Hah! I love it! Congrats, Gustav on the strong progress. Great to see people that started around the time I did doing well. I am loving my journey so far. Having a ball!
Happy shaves to you
Gus's Shave diary
- Thread starter Gustav
- Start date
Hah! I love it! Congrats, Gustav on the strong progress. Great to see people that started around the time I did doing well. I am loving my journey so far. Having a ball!
Happy shaves to you
- Thread starter
- #62
You really need to try this hot lather stuff if you have not already. My scuttle could not be simpler to put together: latte cup and a wide brimmed bowl the lower part of which dips into the water beneath. Of course at some point I am just going to have to go for the real thing.
Shave #21 EAB, Proraso SC
I have to apologise for any and all mistakes in this post since writing partly with one hand is noot eesy, the other is too busy faceturabatin.
Anyway, I had an errand to run in the city and on the way back I passed a shopping mall in which I had never been. In an electronics store I thought I would check and see if I could find a mug warmer device of some sort. Unfortunately there were none but I did buy a small electric kettle which will also come in handy for boiling up water for our daughter's nightly milk bottles.
I boiled some water and poured it into a bowl to soak my brush and then made a makeshift scuttle by placing the bowl on a latte-cup which I also filled with warm water, I prepped using a towel so warm that I could barely hold it on my face, then I took out the brush, ditched the water in the small bowl, shook the brush, parted the bristles, squirted in some proraso and started face lathering. I understand now why everyone is making such a fuss about this stuff, it is surprisingly effective. The prep and the hot lather also did its job beautifully, I could feel a huge difference when shaving, there was a lot less getting caught in the stubble and tugging.
The end result was breathtaking, this shave could certainly compete with my previous DE shaves. In fact I have half a mind to DE-shave next time to feel the difference. It is not BBS but it is, what I would like to call, a DF-DFS.
Conclusion, really hot towel and scuttle does make a huge difference.
P.S. to Luc: samples southbound!
Excellent work and thanks!!
You really need to try this hot lather stuff if you have not already. My scuttle could not be simpler to put together: latte cup and a wide brimmed bowl the lower part of which dips into the water beneath. Of course at some point I am just going to have to go for the real thing.
Until you get ScAD...or Scuttle Aquisition Disorder...real bummer as they are expensive and you end up paying alot for shipping
I have a Georgetown Pottery v4 and a small Moss scuttle from Sara Bonnyman...love both!
- Thread starter
- #65
Until you get ScAD...or Scuttle Aquisition Disorder...real bummer as they are expensive and you end up paying alot for shipping
I have a Georgetown Pottery v4 and a small Moss scuttle from Sara Bonnyman...love both!
That is part of the reason why I am eyeing a SWK! Shipping from "Rheinbach" to "München" should not be so bad. A bigger problem is going to explain to SWMBO why this contraption is absolutely necessary, especially since I have been doing all right without it up until now
That is part of the reason why I am eyeing a SWK! Shipping from "Rheinbach" to "München" should not be so bad. A bigger problem is going to explain to SWMBO why this contraption is absolutely necessary, especially since I have been doing all right without it up until now
I was looking at those too...too bad I didn't get into this hobby when I lived over there!!!!
Could have saved me a ton on shipping and I could get local European aftershaves much cheaper!
- Thread starter
- #67
Shave #22 Solingen 6/8 + EAB 5/8 Yardley shaving soap
I realized yesterday that I have been shaving for a month with straights and that is good enough for a celebratory Yardley shave. The lather of this soap is fantastic: shiny, slick and rich, a joy to shave with.
I had planned to shave in the evening but I woke up at 6 and felt so much awake that I stared at the ceiling thinking what now? I am going to a friend for dinner tonight and will not have time to shave till then so I may as well do it now, I thought.
I bought t 35 razor I was on about and I stropped it up and did the HHT and found that it actually cut it, so I did some further stropping and included it in todays shave. I have attached some pictures of it just to give you an idea. It is an absolutely ideal candidate for honing practice. My father whom I will meet soon, is a dab hand at knife honing and perhaps we can share the experience together.
Today's shave resulted in a DFS and I now know from yesterdays DE shave that I am pretty close to what I can get doing the same passes with a DE. It was not as good as last shave but pretty close. I did the first pass using my new razor and it did feel a bit dull but there was a lot of stubble in the lather.
I realized yesterday that I have been shaving for a month with straights and that is good enough for a celebratory Yardley shave. The lather of this soap is fantastic: shiny, slick and rich, a joy to shave with.
I had planned to shave in the evening but I woke up at 6 and felt so much awake that I stared at the ceiling thinking what now? I am going to a friend for dinner tonight and will not have time to shave till then so I may as well do it now, I thought.
