could get photos showing all that stuff but I would embarrass the knot.

The brush loads easily enough.

As I began my face lathering I noticed that I initially had two thoughts.

• This knot is too tall.
• This knot is the stiffest boar in the history of the world (or something like that).

In spite of what I just said the brush was working well enough. It had about the amount of scritch you might expect of any brand new boar or less. Very little scritch but what were they thinking with the stiffness? Still, nothing bad, nothing impairing function, no deal breakers.

Suddenly, as I began mashing a little harder to splay the brush, the world changed. All the sudden the brush became delightfully scrubby in the most delicious way. Plus, the lather exploded as I added water via the bristles. It didn't feel too tall or too stiff or too anything except great (and is there too great?).

Seriously, this was amazing.

I have no idea what will happen as I go along with this Zenith Unbleached Boar, but my initial impression of it as a functional shave brush couldn't be better.





Flipped blade & software to die for (well, not really, but it's great stuff).

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Esox]

You have been known to love you some Zenith brushes Jim lol.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

You have been known to love you some Zenith brushes Jim lol.

Not my fault, Mike, not my fault.

It's those Italians.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I realized something yesterday.

Even though I thoroughly enjoyed using this unbleached brush yesterday, I experienced symptoms of brush burn as the day went on. That means I need to do more offline breaking in of this knot.

That process has already started and will continue for a while. Maybe a week from now I'll give the brush another spin. Maybe a month.

It's also possible that I over enjoyed using the brush yesterday meaning that I used it too long. In that case, perhaps the fault's entirely mine for enjoying a good thing to excess.

I'm not into brush burn. Not saying the BB was all that bad, but it was enough to notice.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Sunday's shave was good.

The SS Stealth Slant is even bigger than it looks in the photo. Monster slant. It's smooth and pretty efficient, but not a favorite as I recall it being occasionally prone to jump up out of the bushes and bite. I had a tiny weeper/nick today, on my lower lip (but not in the same place as a few days ago).

My brush burned skin enjoyed the D01 knot. Yes, it is a knot with enormous presence so I was taking a risk with it today. We'll see how the day goes. Maybe I should have used a softer brush but it's way too soon to be sure. So far my skin feels fine post shave.




Flipped the blade.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

My slants.

 

[Clay S]

I realized something yesterday.


View attachment 1157583

Even though I thoroughly enjoyed using this unbleached brush yesterday, I experienced symptoms of brush burn as the day went on. That means I need to do more offline breaking in of this knot.

That process has already started and will continue for a while. Maybe a week from now I'll give the brush another spin. Maybe a month.

It's also possible that I over enjoyed using the brush yesterday meaning that I used it too long. In that case, perhaps the fault's entirely mine for enjoying a good thing to excess.

I'm not into brush burn. Not saying the BB was all that bad, but it was enough to notice.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Sorry to hear about your BB. I never heard of BB, but started using the term after an encounter with the synthetic brush pass-around. Took me a while to figure out what had actually caused it. Kept wondering why I had developed razor burn over 10 hours after shaving. It finally dawned on me that I had face lathered multiple brushes in quick succession.

Looking forward to hearing more about the "too tall" lofted brush. Being that the Omega 10098 is my favorite brush, that brush sounds just right to me.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Sorry to hear about your BB. I never heard of BB, but started using the term after an encounter with the synthetic brush pass-around. Took me a while to figure out what had actually caused it. Kept wondering why I had developed razor burn over 10 hours after shaving. It finally dawned on me that I had face lathered multiple brushes in quick succession.

Looking forward to hearing more about the "too tall" lofted brush. Being that the Omega 10098 is my favorite brush, that brush sounds just right to me.

I have two Zenith unbleached boars.



The photos don't show their heights well at all so I'll measure them with my calipers.

• The plastic handled brush's knot is about 27.5mm with a loft of about 65mm.
• The wooden handled brush's knot is about 28mm (maybe 29mm) with a loft of 54mm.

Those are my measurements at the exit of the knot from the handle. The wooden handle is much shorter than the plastic handle, too.

To my way of thinking as a general rule boars are too tall if their loft exceeds about 57mm so what's up with these boars?

As I've used the plastic handled brush I've concluded that it's an exception. It's too tall to be able to do what it does. Maybe that means my general rule applies better to bleached than unbleached boars or maybe my brush is an outlier. The plastic handle works very well and is better than I expected for a cheap plastic handle.

The wooden handled brush feels much taller than it measures, but that feeling doesn't get in the way. Of course I need a lot more time with the knot to know much about it.

In any case, yes, you need an unbleached Zenith. The wooden handled brush shows up occasionally but sells out very rapidly. I know of only three unbleached Zenith boars, but perhaps others surface from time to time.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Clay S]

I have two Zenith unbleached boars.

View attachment 1157701View attachment 1157702

The photos don't show their heights well at all so I'll measure them with my calipers.

• The plastic handled brush's knot is about 27.5mm with a loft of about 65mm.
• The wooden handled brush's knot is about 28mm (maybe 29mm) with a loft of 54mm.

