Diary of the Curious

[stivek]

Starting another thread here. It is intended to serve as my main shaving dairy because my initial one Fighting windmills (Muhle R89 vs R41) is very specific to my Muhle razors comparison. And in the meantime I got a Merkur Progress and I'm waiting for my first straight razor from the generous PIF of @rbscebu.
All these shaving adventures and many others will be tracked here. Enjoy (and excuse my poor English).

Few words about me. I'm a 51 yo software architect from Sofia, Bulgaria. Married, with a 24 yo son.
Rediscovered the DE shaving in the last December, when my lovely girl gifted my a Frank Shaving rosewood shaving set for my birthday. Before that I was using DE razors in my youth, in fact I leaned how to shave with my father's DE razor. But never found the shaving to be fun until I got my gift and searching for DE shaving techniques found this forum. Then I found myself in another universe with so many worlds to explore. And I went full gas into it and the fun began.

I like exploring things and their limits, so I ordered a Yaqi Beast head intending to pair the Beast cap with my Muhle R41 and R89 plates. I'll try to tame the R41 a bit and to add some theeting to the R89. I also enjoy comparing different blades in R41 and R89 trying to find which works best in which razor.
And there are also my Merkur Progress and the Titan straight razor I'm impatiently waiting to arrive from Australia. Thanks again @rbscebu
So, it is just the beginning of this shaving adventure.

Apart from my new shaving hobby, I enjoy endurance sports, exploring my mind and body limits in trail, road and ultra running, mountain and road cycling, triathlon.
Quite a lot of hobbies, but as it is written on my Inov8 trail running shoes - "Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated".

Smooth shaves, Gents

 

[rbscebu]

@TheBeast in Slovakia might also find this thread interesting to follow. He recently got into traditional SR shaving (after a little nudge from me ). He started with a similar SR to what you will be receiving and is now in the rabbit hole well over his head.

 

[stivek]

SOTD 10-02-2023

Didn't have time yesterday to log my shave (there is quite a push in the work lately), so I continue with today's.
I'm typically shaving every other day, sometimes on 3-4 days, but as I want to enjoy this more, I'll try to do it as often as possible. The work from home gives me enough time to spend on this during the work week. The only days when I can't do it is when I have a swim training in the morning or some chore.

Got up at 4 in the morning and did some work on an urgent and important project we have in the company.
Decided to skip today's training as the legs were still tired from yesterdays Ramp FTP Test on Zwift.

Today I enjoyed the company of:
Merkur Progress (2-1)
Muhle blade (3)
Yaqi Sagrada Familia tuxedo (first use, arrived yesterday)
Linkidea bowl
Tabac soap
Proraso Green preshave
Capt. Fawcett alum bar
Tabac EDC

The Yaqi brush needed more time to prepare the wanted amount and quality of lather than the Muhle STF. I had to add few drops of water two times. The lather was perfect and the brush painted it easily on my face. The tuxedo knot seems like a little stiffer that STF but painted the lather perfectly without holding it in the brush. I might found another daily driver, as the STF was intended as a travel brush, but had to use it every day as I feel the Frank Shaving badger quite stiff, too big and not a goog painter.

The passes were WTG (Progress on 2) and ATG (Progress on 1) as my stubble was quite small after the perfect yesterday shave with the Progress and the same Muhle blade.
It looks like the Muhle blade likes the Progress, as after 3 shaves I feel it has more left in. In the R41 and R89 I bin this blade after the third shave. Or maybe it is because adjusting the Progress, I'm somehow able to save the blade

Smooth shaves, Gents

 

[stivek]

@TheBeast in Slovakia might also find this thread interesting to follow. He recently got into traditional SR shaving (after a little nudge from me ). He started with a similar SR to what you will be receiving and is now in the rabbit hole well over his head.

Thanks @rbscebu. Following @TheBeast
It is good know I'm following a beaten path ... even into the

 

[TheBeast]

Thanks @rbscebu. Following @TheBeast
It is good know I'm following a beaten path ... even into the

I like my R41 better than the R89. It's purely because my beard hairs are like wires. R89 requires lots of buffing to get remove it all, even loaded with a Feather blade. The R41 makes quick work of the shave and I Can use more comfortable blades with it to get a comfortable shave.

Best of luck Once your SR from @rbscebu arrives, I have one from him as well.

I looked into the future and have seen you picking out a set of hones/lapping film in a few weeks, beware.

 

[stivek]

I looked into the future and have seen you picking out a set of hones/lapping film in a few weeks, beware.