I bought t 35 razor I was on about and I stropped it up and did the HHT and found that it actually cut it, so I did some further stropping and included it in todays shave. I have attached some pictures of it just to give you an idea. It is an absolutely ideal candidate for honing practice. My father whom I will meet soon, is a dab hand at knife honing and perhaps we can share the experience together.
Today's shave resulted in a DFS and I now know from yesterdays DE shave that I am pretty close to what I can get doing the same passes with a DE. It was not as good as last shave but pretty close. I did the first pass using my new razor and it did feel a bit dull but there was a lot of stubble in the lather.
I don't know if it's an illusion but it looks like that straight is having a frown... Not a big one...
You might need more time on the stones to get it sharper... But then, I don't hone myself...
You might need more time on the stones to get it sharper... But then, I don't hone myself...
- Thread starter
- #69
Stuck with the str8s for a month?? You deserve a celebration...congrats!
- Thread starter
- #72
Shaves #23-27
I have been shaving mostly with the EM and getting consistently good results. On the second XTG I have been tilting the razor in a pseudo ATG way to get an even closer shave and I have been rewarded with fantastic cheek smoothness. The neck area still offers challenges but I keep trying new things to get those last hairs such as a last WTG pass or scything motions which seems to do some good. I have also had to modify my shave routine, shaving the middle of the face first so that I can stretch the side burn area to the front and up so that I can catch the thin line of hair that runs next to the ear and especially at the jaw corner.
Once I have solved the mystery of the elusive neck hairs and cleared up the little details here and there, BBS is going to be a mere formality. In the mean time, I am enjoying shaves of outstanding quality, very worthy of some serious faceturbation.
Last but not least, a few days ago I went to a little antique's dealer I was meaning to check out and asked him the usual questions. He started rummaging around in a box under the cashing device and soon a tang was visible in the motly crew of bits and bobs. I had a look at it and thought: blade does not look too bad, scales can be fixed up or replaced, I'll give him 5 for it. So I asked him: "what do you want for it?" and he said "let's say 3". I bought it straight away, I will try to post a picture later, it is a Tuckmar world crown solingen razor with scales alternating mother of pearl and some other probably woody material that has unfortunately (or fortunately for the price) fallen off. Some preliminary comparaison on the internet indicates that I might have found myself a bargain, provided that the blade is alright.
I have been shaving mostly with the EM and getting consistently good results. On the second XTG I have been tilting the razor in a pseudo ATG way to get an even closer shave and I have been rewarded with fantastic cheek smoothness. The neck area still offers challenges but I keep trying new things to get those last hairs such as a last WTG pass or scything motions which seems to do some good. I have also had to modify my shave routine, shaving the middle of the face first so that I can stretch the side burn area to the front and up so that I can catch the thin line of hair that runs next to the ear and especially at the jaw corner.
Once I have solved the mystery of the elusive neck hairs and cleared up the little details here and there, BBS is going to be a mere formality. In the mean time, I am enjoying shaves of outstanding quality, very worthy of some serious faceturbation.
Last but not least, a few days ago I went to a little antique's dealer I was meaning to check out and asked him the usual questions. He started rummaging around in a box under the cashing device and soon a tang was visible in the motly crew of bits and bobs. I had a look at it and thought: blade does not look too bad, scales can be fixed up or replaced, I'll give him 5 for it. So I asked him: "what do you want for it?" and he said "let's say 3". I bought it straight away, I will try to post a picture later, it is a Tuckmar world crown solingen razor with scales alternating mother of pearl and some other probably woody material that has unfortunately (or fortunately for the price) fallen off. Some preliminary comparaison on the internet indicates that I might have found myself a bargain, provided that the blade is alright.
Sounds good! I was wondering if you stopped or not!
- Thread starter
- #74
No, I have just changed location for a while, making internet access more difficult. Also the student has not had much to report to his mentor. I am going to stick with it for a while yet, it is too early to know if I will shave all the time with a straight or if it will be something I reserve for the WE. I will soon make a short reversion into DE-shaving but there is a very good reason for it: I am going to attempt to teach my father to shave properly. Instead of shaving with an electric shaver followed by M3 touch-ups, I hope to teach him to use a Merkur 34c or a Gilette Slim twist (the one with the ugly plastic handle) all the way.
That's good! Straight razors require commitment and not everyone can!
- Thread starter
- #76
Here are some pictures of the straight I scored: Tuckmar world crown silver steel solingen 5/8 with striped mother of pearl scales:
Last edited:
Nice, looks like it needs a clean up + honing and you are good to go!
Nice score Erik...whats with the gaps in the scales? Never seen that before!
Nicely done, Gus! Glad to see you are still at it, and the shaves are continuing to improve. Nice score for the price! 
They're supposed to be some other material. If Gus restores it, he can go crazy with some kind of wood, acrylic or turquoise even.
