This Interview is long overdue, and fortionately Ian provided such a good interview, i don't feel too embarrassed. SliceOfLife is well known around here as a great guy, and this fantastic interview locks it in place.
Thank Ian!!
Who are you?
Ian Sammons. I'm a cook who spent a few years in college for computer engineering in my early twenties. I couldn't handle that much time at a desk and so I went back to cooking.
Where are you located?
Avondale, PA. I work about five miles outside North Philly.
How do you take your coffee?
Black and either at work or after a dinner out.
What happened that made you seek a better shave, or if the chicken came before the egg, how did you find B&B?
I never liked shaving. If I skipped a day disposables would clog and electrics would rip the hair out of my face instead of cutting it. For most of my life I used a sideburn/beard trimmer as my only "shaving" tool. As a cook I knew I could take metal and make it sharp, so a straight seemed like a no brainer to me. I've used safety razors here and there, but I'm so comfortable with a straight now that when I pick up a safety for a "quick" shave, it winds up taking longer and irritating my face because I try to force a shave like what I've gotten used to out of them.
What was it that held your interest?
I like to find the best of complex things. With a straight shave you've got soap, technique, brush, razor, edge (with countless sublevels). Finding "The Best" is so complicated and involving that most people don't even want to consider it. I'm compelled to. At least that's how I explain the hundreds of finishing stones and dozens of brushes and soaps I cycle through as fast as I can find time to use them.
If i remember from your posts, you started with DE's before switching to straights; What did you start with?
Nope. I started with a straight. A week or two after getting it I visited family and forgot it, so I picked up a travel tech at an antique store and a pack of overpriced personna's at a CVS. I marveled at how much easier and better the DE shave was than a disposable razor shave, but as soon as I got home I went back to the straight. I've only used a safety razor about five times since.
Shave Cream & Soaps? what did you find that worked well from those initial trials?
Nothing really. I bought a vintage badger brush on eBay that was just horrible, and had a VDH bowl and boar brush. Bowl lathering in that smooth, tiny bowl with those brushes didn't make much that I'd even think about using these days, even with VDH deluxe and Kells Original (both pretty decent soaps). I hated the Kells at the time. Now, it's probably the best glycerin I've used.
The next soap I remember was Tabac, still one of the few soaps I've found good enough that the horrid gear and technique I was using then could make half decent lather from it.
I eventually picked up a half decent boar, a TGN Finest and a RBecker scuttle and started to realize what real shaving lather was. Now I own dozens of brushes and mostly face lather. I can shave just fine with VDH and Kell's, but I still love me some Tabac.
Where did you get your first straight razor? was it shave ready?
DwarvenChef in SRP classifieds. A Monkey Tailed Chas F Schmidt with some light creases in the metal and very heavy patina. Was actually a pretty nice edge. Nothing fancy, probably just a synth followed by Chromox, but it shaved well enough I didn't have to doubt my razor.
Determination is key with shaving with a straight, how did you push through the Month + of sub par shaves? did you know there was a light at the end of the tunnel?
Closeness was never an issue for me. I never would have attempted anything other than WTG with a disposable, so even a fumbling WTG straight shave with the crap I considered lather at the time was a decent shave for me. I'd have to skip a day now and then if I got overzealous with XTG and ATG passes, but otherwise I'd say I picked up straight shaving pretty readily. A month into it I was finishing eBay specials on a Swaty and a Balsa strop with Chromox. Maybe a month after that and I'd invested in a 40k+ grit Jnat. If I'd had a better strop at the beginning, it would have gone even easier (I started with a Zeepk strop). Once I picked up my Bismark (Illinois) strop, I was completely confident in my edges and was straight shaving like I'd been doing it my whole life.
Now my favorite question... if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose:
3 razors:
Magnetic Cutlery "De Peres 159" 5/8" Hollow Ground w/ worked Spine and MOP scales.
Mint Condition, totally untouched, So shiny I could signal rescue planes with it. So beautiful If I left it out on the beach it would lure beautiful mermaids into the shallows just to get a closer look at it.
