Greetings everyone from the mountains of Southwest Virginia. I started my DE wet shaving adventure a couple of months ago with a Rockwell 6S and the in-house sandalwood shaving soap from Razor Emporium. I'm just finishing my first tub of soap and looking for a few good options to try next.
I've been experimenting with blades and keeping a log. So far i've used RK, Astra (green), Nacet, 7 O'clock, and Voskhod blades with Voskhod feeling pretty good. I still have several brands from sample packs that I have not tried yet. I feel like I'm just now getting enough experience to make good comparisons. Every blade feels good on the first shave (except RK for some reason), so my evaluation largely about how they perform on shaves 2-4. My sense is that 4 is probably the maximum to expect, and 3 may be more realistic. Blades are cheap enough that one should not need to suffer dull ones. My last shave with a Voskhod was the 4th, and I had several days of growth. It was awful, so after a first pass I switched to a new 7 O'clock which felt super smooth by comparison (obviously). I have some Feathers but had been holding off until I got more practice.
I went through a "recommend me a shaving soap" thread and made a huge list of people's favorites, which doesn't really narrow the choices because there are so many. I marked a few that were mentioned repeatedly. I ordered Areffa from Ukraine (made with bear tallow) both for novelty and to show support (symbolic at least). It may be awhile before it arrives. I thought I might try Noble Otter since they're a small maker and get rave reviews, plus great artwork influences the feeling about them.
Anyway I've been soaking up the knowledge here and felt like I should say howdy and join the club. Cheers!
I've been experimenting with blades and keeping a log. So far i've used RK, Astra (green), Nacet, 7 O'clock, and Voskhod blades with Voskhod feeling pretty good. I still have several brands from sample packs that I have not tried yet. I feel like I'm just now getting enough experience to make good comparisons. Every blade feels good on the first shave (except RK for some reason), so my evaluation largely about how they perform on shaves 2-4. My sense is that 4 is probably the maximum to expect, and 3 may be more realistic. Blades are cheap enough that one should not need to suffer dull ones. My last shave with a Voskhod was the 4th, and I had several days of growth. It was awful, so after a first pass I switched to a new 7 O'clock which felt super smooth by comparison (obviously). I have some Feathers but had been holding off until I got more practice.
I went through a "recommend me a shaving soap" thread and made a huge list of people's favorites, which doesn't really narrow the choices because there are so many. I marked a few that were mentioned repeatedly. I ordered Areffa from Ukraine (made with bear tallow) both for novelty and to show support (symbolic at least). It may be awhile before it arrives. I thought I might try Noble Otter since they're a small maker and get rave reviews, plus great artwork influences the feeling about them.
Anyway I've been soaking up the knowledge here and felt like I should say howdy and join the club. Cheers!
