Gus's Shave diary

[Gustav]

Shaves #393 and 394

The M&K no 2 was a bit of a disappointment although I expected it to be less keen than the no 2 used in shave 392. On shave 394, I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I took out my Dovo Shavette and some SIM and had a fantastic effortless shave.

Question: Is it possible to get a similar level of keenness using the dilucot method by doing far more dilutions or am I better off putting on a layer of tape on the spine in the final stages as suggested by the unicot method on coticule.be Are diamond pastes useful?

 

[wquiles]

I could not agree with you more Chris. When I was DE shaving I had a ranking list for my soaps and creams where amongst others Tabac SS, Floris SS and Fitjar SC were all near the top but when I started straight razor shaving I had to make a new list which was surprisingly different from the DE list. IMO, when DE shaving high quality lather is not necessarily a prerequisite to getting a good shave, in the world of straights however it is. Tabac SS is still in the top tier, but Floris SS is now on the list of soaps to finish and not buy again. The criteria which determine where on my list the soaps and creams lie are surprisingly subtle, how much touching up you can do safely without relathering is one of them (aka protection or cushion), how much water you can add to the mix without the lather collapsing is another since I tend to use very wet lathers, how moisturising the soap feels, is a third. With Tabac SS I hardly feel the need to put on ASB at the end of the shave. Another aspect is how much work I need to put in to get a decent lather, here Tabac SS excels whereas Floris SS has to be soaked repeatedly in warm water and then worked hard with a stiff brush to get anywhere near shaveable lather.

Obviously this is yet again a YMMV issue and probably depends on water hardness and such things but at the end of the day, it is so much easier to use a no fuss shave soap which gives great protective lather every time than to have to resort to soaking pucks and making superlather in order to try and coax a good shave out of a sub-standard soap.

Gus,

I know this is almost a year old now, but I am just starting with a str8 (Feather DX), and I am finding exactly the same "problem" - soaps/creams that worked great with my DE's, don't quite cut it anymore. I was not expecting that, and it has been a little frustrating since it almost feels like starting over to find out not only the soap/cream to use, but getting the lather to the right consistency/wetness to make the str8 razor glide better. With the DE's the lathering (although always important), it was not as critical.

Just wanted to thank you for your post since I now feel better knowing at least somebody else found the same thing I am finding now

Will

 

[global_dev]

Will and Gus (Erik), I think we all agree about the lather inconsistencies when changing up the process from DE to straights. There is little room for compromising performance.

 

[Gustav]

Also, I have found out in the last few shaves that unlike the thin coat of moist lather that some straight shavers advocate, I get very good results by using more product, that is by using a thick coat of moist lather. I lather up like I used to and then go back to the soap to saturate my brush once again, then get back to face lathering and finally do that one more time before I start shaving. This proved to be the key to turning Arko, which I was about to ditch, into a soap which I now rate somewhere between Palmolive and Tabac.

Dear Will, I understand your frustration since I had to go through the whole thing myself. Nevertheless all soaps you find suitable for straights will necessarily be suitable for all other razors, so there are some bonus effects in starting from the beginning.

 

[wquiles]

Also, I have found out in the last few shaves that unlike the thin coat of moist lather that some straight shavers advocate, I get very good results by using more product, that is by using a thick coat of moist lather. I lather up like I used to and then go back to the soap to saturate my brush once again, then get back to face lathering and finally do that one more time before I start shaving. This proved to be the key to turning Arko, which I was about to ditch, into a soap which I now rate somewhere between Palmolive and Tabac.

Dear Will, I understand your frustration since I had to go through the whole thing myself. Nevertheless all soaps you find suitable for straights will necessarily be suitable for all other razors, so there are some bonus effects in starting from the beginning.

Thanks Gus - good point. It will not be wasted effort

 

[Gustav]

Shave no 457
TI Le Grelot 6/8
Boar Brush
Sir Irisch Moos Shave Cream

I am still holding true to the straight only year and I am enjoying the experience enormously. Last night shave was absolutely stellar although I did not quite like the cream I was using on account of the fragrance being so strong that the essential oils must have stung my face. I do not use creams very often these days because I prefer the thickness of lather generated by a soap. But I am slowly and surely going through the creams on the local market to see if anything can beat Nivea and when they do not I use them as shave prep or as superlather material.

It amazes me that I am still learning new things and improving my shave as a result.

My neck has always been a troublesome spot but I am getting there. Nowadays I do a WTG pass following the dito on the face. This is strictly N to Sand seems to serve the purpose of a very coarse thinning out of the stubble. After it, the neck still feels decidedly unshaven. Then I attack it XTG and get rid of most of the stubble. I have also tried doing this on the first pass but the resistance is just too great and it creates a lot of irritation. On my touch up pass, I do a combination of XTG holding my razor with the tang pointing to the ceiling whilst pressing my chin down on my breast, to shear off stubble along the jaw line and a regular XTG whilst turning my head sideways to draw the skin super taught to take care of the stubble on the lower neck. Believe it or not, this treatment only gives marginal irritation which is a vast improvement on previous routines.

I have also been experimenting consciously with a light touch. This also eases the irritation and seems to provide a closer shave. I owe this to my intermittent shaving with a dovo shavette with which bearing down translates into bloodshed.

Furthermore, I have noticed that when shaving the chin, it is sometimes a good idea to do this on a relaxed face. I position the razor on the underside of the chin and then go ATG, when I get to the tricky curve, it seems as though there is just enough flexibility that I can pull the skin behind the razor such that I am pulling the stubbly skin onto the razor instead of running the razor over it. I still do not have this entirely figured out so I will study it further and post further comments further down the line.

