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GIVEAWAY! Participation PIF - Rembrandt's Shaving Masterpiece

Rembrandt - blade 1, shave 2

Henson Ti +++​
Southern Witchcrafts Boonana​
Yaqi rainbow pony​

I felt more resistance on the second shave. I don't know if the blade got less sharp or my first impression wasn't quite right. It wasn't tuggy, like each whisker getting pulled, it was more of a general resistance. I had to give a little bit more force to move the razor forward. It seems better to pair it with a more efficient/aggressive razor in your den.

The result was good and my towels have never looked better!
 
Rembrandt Blade #1 3rd shave.

Razor:
'41 Ranger Tech
Soap: Tcheung Fung Sing
Brush: SOC Boar
Alum Block: Gentleman Jon
Aftershave: Thayer's Witch Hazel/Floid

I should have stopped with the 2nd shave. I was careful with pressure and angle but I could feel some scraping. The shave just wasn't as smooth as the past couple days. The alum block and aftershave gave quite a bit of burn also.
Nice blade though as my other blades only give 2 nice days before the same results. I'm happy with the Rembrandt blade.
Maybe tomorrow I'll try the KAI blade. I've never used one of those either.

Rating: 8.0
 
Shave #2 - Rembrandt
Gillette Tech
Proraso Green


A second fine shave with no real complaints. I believe I can confirm this just doesn't feel that sharp on my face at least, but it's definitely good enough for my hair type. If you have a forest, perhaps you might run into troubles.

My shave was buttery smooth again and I really like this vintage blade.

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Rembrandt Blade #1 Shave #2
Tools: Mamba Razor, TFS soap, Taconic Badger brush & Suavecito Bay Rum aftershave.
Dang those towels & the Torpedo's Its full speed ahead for me.
Shave two was much the same for blade sharpness & delivered a nice smooth two pass shave = DFS :thumbup1:
The Bay Rum aftershave had moderate sting.
 

BradWorld

Dances with Wolfs
Rembrandt Blade 1 - Shave 1

I see a lot of you using vintage Gillettes for this event. A lot of Super Speeds, Parats, Techs, etc. So I dug out this relic from the depths of my razor archive specifically so I wouldnt have any FOMO. :)

This is a weird mid-1950's No. 68 Rocket set. It is made in England for what I suppose is targeted at the Canadian market. Tabernac! Note the space between the twist knob and the handle. And the razor specifically says made in England. Yet the case says "Gillette Canada" and "case is made in the USA". The included blade pack also says "Made in Canada". Mr-Razor shows a very similar Superspeed set, but lists it as Made in England. An incredibly interesting specimen. In amazingly good condition too! I will add some more details, and a bunch more photos to today's journal entry. Link is in the sig.

As you can see, the Rembrandt printing is nearly pristine on my example blade. The shave was decent. Of course, back in the 70's, shaving was not about the BBS, and fancy artisan products, nor razors cnc machined out of exotic metals. It was about getting the whiskers off the face, and getting to work, without a bunch of drama. And this shave was exactly that! A mostly trouble free shave, with good enough results. There was no real tugging or shave issues. A wee bit of tugging under the nose and below the bottom lip. And a little irritation on my neck trouble spots. But frankly I would have gotten that with any blade and this razor in those areas. Perhaps more so. So overall, the results were as expected. A solid low-end DFS shave. Exactly what a 1970's NYC businessman would have been expecting.

I will ride out the remainder of this blade with some more vintages. Then when I crack open the next Rembrandt, i will use it in modern high zoot razors and see how it performs.

PAA CK-6 Gondolier Soap
Paladin Lemon Drop Polo
Flair Tip Rocket
Rembrandt (1)
The Holy Black Sandalwood Smoke aftershave tonic

2025-01-17 09.54.56.jpg
 
Blade 1 Shave 3

IMG_6195.JPG


My DSCosmetic T7SE razor is super mild, so this shave was just insanely smooth. Seville is a great soap, and I had a mountain of lather so I ran into ZERO problems during the shave.

That said, especially with such a mild razor, it was a little less efficient. Just four hours later, I have a tad more stubble than I would normally expect. Now, the question is, is this just a function of what I think is a mild blade in a mild razor, a third-shave drop-off, or something else?

However, for a Friday shave when I'm not trying to impress anyone, I'm happy with the solid DFS it provided. At the moment, I'm toying with trying this in one of my slants or maybe my Rockwell with a more aggressive plate.