Puma 22 6/8" Half Hollow.
Straight forward, excellent shaver, large but not too large, nice even patina, simple, sturdy scales, very maneuverable and fits my hand like a glove.
Geo Wostenholm Celebrated IXL 17/16" Full Hollow ground.
You don't tell it why it's on the list, it tells you.
2 brushes:
No question:
Rooney faux Horn 1/2 Finest
Simfix Chubby 1 Best
3 soaps:
Tabac
My homemade soap in Spice scent
Vintage Williams and hey this is fantasy, let's say it's still got the original, let's say Rose scent.
2 creams:
Heavy whipping cream and Ice cream
& 3 colognes:
Alt Innsbruck
Pashana 7
Shulton Old Spice Leather
What is your strop preference and what is your stropping regime?
Nothing compares to my Spanish HH by Ambrose. Really the only reason I use anything else is because that <2" cloth component is miserable for me to use. I strop fast enough that it starts swinging on the hook from the angle of the draw and I have to stop three or four times to stop it. Once I replace the cloth with something wider, I'll probably sell my other strops... which are themselves no slouches. I definitely like HH best, Cordovan is nice for a change of pace, but I haven't found a Latigo that feels right to me.
What is your honing set up for ebay specials?
I own close to 50 hones, so it varies a LOT. But on 80% or more:
DMT 220 to remove chips. DMT 600 to clean up after.
DMT 1200 or 175x40 vintage coticule or 200x75 La Grise coticule to bevel
175x40 vintage coticule or 200x75 La Grise coticule until at least thin slurry, sometimes water
After that I may finish on any of the following (favoring my Karasu Jnat lately)
Karasu Jnat
Okudo Suita Jnat
Any of ~12 Thuringians
Any of ~6 Coticules
Any of ~10 Black/Trans Arkansas
Charnley Forest
Either of my Yellow Lakes
or one of my two remaining mystery hones.
How often and what's your method for touching up your straights? favorite finish?
I don't touch up straights in the traditional method. I decide that I want to try a different edge and so I "rehone" rather than touch up. This could be anywhere from 1 to 10 shaves in. I've never gotten an edge to the point where I felt the edge degraded. In fact most edges seem to improve slightly over the first few uses.
How often do you work out? How did you get to a place where working out wasn't a chore?
Does honing count? Other than push-ups here and there and occasional bouts of unexplained activity, I don't. I did a 80 mile hike up and down mountains with a 60lb pack a few years back. My stance is I'm still recovering from that.
Are you currently reading a book? or perhaps even better; what book will you be reading next?
I got about 2/3 through "Jude the Obscure" a few months ago. I'll pick it up and finish it eventually. I read in bursts. I'll finish four or five 600 page novels in a month then not read again for a year. I'm a big fan of Dostoevsky, but I've read pretty much everything of his. I've piled up several other classics that I want to read, but like a lot of things, even though you enjoy them once you start, actually starting seems like it's the last thing you want to do.
Favorite Movie or two?
I can never think of an answer to these sort of questions. I like a lot of movies and don't really think of any as a favorite.
With what fictional/historical character do you most identify?
Back to Dostoevsky, I find myself midway between Myshkin and Ivan Karamazov.
Do you have any motto's, sayings, or quotes to live by?
Primum non nocere.
What has been the best advice you've gotten from a member at B&B?
I believe it was a B&B member that suggested a scything motion for approximating an ATG pass on my throat on either side of my windpipe.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone new at this, what would it be?
The "Common Wisdom" on the internet is usually just the opinion of the guys who speak the most and the loudest. Listen to people whom you trust, not poll results.
Natural Hones collection. Absent are a couple vintage arkansas, a couple TOS/WOA, and a vintage Coticule and slurry.
Brush collection. They should all be up there.
A display case of the razors I've not wanted to restore.
Puma 22
Wostenholm IXL 9/8ths
D Peres Magnetic Cutlery Co
Matching blades week set with slick black scales
Shot of the back working on all the D Peres (the single blade is the same without the day etched)
Thank Ian!!