Those are my measurements at the exit of the knot from the handle. The wooden handle is much shorter than the plastic handle, too.

To my way of thinking as a general rule boars are too tall if their loft exceeds about 57mm so what's up with these boars?

As I've used the plastic handled brush I've concluded that it's an exception. It's too tall to be able to do what it does. Maybe that means my general rule applies better to bleached than unbleached boars or maybe my brush is an outlier. The plastic handle works very well and is better than I expected for a cheap plastic handle.

The wooden handled brush feels much taller than it measures, but that feeling doesn't get in the way. Of course I need a lot more time with the knot to know much about it.

In any case, yes, you need an unbleached Zenith. The wooden handled brush shows up occasionally but sells out very rapidly. I know of only three unbleached Zenith boars, but perhaps others surface from time to time.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Hmm. Choices, choices, choices. Unbleached in tall copper handle would be the easy pick. Bleached in a tall copper handle would be up there as well. I already have a bleached tall olivewood. Horse might be nice. Will I like the shorter handle? Do I want to try unbleached more than acquiring a copper handle, especially since I normally prefer wood? Splurge and get 2 or all?

Only have a few months to decide. Maybe out of stocks will pull choices, maybe new offerings will add choices.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Good shave this Monday.

I'm going to use this brush daily (or almost) for a bit. To check it out. To "break it in." The photo shows the brown better than my eyes can see it. The grain is very cool on this one.

Other kit is the same as yesterday. The blade, flipped.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

View attachment 1157780View attachment 1157782View attachment 1157781
Hmm. Choices, choices, choices. Unbleached in tall copper handle would be the easy pick. Bleached in a tall copper handle would be up there as well. I already have a bleached tall olivewood. Horse might be nice. Will I like the shorter handle? Do I want to try unbleached more than acquiring a copper handle, especially since I normally prefer wood? Splurge and get 2 or all?

Only have a few months to decide. Maybe out of stocks will pull choices, maybe new offerings will add choices.

In my experience all the Zenith handles are good or better than good. Horse is good. Boar is good. Silvertip is good. Unbleached boar and Manchurian are great.

Unbleached boar is hard to find and I can't find it at all except in three handles (two of which I have in unbleached).



My favorite of the Zenith handles are the tall on in your right hand photo (and in my horse ^) and the small wooden knobs ^. Still, I like all the Zenith handles just fine.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Tuesday's shave was good.

But, a couple of weepers appeared on my lower lip. Why? Did I overdo the buffing?

New soap, an Ethos (Frank's brand). This was a gift from a friend, but it seems very nice in all respects. The scent is great. Smells a lot like grapefruit, but a very refined scent.

Other parts of my kit are unchanged from yesterday.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Today's brush was terrific to use. I've not used it very many times yet. Maybe five times just guessing. Not many at all. I think it's feeling somewhat different in a good way already. The Shavemac 2 band knot is far from a D01 2 band, but this one is a two band with a lot of presence in its own right.




25mm Shavemac 2 band & 26mm Shavemac D01 2 band.
Both by Rudy Vey.

I'm not sure how my two Shavemacs will be down the road but so far both are very impressive. I very much appreciate all the help other members gave me as I studied up on the German knots trying to decide what to spring for. I was led in the right direction.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

View attachment 1158055

In my experience all the Zenith handles are good or better than good. Horse is good. Boar is good. Silvertip is good. Unbleached boar and Manchurian are great.

Unbleached boar is hard to find and I can't find it at all except in three handles (two of which I have in unbleached).

View attachment 1158081View attachment 1158082

My favorite of the Zenith handles are the tall on in your right hand photo (and in my horse ^) and the small wooden knobs ^. Still, I like all the Zenith handles just fine.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Right hand=left side. Sorry.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Wednesday's shave is in the shave bank.

Nothing new in this ^ or the rest of my kit. Same blade, flipped. Bay rum completed the shave.

This Rudy Vey brush is really very nice. I like it a lot. At first I liked it, but it's grown on me.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Mustard Seed]

I have three Zenith Boar brushes... B29, B17 and B2 (Gentle Shave names). I LOVE all three and they are my favorite brushes. Like the 'ol say'n.. once you go boar.. you never go back.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I have three Zenith Boar brushes... B29, B17 and B2 (Gentle Shave names). I LOVE all three and they are my favorite brushes. Like the 'ol say'n.. once you go boar.. you never go back.

Pictures?

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Wednesday's shave is in the shave bank.


View attachment 1159018


Nothing new in this ^ or the rest of my kit. Same blade, flipped. Bay rum completed the shave.

This Rudy Vey brush is really very nice. I like it a lot. At first I liked it, but it's grown on me.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Picture disappeared. Then it reappeared. Now it's everywhere.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Thursday's shave was good.

Excellent kit: Vitos Red Rudy Vey Irish Bog Oak 25mm Shavemac 2 band FOCS Hyaluronic Acid Cremo Moisturizer Atomic Age Bay Rum​

Really nice kit. Very nice brush.

Happy shaves,

Jim