How did you see that?
I was reading a lot about honing lately. Definitely tempted to learn it in the future

 

[TheBeast]

How did you see that?
I was reading a lot about honing lately. Definitely tempted to learn it in the future

It's extremely satisfying to shave with your own edge. But to get one, you need lots of patience and ability to not rely on guidance on the web. Every blade is unique and if you rely on other's advice based only on pictures, like I did, you will get stuck a lot. I'm learning to hone for a few weeks now and I Made the biggest progress by sitting Down, staring at the blade with different magnification levels and naked eye and thinking about what you see, what it means and how any of your actions affect it.

Also when picking out your honing gear it gets frustrating because you want to try it all, but it's really about getting any decent stones (for synthetics - naniwa, shapton pro or glass, even king,...) and learning how to use them best. Just a tip - I don't like Naniwa SuperStones because their surface requires lots of cleaning. All the steel removed gets imbeded into the Stone (swarf build Up) and it's losing it's cutting Power. It happens on All the stones, but it's generally just a matter of wiping it away by hand or a few lapping passes. It's usually only needed when you see a lot of swarf. But on the SuperStones - the cleaning is needed constantly.

 

[stivek]

SOTD 13-02-2023

Good shave on 3 days growth.

Razor: Merkur Progress (3.5-2.5)
Blade: Muhle (5)
Brush: Yaqi Sagrada Familia tuxedo
Bowl: LinkIdea
Soap: Proraso White
Pre-shave: Proraso Green
Post-shave: Alum + Proraso Green AS + Avon balm

2 passes - WTG + ATG. Recently found that the whiskers on my neck grow diagonally, in opposite directions between the upper and the lower part and I started testing how to shave them saving time without strictly following the growth directions but still achieving good results.
The final result is DFS+ on the cheeks, CCS on the neck. The blade did it best for a last time. Had to increase with 0.5 due to the blade wear.

Overall 8/10

 

[stivek]

SOTD 14.02.2023

Inspired by the recent @Guido75 shaves with Tiger Platinum blades decided to test one in my Merkur Progress. In short it didn't perform well for me at all.

The long version:
Brush - Yaqi Sagrada Familia tuxedo
Soap - Proraso White
Bowl - LinkIdea
Pre-shave - Proraso Green
Post-shave - alum bar + Proraso Green post-shave + Proraso Green AS

The shave was rough from the very beginning. Started the WTG pass on the cheeks at the usual setting 3 of the Progress and the blade was hardly cutting something but was very noisy. Increased to 3.5 but it only become more noisily. Decreased to 2.5 and it totally stopped cutting
Somehow completed the WTG pass on 3.5. If I was listening to music, this blade would overgrow it.
Started the ATG pass on 1.5 and it was not doing anything. Increased to 2, then 2.5 until I felt it is barely cutting. But the noice was like I'm shaving 3-4 days growth straight on ATG. Checked the alignment in the razor, checked the razor markings for calibration, but all was good.
Had to do some XTG passes, repeated some ATG areas, did some buffing in order to achieve close to CCS result. Strangely, on the buffing the blade was doing literally nothing.
In fact, this blade on its first shave performed much worse than the Muhle blade on the 5th shave when I binned it.
The alum and the AS didn't give any signals but I have some irritation in the lower neck area where I did XTG and repeated the ATG pass. And I don't get irritated easily.

I hope this terrible performance is due to the coating and it will be better on the next shaves. Will see.

Overall result 4/10

 

[thombrogan]

To better shaves, @stivek !

 

[Guido75]

Sorry to hear Stivek.

The Tiger is very picky about which razor to work with (and I have had both stellar and not so good shaves with it). There is some resemblance between Progress and Timeless so I can see the idea of trying to make this work. But I know the only way to find out is to actually shave with the combination. For example a Tiger in my KCG is a no go if I want to get anything decent out of my shave. It is total bliss with my NEW Improved. And then again it might appear to work on my Timeless, but BBS is something not to be attained in this setting. DFS+ at best. For BBS with a Tiger I need to bring out more aggressive razors such as the NI or New Flat Bottom (the R41 is another no thanks razor for this blade). Open comb seems to work better than closed comb.

We learn and we give it another go!

Guido

 

[stivek]

Sorry to hear Stivek.

The Tiger is very picky about which razor to work with (and I have had both stellar and not so good shaves with it). There is some resemblance between Progress and Timeless so I can see the idea of trying to make this work. But I know the only way to find out is to actually shave with the combination. For example a Tiger in my KCG is a no go if I want to get anything decent out of my shave. It is total bliss with my NEW Improved. And then again it might appear to work on my Timeless, but BBS is something not to be attained in this setting. DFS+ at best. For BBS with a Tiger I need to bring out more aggressive razors such as the NI or New Flat Bottom (the R41 is another no thanks razor for this blade). Open comb seems to work better than closed comb.

We learn and we give it another go!

Guido

Thanks for sharing this @Guido75
Quite interesting especially regarding the R41, which I had plans for testing with the Tiger.

