I agree about the boars. I think I use more soap with the synthetic and it takes longer to load.Well, it appears I'm becoming a face latherer.
When I started TWS, I gravitated towards bowl lathering, and eventually bought a Captain's Choice bowl. It is a lovely bowl, very well made, and works great but since I have begun face lathering, I find that I have almost no desire to use the bowl. Much like @Phoenixkh I may relegate it to storing car keys and pocket change.
And brushes. I started with an inexpensive badger, bought a few synthetics, and thought I needed a top tier badger. Well, I grabbed a lightly-used Paladin from the BST, and didn't care for it at all, which leads me to my brush AH! moment:
I've become boar-ish.
Don't get me wrong, I still have a few badgers, including a nice Rudy Vey, some vintage handles re-knotted with badger, an SOC Mistura, and I love using my Razorock synthetics for a quick shave (no soaking required), but I have been reaching for my cheap Omega boars most often. They just work, especially for face lathering.
Of course the others also work, the boars just seem to be my preference. Besides being good scrubbers, they seem to be better at releasing the lather (flow through?) which was my gripe with the Paladin.
If I were designing a brush, aesthetically it would be a Paladin. To me, they are impeccably designed, just perfect - the handle shapes, resin colors, the brush shape - all perfect to gaze upon...but...
I couldn't get my example to release the lather. I tried more soap, more water, asked for help, and nothing worked. The knot was incredibly dense, which I believe contributed to my "problem". Of course this is not unique to Paladin, and is a subjective dislike on my part, which brings me back to:
I love my inexpensive boar brushes. They work, especially when face lathering. Ah Ha!
That turned out pretty darned nice!So admittedly, I really have no idea what I'm doing...yet.
On this one (New Long Comb), I focused on the cap. Sanded it to try and remove all the nicks, gouges, divots, and deep scratches. 400, 600, 2000, 2500 grit and then metal polish - by hand. Shot the cap with brake cleaner and plated.
The handle was a PITA, and it shows in the result.
I sanded and polished the end and the ferrule but wasn't sure how to prep the knurling. I did my best with polish and brake cleaner, but the initial nickel plating didn't seem to take. The ends plated, but the knurled portion was spotty with the base material showing through. Maybe the nickel was not plating/adhering to the left over plating in the knurling? Not sure.
Anyway, I decided to do a quick copper plate and buff, then plate over the copper with nickel. That worked better, but my handle plating is still a work in progress.
I was going for a two-tone look, and left the base plate polished brass.
The cap came out beautifully, which proves that prep is king. The unveiling:
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That turned out pretty darned nice!
I decided to up my plating game, or at least try to...
Sidebar: I've been hanging out at the Brown Leaf forum for a bit. As a former cigarette smoker, I've decided that smoking a pipe (and not inhaling) is much less detrimental to my lungs than a pack-a-day cigarette habit. Anyway, not going to debate that, right or wrong. Point is, I have a collection of pipes that require maintenance, which includes an occasional coat of carnauba wax and a buff on a bench buffer.
So, now that I have TWO reasons/uses to rationalize a buffer (my pipes and prepping and polishing razors) I ordered one, along with a set of spanner screwdrivers (to disassemble my older Speedmasters), and some polishing compound cleaner to use in my wife's ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (shhhh!) to remove all traces of polishing compound from the razor parts prior to the actual plating.
All of this after watching a Back Roads Gold video.
Look out, here comes Backwoods Gold!
I don't know if you can, but I have mine set for "suggest" so it doesn't put it in for me. It's only a couple extra clicks to accept it, but a lot more later to fix it!I hate spell check. I typed "Superspeed" and it dutifully changed it to "Speedmaster". Ugh.
I don't know if you can, but I have mine set for "suggest" so it doesn't put it in for me. It's only a couple extra clicks to accept it, but a lot more later to fix it!
Oh I remember that, you just need to hit arrow right I think to override the auto correct. It's something that deselects the suggestion because space accepts it. Hmm...I just checked, and it says "Underline misspelled words in red and suggest corrections" but it still auto corrects (no red underline) as soon as I hit the spacebar.
Oh I remember that, you just need to hit arrow right I think to override the auto correct. It's something that deselects the suggestion because space accepts it. Hmm...
I just add the unrecognized word to the dictionary.Ah, I see, that works to accept the unrecognized word.
That's like two cats!
Therein lies the caveat, YMMV. Who's to say a certain razor was designed incorrectly?Someone I respect here once posted that anyone can get a great shave from any razor (that is not defective in some way, or just flat-out designed wrong), IF THEIR TECHNIQUE IS SOLID.