I have also done some sporadic honing on my coticules but only with mixed results. Somehow this whole dilution business seems to take an age and I am just not patient enough. I have managed to locate a seller of 3M lapping film in the UK, perhaps I will have more success with that.

 

[global_dev]

damn! 457? i kinda thought i would stop counting around 300… honestly, i kind of a gree with you about the cotis. they are getting on my last nerve… some too fast, some too slow.. none just right so far.

 

[Gustav]

damn! 457? i kinda thought i would stop counting around 300… honestly, i kind of a gree with you about the cotis. they are getting on my last nerve… some too fast, some too slow.. none just right so far.

I figure I will stop counting at around 1000 or at least go into very sporadic posting.

 

[Gustav]

Here are a few recent things I have come by: a Thiers Issard 6/8 full hollow with a decorated spine, a "Bijou de France" gold inlay and desert iron wood scales. A Woodhead ceramics scuttle and a no name boar brush with a heavy marble handle. I saw the razor on the rasurpur website and could just not resist it. I have been eying a scuttle for some time and this one is just big enough to keep my lather warm in between passes. The brush was a gift from my wife's aunt.

 

[Gustav]

Shave #478

no name solingen 6/8
HJM Boar
SIM shave cream

This weekend I had my first set of trial runs with lapping film and I must say that I was impressed by the quality of the edged I obtained with very little effort compared to the work I had previously put into honing with belgian blues or with coticules. The reproducibility is also fantastic. Yesterday I shaved with a no name solingen which had started to feel a bit dull and which I gave the 5 micron followed by the 1 micron treatment after stropping it gave a very solid HHT-4.

I am quite confident when I say that I have never achieved that level of keenness with so little effort using any other method although you will have to take this observation with a pinch of salt since I am not exactly an experienced honer. I was subsequently amazed during the shave at the level of smoothness of the edge. It felt more like I was stroking my face than actually shaving. I hope this edge holds up because I could easily get used to it.

I direct a special thank you to Slash McCoy whose high quality instructive videos and posts I have scrutinised with the above edges as a result.

 

[Gustav]

Shave #499

Heljestrand 4/8 full hollow
Tabac SS
Boar Brush
Kiehls ASB

After a holiday in sweden where I managed to lay my hands on two mildly interesting razors (pics to come), I am back to testing the razors that I restored to original keenness with lapping film and enjoying the experience. The next shave is something of a jubilee. I never imagined I would get this far so to celebrate I am taking out the razor that I learnt the ropes on: E. A. Berg 4/8 full hollow and some vintage soap. I have also managed to have a copy made of the very original shave box that I happened upon last year(pics also to come).

 

[Luc]

Good stuff!

 

[Attila]

Good to hear of your success and congratulations! Prost!

 

[Gustav]

Shave #500!!!

Yesterday's setup finishing up with Speick ASB (not pictured). A nice shave on the whole although my preferences have shifted somewhat away from this razor of late. The lapping film gave back the edge its original sharpness.

 

[Gustav]

Here are some pictures of recent acquisitions and restored items including scale restoration on my Eickelnberg & Mack (the very first straight I used). The same carpenter, who happens to be a good friend of mine, converted a pen box to a razor coffin in a type of birch wood growth or deformity which produces beautiful patterns in the wood. He also restored the shave box I had found by chance a year earlier(bottom in picture) and made a prototype of it in elm wood(top in picture). Finally, I laid my hands on a Heljestrand M&K no 30 and a Hellberg, both with what appears to be celluloid scales. None of them are in dream condition, the former is quite worn and the latter seems to have a slightly warped blade and the tang has some rust. Both were dirt cheap so I bought them nonetheless.

 

[Luc]

Nice work on the 500 shaves! It's a great milestone!

 

[Gustav]

Thank you for all your helpful input. I am also glad that you enjoyed the wilkinson shave stick in your thread on shave sticks. I have been using Tabac shave stick for most of August and it is quite clear to me now that I get even better lather from the shave stick than I do from the puck and I am convinced that it is to do with the fact that the shave sticks deposit more soap on the stubble than you can reasonably load from a puck.

 

[cleanshaved]

Congrats on 500 shaves Erik.

 

[Gustav]

Shave #562
Heljestrand M&K #2
Tabac Shave stick
Boar Brush
Speick ASB

That is it! The last shave of this year where I commit to shave exclusively with straights. I feel I have benefitted immensely from the experience because before when I was intermixing a bit of DE, SE and even multi blade shaving, I was forever trying to compare straights to safeties and never really committing to improve technique with either. Nowadays I know that I can get a damn fine shave from a straight, my technique has improved to such an extent that I can give myself a DFS with any of the straights in my arsenal of 20 ish straights. Naturally there are favorites among them.

Also when not having safeties as a crutch, I was forced to improve on my honing skills. Out of curiosity, I tried lapping film and was rewarded with a simple, reliable and reproducible method that fits the limited time I have at my disposal for such maintenance.

Next year I am hopefully going to try my hand at some Kamisori shaving and I will try out some of my favorite safeties again but I doubt they can dislodge my now very strong preference for straight razors. When it comes to preference, I have noticed that I am not particularly fond of stiff blades, so I am most curious about how the Kamisori is going to feel.

To sum up, if like me you are still a relative newbie to straight razor shaving, you really owe it to yourself to do a full straight year because it allows you to concentrate on every aspect of this great art without engaging in rather pointless comparisons with other devices.

 

[Luc]

Great work Erik!