Who are you?
Ian Sammons. I'm a cook who spent a few years in college for computer engineering in my early twenties. I couldn't handle that much time at a desk and so I went back to cooking.
Where are you located?
Avondale, PA. I work about five miles outside North Philly.
How do you take your coffee?
Black and either at work or after a dinner out.
What happened that made you seek a better shave, or if the chicken came before the egg, how did you find B&B?
I never liked shaving. If I skipped a day disposables would clog and electrics would rip the hair out of my face instead of cutting it. For most of my life I used a sideburn/beard trimmer as my only "shaving" tool. As a cook I knew I could take metal and make it sharp, so a straight seemed like a no brainer to me. I've used safety razors here and there, but I'm so comfortable with a straight now that when I pick up a safety for a "quick" shave, it winds up taking longer and irritating my face because I try to force a shave like what I've gotten used to out of them.
What was it that held your interest?
I like to find the best of complex things. With a straight shave you've got soap, technique, brush, razor, edge (with countless sublevels). Finding "The Best" is so complicated and involving that most people don't even want to consider it. I'm compelled to. At least that's how I explain the hundreds of finishing stones and dozens of brushes and soaps I cycle through as fast as I can find time to use them.
If i remember from your posts, you started with DE's before switching to straights; What did you start with?
Nope. I started with a straight. A week or two after getting it I visited family and forgot it, so I picked up a travel tech at an antique store and a pack of overpriced personna's at a CVS. I marveled at how much easier and better the DE shave was than a disposable razor shave, but as soon as I got home I went back to the straight. I've only used a safety razor about five times since.
Shave Cream & Soaps? what did you find that worked well from those initial trials?
Nothing really. I bought a vintage badger brush on eBay that was just horrible, and had a VDH bowl and boar brush. Bowl lathering in that smooth, tiny bowl with those brushes didn't make much that I'd even think about using these days, even with VDH deluxe and Kells Original (both pretty decent soaps). I hated the Kells at the time. Now, it's probably the best glycerin I've used.
The next soap I remember was Tabac, still one of the few soaps I've found good enough that the horrid gear and technique I was using then could make half decent lather from it.
I eventually picked up a half decent boar, a TGN Finest and a RBecker scuttle and started to realize what real shaving lather was. Now I own dozens of brushes and mostly face lather. I can shave just fine with VDH and Kell's, but I still love me some Tabac.
Where did you get your first straight razor? was it shave ready?
DwarvenChef in SRP classifieds. A Monkey Tailed Chas F Schmidt with some light creases in the metal and very heavy patina. Was actually a pretty nice edge. Nothing fancy, probably just a synth followed by Chromox, but it shaved well enough I didn't have to doubt my razor.
Determination is key with shaving with a straight, how did you push through the Month + of sub par shaves? did you know there was a light at the end of the tunnel?
Closeness was never an issue for me. I never would have attempted anything other than WTG with a disposable, so even a fumbling WTG straight shave with the crap I considered lather at the time was a decent shave for me. I'd have to skip a day now and then if I got overzealous with XTG and ATG passes, but otherwise I'd say I picked up straight shaving pretty readily. A month into it I was finishing eBay specials on a Swaty and a Balsa strop with Chromox. Maybe a month after that and I'd invested in a 40k+ grit Jnat. If I'd had a better strop at the beginning, it would have gone even easier (I started with a Zeepk strop). Once I picked up my Bismark (Illinois) strop, I was completely confident in my edges and was straight shaving like I'd been doing it my whole life.
Now my favorite question... if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose:
3 razors:
Magnetic Cutlery "De Peres 159" 5/8" Hollow Ground w/ worked Spine and MOP scales.
Mint Condition, totally untouched, So shiny I could signal rescue planes with it. So beautiful If I left it out on the beach it would lure beautiful mermaids into the shallows just to get a closer look at it.
Puma 22 6/8" Half Hollow.