Will give the blade another try tomorrow morning with less growth than the usual. For me, typically, all blades perform better on the second and third shave than on the first, including the Feather. The good is that using an adjustable like the Progress gives you more options to squeeze the best of a blade if you have the time and the will to play the game.
Anyway, it is interesting and useful learning at the end.

Cheers ,
Stoyan (a.k.a stivek)

 

[stivek]

SOTD 15.02.2023

Early morning Zwift indoor cycling workout, then shower, then shave with the Progress and the same Tiger blade that was so disappointing yesterday.
The rest of the setup - Yaqi Sagrada Familia brush, LinkIdea bowl, Proraso Green pre-shave, Tabac soap, alum bar, Tabac EDC.

This Tiger blade behaves more and more weird.
Started today's WTG pass on setting 3 of the Progress and the blade was cutting nothing at all. Increased to 4 and it was gliding without any feedback for cutting.
The ATG started on 2, then increased it to 2.5. The blade was making scraping sounds and barely cutting. Didn't have time for changing the blade, so finished the shave somehow. The benefit of working from home is that you don't worry about bad shaves and at least I smell good although not looking the best
The overall shave score 3/10

Maybe this particular blade is bad or my whole pack. Tomorrow will try a new blade from the same pack and if it behaves the same in the Progress will move it to R89 and test.

Smooth shaves, Gents

 

[stivek]

New arrivals in the den. The classics are always modern

Put the Proraso brush to soak and will lather some soap with it but this will be all regarding the breaking it in pre-use. From tomorrow it goes in use.

 

[stivek]

SOTD 16.02.2023

Gave a second chance to the Tiger blades and loaded a brand new one in the Progress. In short - it was better than the previous but far from acceptable.

The setup:
Muhle Sandalwood soap
Omega Proraso boar brush - first shave with it. Soaked for 30mins and palm lathered yesterday. Strong smell after the first soak but almost not existing today. Soaked for 15mins pre-shave today.
LinkIdea bowl
Pre-shave - the water from the soap blooming
Post-shave - alum bar + Proraso Red + Nivea Sensitive balm

The brush quite fast filled the whole bowl with a soap... and this bowl is not small at all. But then it consumed the most of it
Had to water the tips of the brush 2 times during the building of the lather. It is interesting to learn the character of this brush.
After I convinced the brush to donate some lather to my face I started the WTG pass on setting 3.5 and the blade quickly asked me to increase to 4, then to 4.5, but it appeared I had overestimated it, so back to 4 for the rest of the pass. The performance was a bit better than the previous blade but not even acceptable. The sound was strong as the previous blade, but the cutting was a bit better. Tried changing the angle, changing the pressure but nothing gave better results.
Did XTG, ATG, XATG, AXTG, WAXTG, XWATG... passes, buffing almost everywhere and the final result was CCS---, or 5/10 with some irritation in the lower neck from overdoing it there. Regardless how much I pressed with the razor the blade didn't cut me and I felt like I cannot at all.
So, this Tiger in my Progress becomes old and toothless
Packed the blade for a test in R89 and R41 in some future. Next in the queue is Dorco ST300.

Smooth shaves, Gents

 

[Ligeti]

Thanks for sharing your journey. Curious what the Tiger will bring.

 

[Guido75]

But then it consumed the most of it

Ah yes! The Omega Proraso is a lather hogging boar for sure. First pass is usually ok and then it’s the battle of the bowl!

Next in the queue is Dorco ST300.

The ST300 is a fine blade in my book. I bought 100 last year and only then read some horrible reviews - but to me these reviews represent older Dorco’s. The new ones from Vietnam are simply wonderful.

Guido

 

[stivek]

Ah yes! The Omega Proraso is a lather hogging boar for sure. First pass is usually ok and then it’s the battle of the bowl!

I have read about this but when you see it with your eyes it is

The ST300 is a fine blade in my book. I bought 100 last year and only then read some horrible reviews - but to me these reviews represent older Dorco’s. The new ones from Vietnam are simply wonderful.

Based on the most recent reviews I have big expectations for it. Still looking which blade will qualify for my first pack.

 

[rbscebu]

....

Based on the most recent reviews I have big expectations for it. Still looking which blade will qualify for my first pack.

Don't invest too much in DE gear. You may find that you will have no further desire to shave with a "safety" razor once you develop a good SR shaving technique.

 

[stivek]

Don't invest too much in DE gear. You may find that you will have no further desire to shave with a "safety" razor once you develop a good SR shaving technique.

I have the feeling it could go in this direction. Anyway, it will take me some time, probably months, to build acceptable technique.
I'm not buying razors any more, but some packs of blades will be needed.

@rbscebu I received an email the package has arrived in Bulgaria and is waiting customs clearance