Hey you heavy handle boys! 'You tryin' ta tell me I'm outa' control?... I do certainly feel more in control of the heavier Jagger than my other DE razors though.
Loaded razor head 30.7g, olive wood handle 12.8g, total razor loaded weight 43.5g.
Hey you heavy handle boys! 'You tryin' ta tell me I'm outa' control?... I do certainly feel more in control of the heavier Jagger than my other DE razors though.
My inexpensive kitchen scales (courtesy of AliExpress) weigh to one decimal place.I've only got kitchen scales. No decimal points here
But I did use my "calibrateable" scale for the weights above. In general I like to simply round the weights to the nearest whole number... but decided to go to one decimal place as your standard DE blade weighs 0.5g.You and your fancy scales, @Cal
Two passes or four? You choose!
Two for me please, no question!
I was asking how many mine qualified as, not what you prefer
Wickhams 1912 are absolutely brilliant shaving soaps. You'll see the more you dial them in.Eng. Wilk. Shave 11
Edwin Jagger DE3D14
Wickhams 1912 Irish Fern sample. Shave 1
Maggards synthetic brush
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There's a pre-existing pattern with any soaps/creams that Mike @Esox recommends. If he lathers it thin, I have to run it richer than normal to get it to perform.
This was no exception.
I lathered up the Wickhams as I normally would Mitchell's or Palmolive, and it felt very tuggy, with no lubrication on the face. I've been here before, and went back to the soap. With a slightly richer lather, the performance was much better, though the cushion was fending off a little, and impeding closeness. I went for three passes, but had to follow up with a fair bit of lather free touch up against the grain.
The passes with lather were very comfortable, but I think I might need to run it richer yet, in order to be comfortable shaving with residual slickness only. That said, what I ended up with, was very close and very comfortable. Overall, a thoroughly decent shave for the first try, and I think I like this concoction better than other lather recommendations I've taken from Mike.
There is a qualifier needed here though. There was a fair bit of residue on the paper this sample came wrapped in, as though some oils had been lost, so this might not be exactly as per the parent soap. My other Wickhams samples are in small tubs, so they might lather slightly differently.
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The scent was pleasant, and paired well with the Superdrug Forest Fresh I followed up with. The soap being a little brighter than the aftershave I think. Regular readers will know I'm not really a fan of scents, but the Irish Fern was pleasant and not overwhelming or disctracting. I'm certainly happy to continue with this sample, but it's not a game changer. It's a very welcome detour from my usual soap, but wouldn't replace Mitchell's long term.
Wickhams 1912 are absolutely brilliant shaving soaps. You'll see the more you dial them in.
I tend to load Wickham fairly heavy and then end up adding quite a lot of water. If I dont have enough water theres way to much cushion but as long as I load it heavily enough, I cant add to much water. The more I add, the thinner and slicker the lather becomes.
Ah, that probably puts us on a more even keel with this one, as I didn't load heavy at all first off.
I don’t have Wickham’s 1912 Club Cola (yet!), but get the same learning opportunity using KMF shaving cream: One pump of cream from the bottle can be easily watered past the point of slickness. Add another third to half of a pump on top of that and gets slicker as it gets thinner.
Then at another point, I painted with pressure to release more of the lather that was getting locked in the brush, and water ran down the handle. What...?
It just wasn't incorporating properly.
Most likely not. Like Rave said, it can take a bit to dial in. Another reason I dont like sample size soaps/creams. As a way of deciding on the scent their fine for me, but to learn to get the performance I want from them, only Stirling makes large enough samples for that, that I've tried anyway.
Thats a result of too much water in the knot before loading. As you load, the soap traps the water lower in the knot and it stays there until you start lathering but doesnt mix, mostly because of gravity.
That happens to me sometimes too with my Maggard. When it does, I set the brush knot down while I shave first pass. That gives the excess water time to soak into the lather that has been made and then it gets thoroughly mixed when I lather for a second pass.
This is why I've said to start loading a synthetic mostly dry. I just dip the tips enough to give them some glide over the soap as I load it and I may do that twice. That way, theres no water that can be trapped in the base of the knot. Then I just add water in a little at a time until my lather is how I want it.
For me, how representative the sample is of the full soap, is totally irrelevant. I won't be buying the full soap anyway
Samples are enough to give me a bit of variety. Trying to get variety with full soaps, would lead to me getting frustrated with having too much soap. The one soap for home, one soap for travel, and a few samples for a bit of novelty, is a level I'm happy with. Introducing another full soap would be too much. I've been there before, and wasn't happy.
That said, this sample might work a lot better now the brushes have been shampooed.
Nice try, Mike, but I only dip the tips, and the brush goes on a stand, bristles down, between passes
That's why I'm currently blaming the lanolin clogging up the innards, and not letting the bristles move around each other as freely as they should.
I have now, I think...5 or 6 soaps and 2 creams in rotation. Three are Rose because I wanted to find the one I liked best and have, CRS. The others will slowly get used up and not replaced.
I'll worry about it then but I do find myself a bit bored with, really, only 4 different scents across so many soaps/creams. I'd like a bit more variety but I dont need it.
If you only dip the tips and the brush rests while shaving tips down, how does water get to the base of the knot? It doesnt run uphill!
Some soaps can be difficult to wash completely out of a brush. Wickham being one of those that is and CRS is worse.