The Wanderer's Journey

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I agree entirely with Al.

I probably have only about thirty or forty, oops, I forgot the straights, eighty or ninety of my razors near my shave den. The rest - a hundred or more - are either in the living room shave-and-haircutting-kit cabinet or at my office.

Only about seven to twelve of my safety razors are in the group I actually pick from. That said, I mostly only use two or three or four. Mostly just my FOCS gold & chrome razors and my Gillette Executive.

I probably have only about ten or fifteen badgers in the rotation. Boars and my one horse are kinda sorta in the rotation but aren't actually seeing any action. My one synthetic is used only on trips, but I like it. The rest of my brushes are in locations not adjacent to the shave den. I'm definitely thinning the herd.

Same with soaps. Only about a dozen are within grabbing distance. Only one - Vitos Red - tends to get any significant action. The other soaps are put away in boxes.

In other words, I agree entirely with Al.

Minimalism is the way to go.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Somerled]

I agree entirely with Al.

I probably have only about thirty or forty, oops, I forgot the straights, eighty or ninety of my razors near my shave den. The rest - a hundred or more - are either in the living room shave-and-haircutting-kit cabinet or at my office.

Only about seven to twelve of my safety razors are in the group I actually pick from. That said, I mostly only use two or three or four. Mostly just my FOCS gold & chrome razors and my Gillette Executive.

I probably have only about ten or fifteen badgers in the rotation. Boars and my one horse are kinda sorta in the rotation but aren't actually seeing any action. My one synthetic is used only on trips, but I like it. The rest of my brushes are in locations not adjacent to the shave den. I'm definitely thinning the herd.

Same with soaps. Only about a dozen are within grabbing distance. Only one - Vitos Red - tends to get any significant action. The other soaps are put away in boxes.


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In other words, I agree entirely with Al.

Minimalism is the way to go.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Really like how you can say all that with a straight face, and make it sound like you believe it yourself.

 

[Esox]

I could roll in it just like that dog. In fact I probably do.

We''ll be needing the video of that!

I really wasn't impressed with the sample I tried. Can't be 100% certain why.

I have found in my extended use of it that its slightly more water critical than Wickham. I have to pay attention to how much I load on the tips. It's easy to pick up too much and then balancing the water can be a bit of a chore compared to Wickham. Using too little can also be problematic and again, with Wickham, it doesnt matter as much. Wickham is the more forgiving soap.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have found in my extended use of it that its slightly more water critical than Wickham. I have to pay attention to how much I load on the tips. It's easy to pick up too much and then balancing the water can be a bit of a chore compared to Wickham. Using too little can also be problematic and again, with Wickham, it doesnt matter as much. Wickham is the more forgiving soap.

Erasmic and St James of London are very user friendly and forgiving too, not to mention great performers.

If anything is going to be pedantic and temperamental during my shaves, it should be the operator, not the kit and consumables.

 

[Esox]

If anything is going to be pedantic and temperamental during my shaves, it should be the operator, not the kit and consumables.

Cal has made an AI and named it Al! The programming is a bit buggy Cal, better work on it a bit more lol.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Cal has made an AI and named it Al! The programming is a bit buggy Cal, better work on it a bit more lol.

My programming isn't buggy, it's totally banjaxed!

 

[Dovo1695]

My programming isn't buggy, it's totally banjaxed!

This is my new favorite word. I will teach it to my children at dinner this evening to help spread it's grandeur upon on these distant shores.

 

[Burundian Hawk]

I shaved with the sample of Lea you sent me a few days ago and it's as good a soap as any I've used so far, except for Tabac. I'm also now getting cracking shaves with Palmolive cream, also some of the cheapest stuff there is.

I said it too in the main forum. Lea classic puck costs €6 and it lathers in my very hard water like a champion. Why do people don't buy it, i can't understand. Most importantly. Do you NEED a better soap performance wise? I don't! I rarely get weepers even when using much inferior performing soap. Now, remains the issue of variety. There are other products that have very good mechanical properties and also pleasant scents that don't cost too much. Palmolive cream, is one of my favourite creams by the way, the green one in particular. I consider it better than Proraso.

 

[TinyT]

Now, remains the issue of variety.

I think that's the thing. The vast array of interesting scents and tubs with beautiful artwork make shaving soap a very attractive subject. If it can be afforded there are plenty worse things to spend money on. I used to enjoy drinking red wine. You can pick up a cracking bottle for £6 everytime or spend £30 on a great Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In the end the pleasure comes from the exploration rather than the thing itself. And shaving soaps last a lot longer than a bottle of wine. They don't give you a hangover either.

 

[Burundian Hawk]

I think that's the thing. The vast array of interesting scents and tubs with beautiful artwork make shaving soap a very attractive subject. If it can be afforded there are plenty worse things to spend money on. I used to enjoy drinking red wine. You can pick up a cracking bottle for £6 everytime or spend £30 on a great Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In the end the pleasure comes from the exploration rather than the thing itself. And shaving soaps last a lot longer than a bottle of wine. They don't give you a hangover either.

My poison is brushes. Soaps? There are plenty up to say 15 euros to cover variety for long time. The wine you can drink it quickly. By the time you finish the soap, even the most posh soap has become boring. But, to each his own... There is also a matter of life philosophy behind some things. Cheers, sir!

 

[Raven Koenes]

Well, according to a professional theatre critic who watched a production I was in, that's me in THIS life. I got a specific mention in the review in the local press, and was likened strongly to Mr Robinson.

It's a little known fact that all Dutchmen, everywhere, wish they were British. To be specific they wish they were Tony Robinson.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

No shave today, as yesterday's three pass shave didn't recover into anything worth attacking. It was however, my second or third day on the trot of "nearly shopping". In fact I had two bouts of nearly shopping yesterday. By nearly shopping, I mean that thing where you get drawn to a website, add stuff to the basket, but come to your senses, bail out and delete everything at the checkout stage.

Badger brushes seem to be the thing, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't want to go down that route, and yet... I keep looking.

The synthetics I have are great. The back up and travel synthetics are great too. The old boar would be great, if I'd cared for it better, and it hadn't started shedding. It's the Omega Mixed Scritchet (or is it Scritched Midget?) that's tormenting me, even when I'm not using it!

Before I bought it, I wasn't altogether fussed about badger. Boar worked great, synthetics worked great, and badger was an unnecessary rabbit hole. I only bought that, because I needed a new natural brush or a reasonably diminutive knot size, and gullibly went for a mixed construction. Since buying it though, and more specifically, since being disappointed with it, there's a gnawing question of "but what should badger actually feel like?". Logic and listening to everyone on here, tells me the answer to that is to wide and varied to be in any way singular. They're all too different, and that's precisely why I've steered clear in the past. Well, that and the price tags.

It keeps gnawing though. Simpsons Case and Special, both in best badger, have nearly been bought multiple times. Less certainty of scritch, more certainty of scrub... but zero certainty of consistency, and zero confidence that I have received a good representation of the genre. The rim of that rabbit badger hole looks particularly crumbly and unstable, and I have NO wish to be making repeated disappointing purchases. Particularly when they are priced so significantly higher than the brushes I know work so well for me. Even trying one brush, would be no guarantee that another of exactly the same type would feel and perform the same.

What I need to do is reframe it in my mind, and view the Scritchety Scritchmeister as a good representation of the genre. An expensive gamble. Arriving unfinished. Not knowing if I'll even like it for a few weeks or months. More hassle than its probably worth. Unlikely to give me the £xx.xx worth of enjoyment that it actually cost.

That should soothe the itch.

At least for a week or so...

 

[Dovo1695]

By nearly shopping, I mean that thing where you get drawn to a website, add stuff to the basket, but come to your senses, bail out and delete everything at the checkout stage.

I like that term. "Nearly shopping" is a great hobby of mine. If I ever had to pay for the all of the abandoned shopping carts I've left across the interwebs, I would need to find a non-extradition country to hide in.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I like that term. "Nearly shopping" is a great hobby of mine. If I ever had to pay for the all of the abandoned shopping carts I've left across the interwebs, I would need to find a non-extradition country to hide in.

Me too. I'd also probably have about 47 spares of everything I did eventually buy.

 

[Cal]

I like that term. "Nearly shopping" is a great hobby of mine. If I ever had to pay for the all of the abandoned shopping carts I've left across the interwebs, I would need to find a non-extradition country to hide in.

Me too. I'd also probably have about 47 spares of everything I did eventually buy.

You guys are making me feel virtuous.

That's something I hadn't experienced before!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I revisited the Edwin Jagger Aloe Vera mug soap today, to pitch it against the Saponificio Varesino Felce Aromatica, and see where each shone over the other.

The scent is the first thing to note, with the Aloe Vera being barely discernible to my ignorant snout, and the Felce being about the limit of scent strength that I wish to experience during a shave, and bordering on intrusive. The Felce is a very pleasing scent, but the strength may lead me to tire of it sooner than others.

In performance, the Aloe Vera lagged behing the Italian in the first pass, but had comfortably caught up in the second. The third pass is where poorer soaps struggle most, but both of these perform admirably there. As with the previous shave with the Varesino sample, I didn't follow up with any post shave gunk, so I could judge the skin feel on the soap alone. I would say the Italian offering leaves the skin more hydrated than the Brit, but the hydration of the skin after using the Jagger is in no way deficient.

Today's was a great shave. I think they both perform comparably in the shave, with the Felce maybe gainng a point on the post shave feel, but losing it on the scent. Of the two, the Jagger would be the one I'd be most likely to stick with longer for consecutive shaves, largely due to the lighter scent. That said, an occasional shave with the more hydrating Varesino would be most welcome.

A three pack of Jagger soaps, which is 195g of soap, can currently be had for £13 to £15. In comparison, a 150g refill of the Saponificio Varesino is just under double that, and nominally £0.17/g to Jagger's £0.08/g. Not a vast difference in real terms, but as a consumer, I don't think the difference is entirely warranted. I hadn't been overly impressed with the Felce's post shave feel, but returning to the Aloe Vera, the difference is more apparent. That said I don't think it would compare as favourably against The Goodfellas Smile mug soaps, Haslinger Schafmilch, or of course Mitchell's. After comparing them this way round, I find myself right back at the same point as my initial impression. Good soap, verging on very good, but at twice the price I need to pay for a shave of that calibre, I'll still be reaching for something else to put in the basket whenever I need to restock.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Back to the Felce Aromatica today, but this time with the Maggards 22mm synthetic. Loaded with wet soap and dry brush, but I could tell when I took it to the face, it wasn't ready to convert straight away. I've had this with Martin de Candre soap, and ended up giving myself brush burn. Thankfully, I spotted it first, and a few seconds palm lathering was all that was needed to start the process, and avoid irritation.

After that it was a simple two pass shave. Vertical passes only, finished off with a splash of cheap aftershave. Nothing on this shave to significantly change my earlier opinions, so from here on, it's just straight forward shaving with this sample, as I've compared and assessed all I need to. I'm not even going to bother counting the shaves I get off it, but I would expect to be using these three current lather products through till the middle to end of next month. There's probably around the same number of shaves on this sample, as there is left in the Erasmic tube. Maybe 20 each.

 

[Burundian Hawk]

No shave today, as yesterday's three pass shave didn't recover into anything worth attacking. It was however, my second or third day on the trot of "nearly shopping". In fact I had two bouts of nearly shopping yesterday. By nearly shopping, I mean that thing where you get drawn to a website, add stuff to the basket, but come to your senses, bail out and delete everything at the checkout stage.

Badger brushes seem to be the thing, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't want to go down that route, and yet... I keep looking.

The synthetics I have are great. The back up and travel synthetics are great too. The old boar would be great, if I'd cared for it better, and it hadn't started shedding. It's the Omega Mixed Scritchet (or is it Scritched Midget?) that's tormenting me, even when I'm not using it!

Before I bought it, I wasn't altogether fussed about badger. Boar worked great, synthetics worked great, and badger was an unnecessary rabbit hole. I only bought that, because I needed a new natural brush or a reasonably diminutive knot size, and gullibly went for a mixed construction. Since buying it though, and more specifically, since being disappointed with it, there's a gnawing question of "but what should badger actually feel like?". Logic and listening to everyone on here, tells me the answer to that is to wide and varied to be in any way singular. They're all too different, and that's precisely why I've steered clear in the past. Well, that and the price tags.

It keeps gnawing though. Simpsons Case and Special, both in best badger, have nearly been bought multiple times. Less certainty of scritch, more certainty of scrub... but zero certainty of consistency, and zero confidence that I have received a good representation of the genre. The rim of that rabbit badger hole looks particularly crumbly and unstable, and I have NO wish to be making repeated disappointing purchases. Particularly when they are priced so significantly higher than the brushes I know work so well for me. Even trying one brush, would be no guarantee that another of exactly the same type would feel and perform the same.

What I need to do is reframe it in my mind, and view the Scritchety Scritchmeister as a good representation of the genre. An expensive gamble. Arriving unfinished. Not knowing if I'll even like it for a few weeks or months. More hassle than its probably worth. Unlikely to give me the £xx.xx worth of enjoyment that it actually cost.

That should soothe the itch.

At least for a week or so...

I also went "nearly shopping" yesterday! I like this term. I don't want to hijack your journal sir, but, since you are having doubts about badger, allow me to say this. Go to youtube, search for "Yaqi silvertip". There is in particular a user called "sgrddy_shaves" there, who, i suspect is also a member of this forum, since he already got his hands on Mogno soap too. I tell you, the gentleman in the video,describes the brush very well and you can see it in action. If you want more backbone, you may want a Yaqi 2 band, which are also regularly on sale. They even have one right now for €14. A bargain. You won't regret it. I have Simpson Commodore X2 best (and a Simpson pure). Not my amongst my best purchases. YMMV. As someone who has all grades of badgers and many boars, my conclusion was "a badger should feel like a Yaqi silvertip". Alternatively, consider a Vulfix Grosvenor 404 mix badger/boar. I prefer it to my Simpson badgers. A very balanced brush. Happy shaves,sir!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I also went "nearly shopping" yesterday! I like this term. I don't want to hijack your journal sir, but, since you are having doubts about badger, allow me to say this. Go to youtube, search for "Yaqi silvertip". There is in particular a user called "sgrddy_shaves" there, who, i suspect is also a member of this forum, since he already got his hands on Mogno soap too. I tell you, the gentleman in the video,describes the brush very well and you can see it in action. If you want more backbone, you may want a Yaqi 2 band, which are also regularly on sale. They even have one right now for €14. A bargain. You won't regret it. I have Simpson Commodore X2 best (and a Simpson pure). Not my amongst my best purchases. YMMV. As someone who has all grades of badgers and many boars, my conclusion was "a badger should feel like a Yaqi silvertip". Alternatively, consider a Vulfix Grosvenor 404 mix badger/boar. I prefer it to my Simpson badgers. A very balanced brush. Happy shaves,sir!

Thanks for the input, Hawk. If I have another moment of weakness, I might look in that direction. However, with the nearly shopping out of the way, I did some really shopping. Not shave related though, but wallet bruising all the same.

Brain straining too, because of lack of sleep, and today was when everyone wanted to deliver to me.

Due to a restless night, I slept through the first attempted delivery, which was for some hats. I regained a modicum of consciousness with the arrival of the "sorry we missed you" alert on my phone, at 7:30 this morning. It said they'll try again on Monday. That's fair enough.

I poured some rather strong coffee down my throat to wake up a bit more, and managed to stay awake long enough for my fruit and veg delivery which was due to arrive yesterday, but didn't happen on account of being scheduled for delivery on their order system for Jan 1st 1970!!! My father was just a schoolboy then! With the veg order received by 09:30, I felt safe to sleep again. The coffee wasn’t doing much to keep me awake anyway.

I'd just laid back down again when the postman knocked on the door with some books I ordered yesterday. They were supposed to take 3-5 days to arrive, some from the stoor themselves, and others drop shipped from their supplier. It took them 23 hours from payment for the drop shipped items to at my door.

Having been jolted back awake, I decided to get a mug of tea before going back to bed again. I'd just finished that and laid down again, when there was another knock at the door. The second book consignment, almost exactly 24 hours after ordering.

I checked everything was there, and dumped it all back in the box. All the fruit and veg was all still in the crates they came in too, but I way way too tired to worry about that. I flaked out, but managed to wake up in time to go and fetch my prescription from the local pharmacy. I think there's only the hats to arrive now, so should be able to get plenty of sleep, lots of reading, and lots of good eating done over the weekend.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Oh, if anyone's curious about the books, I got four classic literature paperbacks (relevant to a future project), and a number of books listed as psychological thrillers.

The thrillers are for a bit of inspiration as to my own writing, in terms of the technicalities of building and maintaining tensions, and how different authors approach it. So far, my draft version consists mainly of what the characters did, said, and thought. The sensory (sights, sounds, smells, and general atmosphere) aspects of the prose to draw the reader into the setting, is either absent, or only very lightly sketched out.

I'll kind of paint that in afterwards, once I've successfully navigated the characters from the first page to the last. Layering the base structure, then the colours and textures, them the highlights and shadows, seems to be my way. The elequent prose seems to lag some way behind figuring out what the basic mechanics are.

The Dickens and the book of short stories, are as much to submerge myself in perspectives of 19th century life from folks that were there at the time, as they are enjoying the stories and wordplay.

Now that I've started writing, it's affected how I read thing. Kind of one eye on the story, and another on how they have presented it. I wanted new (to me) material from those two specific genres to see how others "play" the reader.