The Journal of a Backwards Professor

[thombrogan]

So the lessons it imparts are Timeless?

 

[Rosseforp]

Monday, June 21, High Efficiency SOTD


Razor: Ti 95 SB
Blade: Wizamet SI (3)
Brush: Shavemac 26/50
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: the Veg
ASB: Nivea balm

Well, I tried to get in an early morning shave before breakfast was served.
So when the call for breakfast came 15 minutes earlier than usual, I was still shaving.

And annoyed.

Did I mention that yesterday morning's shave was interrupted by the vacuum cleaner?
Trying to get in a shave the same time every day without interruption is something that has eluded me every since I retired, and I'm thinking it is time to stop shaving my sideburns and chin for awhile.

Oh, the shave was actually pretty nice.

I had actually just finished the ATG cleanup pass of a WTG, XTG, ATG three pass shave, and was just getting ready to towel the rest of the lather off my face and clean up my gear when SWMBO announced the early breakfast call.

I hope she likes the new look!

 

[thombrogan]

time to stop shaving my sideburns

No! YMMV = Your Muttonchops Must Vanish

 

[Asland408]

No! YMMV = Your Muttonchops Must Vanish

Best ever!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Rosseforp]

Tuesday, June 22 High Efficiency SOTD

Razor: Ti 95 SB
Blade: Wizamet SI (4)
Brush: Shavemac 26/50
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: the Veg
ASB: Nivea balm

Tonight's shave was a nice shave.

As good as the razor was, the brush was better. If anyone has thought about getting a Shavemac, just stop thinking about it now and place your order. You won't regret it. I'm getting another 26mm 2 Band, but this time I will let Bernd put it together for me.

I went with my standard WTG first pass, then an ATG pass, followed by a WTG cleanup pass on my neck.

It seems the hairs at the base of my neck change directions and grow from S-N, so two N-S passes are required to remove them.

This Ti 95 SB is an interesting razor, I can't feel the blade at all during my first WTG pass, and it is damn quite too. Smooth as if there was no blade, but where is that whispering sound coming from, and where did the stubble go?
I can feel it pull my skin as it lifts the hairs off at the same time like a squeegee.
For me it demands a neutral angle for maximum efficiency, the pressure does not seem to matter. Or does it? I feel I can use more pressure if I want, but the want is not there.
I want comfort, closeness comes as a by-product of technique, and this razor rewards technique.

Some highly efficient razors will punish you if your technique is off. The Ti 95 SB just asks you politely to try it again.

That is not to say there is no blade feel when shaving ATG, but this razor is the king of smooth ATG. The smooth trumps the blade feel. But there is blade feel, I felt it the most when I rounded my chin and jawline ATG, and they are the closest ever.

The Witch hazel went on without any drama, as to say there was no irritation, and the burn from the Veg was very pleasant with a nice cooling after effect, the Nivea balm welcome as always.

I'm almost thinking I should have gotten the Ti 95 OC, but the Ti 95 SB is definitely a daily driver for me.

This razor just needs more study.

 

[Rosseforp]

In between showing our condo to interested buyers, looking at houses to buy, I have been working of some handles on my new Sherline miniature lathe.

The latest LHF handle weighs in at 12.2 grams and has a titanium tailpipe to handle the heat of a nitro burning Funny Car.

The best part? My new handle fits all of my Fatip razors!

I have used this titanium hip stem implant I made while working for 3M as a paperweight for about 40 years, because I had nothing else to do with it. A mistake was made by me during machining and it was scrap. Pretty expensive piece of scrap at that, we had about $800 worth of machine time in it, plus the $250 cost of the material. Lucky for me, I wasn't the only machinist scrapping titanium handles and I didn't even get yelled at.

A paperweight it will be no longer as I start to whittle it down to size on my Sherline lathe and create a handle from the scrap

The hip stem next to a LHF handle for comparison.

The large pieces removed with a hacksaw.

Just before I put it on the lathe.

Cut down to size and ready for the finishing touches!

 

[Rosseforp]

Still no shaves to report, but I did sign and initial 38 documents today. Our condo goes into escrow tomorrow and the search for our dream home just got kicked into high gear. Now we can move beyond the looking part, and start to make solid offers of our own.
The clock is ticking and we got 90 days. I got four houses to look at tomorrow.

In the meantime, I think I am starting to get a handle on the knurling tool, this is a test blank for the next LHF handle that is in the works. I still have to hand grind a radius on a 3/8" HSS tool blank so that I can make a brass nosepiece for it with a 4.5 x 0.75mm thread that fits my Fatip razors.
Not that I need any more LHF handles that fit my Fatip razors, but Cal @Cal likes the GT handle I made for his Yuma so much, he has requested one with a brass nosepiece that will fit a Fatip, so I will make a prototype first and see how it turns out.

 

[thombrogan]

Congratulations on your sale and here’s hoping your dream home comes around at your dream price with a dream super minimal amount of work needed.

 

[Rosseforp]

Congratulations on your sale and here’s hoping your dream home comes around at your dream price with a dream super minimal amount of work needed.

Escrow is never a sure bet, but it lets the sellers know we mean business and we can go shopping for a better loan. Looked at 4 possibilities today, and hopefully 2 more tomorrow. It is a seller's market, but I feel more confident than I did 16 years ago when we went "All In".

I saw that listed on one of our proposals, it said the buyer was "All In" right in the contract, which incidentally lists all of their assets and debts, and saw the similarities of when we first made the plunge.

I put the maximum amount into my 401k that my companies matched for 34 years straight and now enjoy the same income I had when I was working, in full retirement. 14 years with 3M which includes a pension, and 20 years with ConMed after they bought us from 3M, which also includes a pension.
I have spent the last two years laying the financial groundwork and now have the assets and equity that gives me the confidence to proceed in today's housing market, which if anybody has been looking recently, is pretty scary, just like it was 16 years ago.

The difference is we no longer have to go "All In" to make a serious bid.

I'll be sure to post pictures of the new abodes once we find our "Dream Home".

 

[Rosseforp]

Day 10 and my neck is starting to itch.

The wife/SWMBO did tell me yesterday that I needed to do something about the hair on my face. I looked up from the dragracing magazine I was reading at my workbench in my garage, and pointedly asked her just when I should make that attempt, and gave her a list of the times that I had tried to get a peaceful shave, either early morning or early evening, since I retired.

It seems that according to her, because she is working and I am not, I should just wait until she leaves for work in the late morning(8:30am) or goes to bed(9-11pm) to shave.
How about that, after 45 years of getting up at 3 am to go to work, I should just tell my body to change its schedule.
It doesn't seem to matter that I am still bringing in the same income as when I was working, and I am still paying ALL of the bills.

So basically, while SWMBO was standing in my garage, she demanded that I shave, just not while she is at home or awake.

So this is my SOTD, it would have been fantastic if I had used a blade, there even seems to be the same amount of soap as there was before I shaved.

Check out the new prototype handle I made completely from scratch on my Sherline lathe. I hand ground the radius on a HSS 3/8" for the nosepiece(all the rest were turned on a CNC at work), and tapped it with a 4.5 x 0.75mm thread so that it will ONLY fit a Fatip.
And, just for Cal @Cal, the diameters of the non-knurled sections are the same diameter as the knurled sections. Even got the WFH grooves.

 

[Cal]

 

[Rosseforp]

View attachment 1290984

16.5 gram LHF

 

[Cal]

16.5 gram LHF

I'm imagining this in the empty space above the two Fatip heavyweights:

36.2g Lo Storto handle
41.3g Piccolo handle

 

[Rosseforp]

I'm imagining this in the empty space above the two Fatip heavyweights:
View attachment 1291117
36.2g Lo Storto handle
41.3g Piccolo handle

I still need to order the 954 brass and some more aluminum for your handle Cal @Cal, I used 360 brass for the prototype. Been busy looking at houses!

 

[Rosseforp]

NON-SOTD

Razor: Executive set on #5
Blade: none
Brush: Omega Silvertip
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: Layrite No 9

This has always been a wonderful combo, especially when I use a blade! It is giving me the urge to trim the beginning of my beard, but I think I will hold off a few more days and use my old Wahl trimmer to do the job. I watched a few videos on beard trimming and it is suggested to hold off at least two weeks, four weeks even better.

On the home search front, we re-visited one property in Riverside, and ultimately decided to move it down to the bottom of the list, as it had the laundry in the garage. Another property that we have been trying to get an appointment with in Corona popped back on the market and off the market in a 10 minute span. Next was really nice looking house in Corona that advertised RV parking, but there was very little parking in the entire neighborhood, and the lot really did not have RV parking.
The next most promising home was in Norco, and checked off all the boxes except the garage was TINY and the laundry was in the garage also.

The SWMBO runs the laundry 24/7, and I am sure that would create a major bone of contention.
THAT would require re-modeling to alleviate the situation.

Not too far away was a much more promising piece of property with the laundry inside the house, and while we were considering an offer, we noticed a For Sale sign they were putting up on the house next door. This one was landscaped, had an enclosed laundry room that had been built on the patio, with room for a refrigerator. The garage is separate from the house. And two driveways, both of which have RV access. They had just put the sign up, and the house is slated to be listed on Monday. We were the first people to view the property. I instructed my agent to make a serious bid on both properties yesterday and applied for the loan.
Fingers crossed, and waiting to here from my agent or loan officer in the next day or so.

Oh yeah, both houses are across the street from a horse riding academy.

It is Norco, California: The West Coast Town Known as 'Horsetown, USA' after all.

 

[Raven Koenes]

NON-SOTD

Razor: Executive set on #5
Blade: none
Brush: Omega Silvertip
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: Layrite No 9
View attachment 1291978
This has always been a wonderful combo, especially when I use a blade! It is giving me the urge to trim the beginning of my beard, but I think I will hold off a few more days and use my old Wahl trimmer to do the job. I watched a few videos on beard trimming and it is suggested to hold off at least two weeks, four weeks even better.

On the home search front, we re-visited one property in Riverside, and ultimately decided to move it down to the bottom of the list, as it had the laundry in the garage. Another property that we have been trying to get an appointment with in Corona popped back on the market and off the market in a 10 minute span. Next was really nice looking house in Corona that advertised RV parking, but there was very little parking in the entire neighborhood, and the lot really did not have RV parking.
The next most promising home was in Norco, and checked off all the boxes except the garage was TINY and the laundry was in the garage also.

The SWMBO runs the laundry 24/7, and I am sure that would create a major bone of contention.
THAT would require re-modeling to alleviate the situation.

Not too far away was a much more promising piece of property with the laundry inside the house, and while we were considering an offer, we noticed a For Sale sign they were putting up on the house next door. This one was landscaped, had an enclosed laundry room that had been built on the patio, with room for a refrigerator. The garage is separate from the house. And two driveways, both of which have RV access. They had just put the sign up, and the house is slated to be listed on Monday. We were the first people to view the property. I instructed my agent to make a serious bid on both properties yesterday and applied for the loan.
Fingers crossed, and waiting to here from my agent or loan officer in the next day or so.

Oh yeah, both houses are across the street from a horse riding academy.

It is Norco, California: The West Coast Town Known as 'Horsetown, USA' after all.

Bladeless shaving could have really helped make my Roedter 1909 week go down a lot better. Now you tell me, thanks a lot Doug.

 

[thombrogan]

@Rosseforp

I read the “clear that wiry gunk from the face and neck during these hours” to mean your order-giver wants to spend more at-home with you so hours in close, conscious proximity aren’t sacrificed and she doesn’t have to dare wonder if she has a hobo fetish.

Ain’t no one more fallible than me, but you sent the vent and that’s my 2¢‘s rent

 

[Rosseforp]

After putting in my 3 and 1/2 mile walk I spent the rest of the morning signing documents after putting bids on four different houses. 50+ docs to sign for each bid, then furnishing proof of funds for the down payment. The housing market is crazy right now, and I have my fingers and toes crossed. Eyes crossed too

I found yet another reason to despise HOA's, ours just informed me there is a $556 fee to release the HOA Docs to escrow so I can sell my condo. My real estate agent tells me it is like dealing with the mafia Those dirty rats

I often find inspiration when working on projects in my garage by reading actual magazines in print. I know they are disappearing as many millennials don't seem to have the same passion for the printed word, instead preferring the more immediate yet volatile on-line version, without the benefit of reasonable thought.

The article I am reading as I think of what the finished Titanium-Hip-Stem-Implant Handle will look like is about a young lady from Norway that moved to the United States to finish her college education and pursue a career in dragracing. Julie Nataas finished third in the Top Alcohol Dragster class last year in NHRA Competition, and her teammate Megan Meyer, that won the TAD Championship last year retired, so Julie's chances look pretty good this year.

 

[Rosseforp]

NON-SOTD

Razor: GC-OC84
Blade: none
Brush: Omega Silvertip
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: AA Bay Rum

My GC-OC84 is one of my favorite high efficiency razors, and super comfortable to boot. Even more comfortable when used without a blade! I'm pretty sure if I had used a blade there would be no whiskers left

The itching feeling on my neck only lasted a day or so as I am approaching day 15 without attempting to shave without interruption, and I am probably going to give the hairs on my neck a trim with my old Wahl trimmer. I will wait for SWMBO to leave the building first

 

[Rosseforp]

NON-SOTD
Razor: Wahl Groomsman
Blade: none
Brush: Omega 49
Soap: Vitos Extra Super Coco
ASL: the "Veg"

SWMBO told me in no uncertain terms this evening that I needed to shave my face, as she is very displeased with the immerging stubble that is becoming apparent on said face. This was at 9 pm, just after she was finished in the shower.
Of course when I asked her just when I was supposed to shave, the reply came back "You can shave any time during the day because you are retired".

So I watched a Matty Conrad video on how to shape a two week beard and got out my old Wahl Groomsman for the task.