** BTW - I am not complaining about this blade at all. Today's shave was so freaking comfortable that I'm willing to concede a little closeness for that experience. I am very happy with this blade so far. I have other whisker scalpels when I want a whisker massacre.
 
Rembrandt Stainless Blade #1-ish - Shave #2

TL;DR -
kept everything the same, shave and results were a repeat of yesterday, DFS+/BBS-

Equipment: Gillette Parat razor, vintage Rembrandt blade (2), Crazy Goat OF Vanilla Oak soap, Captain's Choice bowl

Near Vintage Shave: Kept the setup the same as yesterday and received a very nearly identical shave!!

Stropping The Blade: Shaving with mostly modern blades, I've not stropped a DE blade. This blade feels more like a modern than a classic vintage. I'm wondering if this blade is "stroppable" and if that would extend its usability?
 
Shave #1. 7/10 comfortable SAS. Way smoother subjectively than measurements indicate it should be. I could tell it isn't sharp going ATG, but WTG and XTG, dull spots just glide by without much tugging. That is something that peeks my curousity. Much better than expected, but obviously, old fashioned compared to three bevel PTFE and platinum coated modern designs.

1000017639.jpg
 
Pre: Shower, Warm water rinse
Blade: Rembrandt Stainless, Blade 1, Edge 2, Shave 1
Razor: Gillette NDC SuperSpeed
Brush: RV Manchurian
Soap: MWF Tallow
Post: Lukewarm water rinse, Thayer's Cucumber Toner WH, Nivea men sensitive PSB

Today I switched from Tech to SuperSpeed and achieved the same shave as with the previous razor. Again, the razor/blade combo was noisy and had a pretty fair amount of blade feel (blade forward but not enough to be a problem). And like with the Tech, after the first pass everything was great.

With buffing, the final result was BBS-.
There were no nicks, weepers, or post-shave irritation.
 
Blade 1 Shave 4 - just a fairly quick masterpiece

Hot rag, lather with Old Spice and let it hydrate while transferring the Rembrandt. 24 hour stubble. Another end of the evening vintage daily shave.

> Gillette 1941 Aristocrat
> Rembrandt-Super (4)
> vintage Old Spice
> Plisson Pur Blaireau - it might be vintage now, but it was new when it was given to me
IMG_6742.jpeg
IMG_6744.jpeg

Aftercare:
> alum rinsed with witch hazel
> Lucky Tiger AS&FT

Still smooth, no tugging. Nice and close, closer than I expected with the Aristocrat. I'm not often seen with a loaded TTO.

Razor, brush, soap. These are thoroughly middle-of the-road luxury products of a certain era. But ageless, and still delivering on their promises.

Perfect gifts for the man of the house, tea-headed or not.
 
Pre: Shower, Warm water rinse
Blade: Rembrandt Stainless, Blade 1, Edge 2, Shave 2
Razor: Gillette NDC SuperSpeed
Brush: Zenith Manchurian
Soap: Stirling Scots Pine Sheep
Post: Lukewarm water rinse, Thayer's Cucumber Toner WH, Nivea men sensitive PSB

Very nice shave, even better than yesterday. I had a slight attack of the clumsies, resulting in one weeper, but no nicks, or post-shave irritation.

With buffing, the final result was a simple BBS.
 
Rembrandt - blade 1, shave 2

Henson Ti +++​
Southern Witchcrafts Boonana​
Yaqi rainbow pony​

I felt more resistance on the second shave. I don't know if the blade got less sharp or my first impression wasn't quite right. It wasn't tuggy, like each whisker getting pulled, it was more of a general resistance. I had to give a little bit more force to move the razor forward. It seems better to pair it with a more efficient/aggressive razor in your den.

The result was good and my towels have never looked better!

Rembrandt - blade 1, shave 3

Henson Ti +++​
Southern Witchcrafts Boonana​
Yaqi timberwolf​

My last impression was not wrong - this blade got dull very fast. Even on the first pass of this third shave there was a lot of resistance and tugging. By the second pass I thought I should abort, but I felt guilt, as I was so grateful to get the opportunity to shave with a vintage blade, so I kept going. I was cautious on the ATG third pass, I used very short strokes and had to pull the razor along quite a bit. I tried to leave good enough alone, but it is hard to do when one wants a better result. I got a couple weepers, likely due to the tugging, and I left some of my tough spots at a DFS.

I'm sad to report that it got too dull for me by the third shave. I had presumed this would be one of those long-lasting vintage blades, but that isn't what I experienced. Perhaps this is just a bad sample? I only requested two blades, I didn't want to be greedy, so I'll see how the second blade goes.
 
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