Straight forward, excellent shaver, large but not too large, nice even patina, simple, sturdy scales, very maneuverable and fits my hand like a glove.
Geo Wostenholm Celebrated IXL 17/16" Full Hollow ground.
You don't tell it why it's on the list, it tells you.
2 brushes:
No question:
Rooney faux Horn 1/2 Finest
Simfix Chubby 1 Best
3 soaps:
Tabac
My homemade soap in Spice scent
Vintage Williams and hey this is fantasy, let's say it's still got the original, let's say Rose scent.
2 creams:
Heavy whipping cream and Ice cream
& 3 colognes:
Alt Innsbruck
Pashana 7
Shulton Old Spice Leather
What is your strop preference and what is your stropping regime?
Nothing compares to my Spanish HH by Ambrose. Really the only reason I use anything else is because that <2" cloth component is miserable for me to use. I strop fast enough that it starts swinging on the hook from the angle of the draw and I have to stop three or four times to stop it. Once I replace the cloth with something wider, I'll probably sell my other strops... which are themselves no slouches. I definitely like HH best, Cordovan is nice for a change of pace, but I haven't found a Latigo that feels right to me.
What is your honing set up for ebay specials?
I own close to 50 hones, so it varies a LOT. But on 80% or more:
DMT 220 to remove chips. DMT 600 to clean up after.
DMT 1200 or 175x40 vintage coticule or 200x75 La Grise coticule to bevel
175x40 vintage coticule or 200x75 La Grise coticule until at least thin slurry, sometimes water
After that I may finish on any of the following (favoring my Karasu Jnat lately)
Karasu Jnat
Okudo Suita Jnat
Any of ~12 Thuringians
Any of ~6 Coticules
Any of ~10 Black/Trans Arkansas
Charnley Forest
Either of my Yellow Lakes
or one of my two remaining mystery hones.
How often and what's your method for touching up your straights? favorite finish?
I don't touch up straights in the traditional method. I decide that I want to try a different edge and so I "rehone" rather than touch up. This could be anywhere from 1 to 10 shaves in. I've never gotten an edge to the point where I felt the edge degraded. In fact most edges seem to improve slightly over the first few uses.
How often do you work out? How did you get to a place where working out wasn't a chore?
Does honing count? Other than push-ups here and there and occasional bouts of unexplained activity, I don't. I did a 80 mile hike up and down mountains with a 60lb pack a few years back. My stance is I'm still recovering from that.
Are you currently reading a book? or perhaps even better; what book will you be reading next?
I got about 2/3 through "Jude the Obscure" a few months ago. I'll pick it up and finish it eventually. I read in bursts. I'll finish four or five 600 page novels in a month then not read again for a year. I'm a big fan of Dostoevsky, but I've read pretty much everything of his. I've piled up several other classics that I want to read, but like a lot of things, even though you enjoy them once you start, actually starting seems like it's the last thing you want to do.
Favorite Movie or two?
I can never think of an answer to these sort of questions. I like a lot of movies and don't really think of any as a favorite.
With what fictional/historical character do you most identify?
Back to Dostoevsky, I find myself midway between Myshkin and Ivan Karamazov.
Do you have any motto's, sayings, or quotes to live by?
Primum non nocere.
What has been the best advice you've gotten from a member at B&B?
I believe it was a B&B member that suggested a scything motion for approximating an ATG pass on my throat on either side of my windpipe.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone new at this, what would it be?
The "Common Wisdom" on the internet is usually just the opinion of the guys who speak the most and the loudest. Listen to people whom you trust, not poll results.
Natural Hones collection. Absent are a couple vintage arkansas, a couple TOS/WOA, and a vintage Coticule and slurry.
Brush collection. They should all be up there.
A display case of the razors I've not wanted to restore.
Puma 22
Wostenholm IXL 9/8ths
D Peres Magnetic Cutlery Co
Matching blades week set with slick black scales
Shot of the back working on all the D Peres (the single blade is the same without the day etched)
Last edited:
