Journey to find my razor preference

[Ohjay]

Another shave with the Rocket Flaretip and the 7 o'clock Super Platinum blade today.
Quite a good shave actually, no major struggles but I still felt like the blade got caught on the hairs on the upper lip during the ATG pass.
Just one or two nicks this time which is an improvement.
Anyway, the usual three passes starting with WTG then XTG and ATG.
Result was a good DFS shave, no skin irritation afterwards.

When I started shaving with a DE several years ago I tried a lot of blades but never felt like I got good shaves with any except the Feather, but now with more experience and actually paying attention with shaving it's a bit of a revelation. I do get quite nice shaves with this blade that is not as sharp as the Feather. Will be interesting to try more blades and build more experience the proper way.

As for the Rocket, I like it, but I also think it is the culprit in the upper lip struggles, something about it makes it very difficult to find a workable angle.
But I'll keep at it, and it will definitely be used with a lot of blades before any decisions are made.

 

[Ohjay]

I completely dropped the ball and forgot to update you all on the shave yesterday.
I have to say it was a somewhat perplexing shave with the Rocket Flaretip and the Super Platinum blade but more on that in a second.
Three passes and the normal WTG, XTG and ATG. As with the previous shaves with this combo it was a bit difficult on the ATG pass on the upper lip. I saw one nick while I was shaving but it was kind enough to disappear by the end of the shave so I guess I can say no nicks! Sort of.
Quality was somewhere between good and okay, about DFS with CCS spots. Not as close a shave as I have had with other razors and with the feather blade.
So why was the shave perplexing? During that first WTG pass the blade felt dull and I honestly felt like three passes and especially ATG would be impossible. But it all went smooth and it was a fairly effortless shave despite that feeling of a dull blade. And that was perplexing to me, that I ended up with a smooth, effortless shave despite that and the quality was still fairly good.
I've already picked out the new blade to try with this razor but more on that in a day or two.

It's been a short while so I guess it's time to share the next razor from my buying binge. If I have counted correctly this is razor #10 that I'm sharing, but it is actually one of the ones that were in the very first batch of vintage razors I bought. Anyway, images:

A Gillette Super-Speed, Made in U.S.A. I haven't seen any date codes on this, so year is unknown and it is in fairly good condition.
Will be interesting to compare this to the Rocket Flaretip and see if there is any tangible difference.

 

[psfred]

Gillette didn't date code that range of SuperSpeeds. There are some clues though -- due to the Korean War and a huge demand for brass for shell casings, razors made between 1951 and 1953 often have bakelite knobs, aluminum shafts, or steel shafts, and sometimes aluminum heads I believe. I just got one that seems to be all aluminum with a bakelite knob.

Yours is all brass, so I'd guess 1950 or early 1951.

But the year doesn't matter, they all shave nicely.

 

[Ohjay]

Thanks for the info @psfred. It weighs 56 grams, so I guess that fits with the all brass.

As I mentioned yesterday it was time to try a new blade in the Rocket Flaretip so without further ado:

Blade of the day was Dorco Titan and I once again tried the DScosmetic 24mm G7 synthetic brush.
Not the greatest of shaves to be honest but I also cannot say exactly what was the cause of it.
Either way, three passes, WTG, XTG and ATG. As with the previous blade it was a bit rough on the ATG pass on the upper lip and I've now experienced this with three different blades in this razor, so it's either my technique with this specific razor or just this razor in general I would say.
I did get a few nicks and at a few times it actually felt like the blade got caught in the hairs or the skin, kind of as if the blade was chipped. I also had some mild skin irritation after the shave.
Quality wasn't all that great either, about CCS quality I would say and there was a spot on my chin that actually required a touchup.

But I can't blame the Dorco blade for this experience, not yet at least, because this DScosmetic brush does not like me. I have had good lather with the other synthetics but I did not get a good lather with this brush. It also feels a lot rougher on my skin which could be a cause for the skin irritation.

 

[Guido75]

Dorco Titans are great blades! Nice to see them get more attention.

Enjoy!

Guido

 

[psfred]

I'd say your shave angle is off for that razor, best way I know of to get the "caught on the hair" feeling is to have the edge of the blade above the skin.

 

[Ohjay]

Dorco Titans are great blades! Nice to see them get more attention.

Enjoy!

Guido

Yeah, hopefully the shave will improve and I will be able to have a favorable view of these blades.
Kind of curious about trying them in one of my Techs.

I'd say your shave angle is off for that razor, best way I know of to get the "caught on the hair" feeling is to have the edge of the blade above the skin.

Yeah I suspect the shave angle as well, at least for my upper lip troubles.
Hopefully I'll do a better job on the next shave and won't run into the same issue.

 

[psfred]

I discovered a solution to the upper lip problem in 1976 -- grow a moustache! Haven't shaved mine since.

 

[Ohjay]

Another shave with the Rocket Flaretip and the Dorco Titan today.
Overall it was a better shave which I mainly contribute to getting a good lather since I used a different brush (the Yaqi Huskey 24mm).
WTG, XTG and ATG. The ATG pass was overall a bit rougher this time and not only on the upper lip unfortunately. My skin also felt a bit sensitive after the shave. I also got one weeper and one nick.
Quality was CCS with some DFS spots.

I think I'm going to move on to another razor for a bit, but before that it will be one more shave with the Rocket and Dorco combo.

 

[Alum Ladd]

I completely dropped the ball and forgot to update you all on the shave yesterday.
I have to say it was a somewhat perplexing shave with the Rocket Flaretip and the Super Platinum blade but more on that in a second.
Three passes and the normal WTG, XTG and ATG. As with the previous shaves with this combo it was a bit difficult on the ATG pass on the upper lip. I saw one nick while I was shaving but it was kind enough to disappear by the end of the shave so I guess I can say no nicks! Sort of.
Quality was somewhere between good and okay, about DFS with CCS spots. Not as close a shave as I have had with other razors and with the feather blade.
So why was the shave perplexing? During that first WTG pass the blade felt dull and I honestly felt like three passes and especially ATG would be impossible. But it all went smooth and it was a fairly effortless shave despite that feeling of a dull blade. And that was perplexing to me, that I ended up with a smooth, effortless shave despite that and the quality was still fairly good.
I've already picked out the new blade to try with this razor but more on that in a day or two.

It's been a short while so I guess it's time to share the next razor from my buying binge. If I have counted correctly this is razor #10 that I'm sharing, but it is actually one of the ones that were in the very first batch of vintage razors I bought. Anyway, images:

A Gillette Super-Speed, Made in U.S.A. I haven't seen any date codes on this, so year is unknown and it is in fairly good condition.
Will be interesting to compare this to the Rocket Flaretip and see if there is any tangible difference.

I would guess yours is pre-1950. It has 'PAT. NOS. ON. PACKAGE' fully written. In 1950 Super Speeds began to appear with the abbreviated 'PAT. NOS. ON. PKG'

The plating on yours looks to be in fantastic shape!

1950 was also still producing the full PACKAGE designation though, so It's really on the cusp. Early 50? The weight checks out too. 55gms is the stated number. That's close enough to 56gm for me!

Another Super Speed dating tip centres around the hole in the baseplate where the centre bar post goes through. The 47-48 ones are flush, where the 49-50 ones have a more pronounced lip round the hole.

Here is a 1948 which shows this

 

[Ohjay]

Thanks you once again for a lot of great and detailed information @Alum Ladd!
There is indeed a raised lip around the hole in the baseplate and I weighed it again, several times actually, and it came out to 55g, not 56.
So I guess it would be '49-50.

 

[Ohjay]

I'm kinda glad to say that I got a fairly good shave with the Rocket Flaretip & Dorco Titan today.
The usual three passes (WTG, XTG and ATG) and overall a DFS quality shave. I did, as usual, get one or two nicks.
The shave today was not nearly as rough as the previous one, not even on the upper lip.
It's not as close a shave as I have gotten with other blades and I do get some sensitive skin after shaving with the Dorco.
Not sure why this blade affects my skin the way it does, could be the coating I guess since I believe this is a coating I have not tried on any other blade.
Either way, I'm going to change things up and use a different razor next time. Still not sure if it will be one I've used previously or a new one.

Speaking of new razors, time to share yet another one of my previous purchases, or well, two of them.
It was not a razor I was targetting but I got them both for free as they came with other razors that I did want.
Apologies for the somewhat poor image quality, I'll do better.

Two Gillette Super Slim Twists, one in fairly decent condition and the other is dirty as hell.
One interesting thing about these is the markings on the baseplate as one has "Made in England" while the other doesn't. Both have date codes, P2 and R1, which should put them at 1970 and 1971 respectively if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Ohjay]

Going to be a little bit of everything in this update. We'll see how lengthy it gets, but hopefully not too long.

First things first, yesterdays shave. As I mentioned previously I was going to change razor and decided on the post-war fat handle Tech:

Just a world of difference compared to the experience with the Rocket Flare Tip. A very nice, easy and effortless shave and this was despite me messing up the lather which was far from great. The Tech is simply incredibly easy to use.
Three passes like always and quality was DFS with one or two CCS spots. Two nicks and no skin irritation after the shave.
The Gillette Super Platinum blade doesn't seem to give me quite as close a shave as I've experienced with sharper blades, like the Feather, but I guess that is to be expected.

As I shaved with this Tech I tried to compare it to my memory of the British brass Tech I used a few weeks back and the fat handle felt nicer in my hand but I was missing the weight of the brass Tech which is quite surprising since the difference is only 12g. As I'm writing this I'm beginning to wonder if it is the balance rather than the weight that I'm missing. I'll have to compare but I think the fat handle is slightly top heavy while the brass tech is fairly evenly balanced.
More shaves are needed either way and I look forward to more shaves with the fat handle Tech and trying more blades with it.

Speaking of blades, Black Friday has come and gone and I could not help myself so I bought a few shaving related things:

I've read a lot of very good things about Wizamet Super-Iridium blades and since my current preference is very sharp blades I was very intrigued to try these.
Since I was going to buy the blades I also decided to buy two Saponificio Varesino soaps, Cosmo and Morado, that I also read some good things about. I have absolutely no reason for it, but I never considered their products before and I did have a poor opinion of them which is completely unfounded and stupid, to be honest. It will be interesting to try their Beta 4.3 formula since the opinion of it is very positive from what I hear.

Now something slightly different.
I have been documenting my shaves since I started this journey so I could have a reference and compare the various razors but also razor and blade combinations in an attempt to facilitate what this is all about, finding my razor preference. I hadn't planned to share it just yet, but I was not happy about the format of the data and the grading was confusing even to me, and I made it up.
After reading the journals of many of you fine folks here on B&B I got inspired and completely redid my documentation. Particular inspirations were @Guido75 & @blethenstrom, and apologies in advance Boris since I used a fair bit of your excellent structure for my own documentation.

Anyway, this is how my overview of the shaves looked in my old format:

The colored cells is the "feel" of the shave, Good, Average or Bad. The number after is the average rating after three shaves and rating was supposed to be the overall shaving experience, e.g. how close a shave, struggles shaving, nicks, etc.

This is an example of the raw data from the old format:

And the intent was to have this as slightly more detailed information that I could look back at to refresh my memory.

As I mentioned, I did not like this. Not the rating/grading, not the structure, and it would be a lot of manual work to add new stuff like razors & blades, and everything was entered manually (typed or copied & pasted).
So on monday evening I got inspired, re-read a few journals and created a new structure, and after the shave yesterday I made some minor amendments. It might still need a little bit of fine-tuning but overall I am much happier with this one:

The data is just dummy data for demo purposes, but many of the fields are now drop-down lists and if I get something new, like a soap, I can just add it to one cell in a specific sheet and it will then be available automatically in the drop-down list for soaps.
There is also higher fidelity in the data and more variables that can affect a shave, like lather quality, or what the pre-shave routine was.
I was considering adding things like blade feel, but upon consideration that felt like a static parameter for a razor, something that will not change if you swap blades for example. But I have tried to cover the dynamic parts of shaving that can have an impact on the experience and the feel/quality/comfort/rating and so forth.
Oh, and if you have any input on additional things I should consider adding then I am all ears.

I've started using this new structure and perhaps do some additional fine-tuning, then it's time to add a statistical overview to easily see how I grade the various razors, blades and razor & blade combos.

 

[Guido75]

Loving the rating sheet @Ohjay !! Nice! Boris @blethenstrom will certainly be drooling!

 

[blethenstrom]

Going to be a little bit of everything in this update. We'll see how lengthy it gets, but hopefully not too long.

First things first, yesterdays shave. As I mentioned previously I was going to change razor and decided on the post-war fat handle Tech:

Just a world of difference compared to the experience with the Rocket Flare Tip. A very nice, easy and effortless shave and this was despite me messing up the lather which was far from great. The Tech is simply incredibly easy to use.
Three passes like always and quality was DFS with one or two CCS spots. Two nicks and no skin irritation after the shave.
The Gillette Super Platinum blade doesn't seem to give me quite as close a shave as I've experienced with sharper blades, like the Feather, but I guess that is to be expected.

As I shaved with this Tech I tried to compare it to my memory of the British brass Tech I used a few weeks back and the fat handle felt nicer in my hand but I was missing the weight of the brass Tech which is quite surprising since the difference is only 12g. As I'm writing this I'm beginning to wonder if it is the balance rather than the weight that I'm missing. I'll have to compare but I think the fat handle is slightly top heavy while the brass tech is fairly evenly balanced.
More shaves are needed either way and I look forward to more shaves with the fat handle Tech and trying more blades with it.

Speaking of blades, Black Friday has come and gone and I could not help myself so I bought a few shaving related things:

I've read a lot of very good things about Wizamet Super-Iridium blades and since my current preference is very sharp blades I was very intrigued to try these.
Since I was going to buy the blades I also decided to buy two Saponificio Varesino soaps, Cosmo and Morado, that I also read some good things about. I have absolutely no reason for it, but I never considered their products before and I did have a poor opinion of them which is completely unfounded and stupid, to be honest. It will be interesting to try their Beta 4.3 formula since the opinion of it is very positive from what I hear.

Now something slightly different.
I have been documenting my shaves since I started this journey so I could have a reference and compare the various razors but also razor and blade combinations in an attempt to facilitate what this is all about, finding my razor preference. I hadn't planned to share it just yet, but I was not happy about the format of the data and the grading was confusing even to me, and I made it up.
After reading the journals of many of you fine folks here on B&B I got inspired and completely redid my documentation. Particular inspirations were @Guido75 & @blethenstrom, and apologies in advance Boris since I used a fair bit of your excellent structure for my own documentation.

Anyway, this is how my overview of the shaves looked in my old format:

The colored cells is the "feel" of the shave, Good, Average or Bad. The number after is the average rating after three shaves and rating was supposed to be the overall shaving experience, e.g. how close a shave, struggles shaving, nicks, etc.

This is an example of the raw data from the old format:

And the intent was to have this as slightly more detailed information that I could look back at to refresh my memory.

As I mentioned, I did not like this. Not the rating/grading, not the structure, and it would be a lot of manual work to add new stuff like razors & blades, and everything was entered manually (typed or copied & pasted).
So on monday evening I got inspired, re-read a few journals and created a new structure, and after the shave yesterday I made some minor amendments. It might still need a little bit of fine-tuning but overall I am much happier with this one:

The data is just dummy data for demo purposes, but many of the fields are now drop-down lists and if I get something new, like a soap, I can just add it to one cell in a specific sheet and it will then be available automatically in the drop-down list for soaps.
There is also higher fidelity in the data and more variables that can affect a shave, like lather quality, or what the pre-shave routine was.
I was considering adding things like blade feel, but upon consideration that felt like a static parameter for a razor, something that will not change if you swap blades for example. But I have tried to cover the dynamic parts of shaving that can have an impact on the experience and the feel/quality/comfort/rating and so forth.
Oh, and if you have any input on additional things I should consider adding then I am all ears.

I've started using this new structure and perhaps do some additional fine-tuning, then it's time to add a statistical overview to easily see how I grade the various razors, blades and razor & blade combos.

I really like it! I just want to say one thing and that is to have the information that you need and will use, but no more because then it becomes a burden and you may not fill it out. You have everything that you need! Great stuff!

 

[blethenstrom]

Loving the rating sheet @Ohjay !! Nice! Boris @blethenstrom will certainly be drooling!

 

[Ohjay]

Loving the rating sheet @Ohjay !! Nice! Boris @blethenstrom will certainly be drooling!

Thank you

I really like it! I just want to say one thing and that is to have the information that you need and will use, but no more because then it becomes a burden and you may not fill it out. You have everything that you need! Great stuff!

Glad to hear you like it, and I totally agree that I should be careful about the amount of information. If it becomes a burden then it will not be used, so yeah this might be good enough

 

[Ohjay]

Well... the shave today was almost a perfect storm of bad decisions
Due to circumstances I could not do my regular pre-shave routine (i.e. a shower) so it only consisted of a quick face wash, and since I didn't want to risk getting a bad impression of the fat handle Tech I instead opted for the brass Tech and put a feather blade in it. And to top it all off I decided to do bowl lathering instead of face lathering and with a brand new soap (Saponificio Varesino Morado). So I basically changed three quarters, if not more, of my shave routine in one fell swoop.

I actually felt like the shave went okay, the Tech is very easy to use but I did have slightly more blade feel, probably due to the stubble being coarser since it hadn't been soaked enough. The lather was decent and servicable, but could probably have been better.
Only did two passes, WTG and XTG, but both went fine. It wasn't until I was done that I saw the actual result, three weepers, more nicks than I could count and the skin was straining and slightly irritated for quite a while after the shave.
Quality wise it ended up being a decent CCS shave.

I can only blame myself, I know I need to prepare properly before shaving because I have quite dry skin that needs moisture to smooth it out a bit before shaving. I also consider my facial hair to be fairly thick, the individual hairs that is, the growth is patchy, and softening it with a long water soak always helps.
It's been a couple of years since I last did a shave like this, but hopefully I've learned my lesson this time. I should also put some time into researching pre-shave routines that could help with shaving without having to take a shower first.

 

[blethenstrom]

Well... the shave today was almost a perfect storm of bad decisions
Due to circumstances I could not do my regular pre-shave routine (i.e. a shower) so it only consisted of a quick face wash, and since I didn't want to risk getting a bad impression of the fat handle Tech I instead opted for the brass Tech and put a feather blade in it. And to top it all off I decided to do bowl lathering instead of face lathering and with a brand new soap (Saponificio Varesino Morado). So I basically changed three quarters, if not more, of my shave routine in one fell swoop.

I actually felt like the shave went okay, the Tech is very easy to use but I did have slightly more blade feel, probably due to the stubble being coarser since it hadn't been soaked enough. The lather was decent and servicable, but could probably have been better.
Only did two passes, WTG and XTG, but both went fine. It wasn't until I was done that I saw the actual result, three weepers, more nicks than I could count and the skin was straining and slightly irritated for quite a while after the shave.
Quality wise it ended up being a decent CCS shave.

I can only blame myself, I know I need to prepare properly before shaving because I have quite dry skin that needs moisture to smooth it out a bit before shaving. I also consider my facial hair to be fairly thick, the individual hairs that is, the growth is patchy, and softening it with a long water soak always helps.
It's been a couple of years since I last did a shave like this, but hopefully I've learned my lesson this time. I should also put some time into researching pre-shave routines that could help with shaving without having to take a shower first.

I am sad to hear about you rough shave. Those happen from time to time, but hopefully they are far in between. Once in a while I do shave also without a pre shave shower and I have also noticed that it is a bit rougher. Of course having changed a number of other variables probably did not help. At least you have a pretty good idea what caused it and can remedy it. Heal quickly my friend!

 

[Ohjay]

Today I went back to my tried and true method of shaving and had an absolutely marvelous shave, quite possibly the best shave I've had since starting this journey.
I used the Gillette Fat-handle Post-war Tech with the 7 o'clock Super Platinum blade, the Saponificio Varesino Morado soap and the Yaqi 24mm Huskey synthetic brush.
As usual with the Tech it was an incredibly easy and effortless shave during all three passes. No tugging, just smoothness. I did get two nicks on the ATG pass on my neck. This is an area where I need to improve my technique because nicks are fairly frequent there.
In terms of quality it was near BBS with one or two minor DFS spots. Just an awesome shave overall.

As for the soap, this time I did face lathering and the result was excellent. It was very easy to build a creamy, thick lather and it created so much lather it could've been used for 6+ passes, just insane amounts of lather.
I also felt like the lather soothed the skin a bit when I applied it before the second and third pass, something I've not experienced with previous soaps.
First impression are first impressions, but I sincerely hope this keeps up.

And it's been a while since I shared one of my razor purchases, so let's share.
This was another purchase where I took a flyer on a razor with no info, bad photos and it looked like there might be a piece missing. But I got it for next to nothing so why not buy it... Anyway, here goes:

It is unmarked, but it looks a lot like the Gillette Old Type Vest Pocket razor. The strange things is that it is unmarked since by the 1920's it seems the razors were always branded while the earliest Gillette Old Type did not seem to have the Gillette markings on the baseplate.
There are very minor differences between the example shown on Mr-Razor and this one though, so perhaps it is just an unknown copy. Who knows.
I've tried cleaning it by soaking it in hot soapy water and scrubbing with a toothbrush which helped, but it is still quite dirty and I'll gladly accept suggestions on how to clean this.