Yesterday’s shave, which I forgot to blog…

I had an insight about slants, helped by NeedsMoreMenthol. I’ve been asserting that the slanted blade makes a noticeable difference in ease of cutting, but that’s a fallacy: post hoc, ergo propter hoc. It’s true I get exceellent shaves from my slants—extremely comfortable and extremely efficient—but I also get excellent shaves from some non-slants: the iKon Shavecraft #101 (shown in photo above), the Razorock Baby Smooth (no longer made, alas), the Wolfman WR1-SB, the Above the Tie R1, and others. The idea is to choose razors on the basis of feel/comfort and performance/efficiency, and not become sidetracked with the shape of the guard (comb guard or bar guard) or tilt of the blade (slant or non-slant) or overall design (three-piece, two-piece, or TTO).

Thus rather than recommending a general type—a slant, or a comb guard, or a three-piece design—recommend specific razors based on their performance. And when you do that, certain razors rank high, including some slants and some non-slants and including both bar guards and comb guards. The #101 is a high-ranking razor, at least for me.

I do think a slant is worth trying for a man with a cut-resistant beard, but based on the razor’s comfort and efficiency. The slanted blade may or may not contribute to that, but that’s a separate question. The idea is that the #102 is an exceptional razor, however it achieves that.

Yesterday’s shave, with the #101, was excellent. The soap was Meißner’s Indian Flavour, which has a very nice and unusual fragrance and makes a terrific lather. The Omega boar brush in the photo is one of my favorites, but I like a soft brush. I do note that it requires a little longer loading due to the size of the knot, but it makes a fine lather and feels good on my face. (In the first week or two of use, the brush will tend to kill the lather, but that tendency quickly wears away with use.)

Three passes with the #101 and then a good splash of 4711, a citrus-fragranced cologne/aftershave, and I had a fine day.

And above you see today’s shave. I do wet my horsehair brushes well under the hot-water tap before I shower, and when the shower’s done, they are ready for work. Another Meißner soap, Moroccan Rhassoul, again with a very nice and also unusual fragrance. I got a very fine lather, and I love the feel of this brush: it’s not so soft as some, but feels quite “brushy” and good.

The Blackbird today has a longer handle, since I was allowed to exchange the 70mm travel handle for the 101mm regular handle. This one is more comfortable, but I can tell that my ideal handle length turns out to be right around 85mm: just in between.

Today I used a Gillette Silver Blue blade, and the razor’s comfort was noticeably improved. When I removed the Personna Lab Blue I used in the first shave, I discovered that it had broken in half, and that may well have made it somewhat uncomfortable. I’ve never before had a blade break in the razor: a fluke.

I did notice some sharp corners on the Blackbird. I’m not sure whether it’s the corners of cap or guard, but there is a little discomfort, as though some corners need to be rounded.

Still: increased comfort, good performance, and a BBS result with no problems.

A good splash of Anthony Gold’s Red Cedar, and I am ready for another rainy day.

The Strop Shoppe was among the very first of the premium shaving soap artisans to appear. Their packaging has changed over time, and the soaps still are among the best I have. This is an early edition: a Lemon Eucalyptus that has a fine fragrance and a superb lather, worked up this morning with the Plisson synthetic brush shown.

The Baby Smooth will no longer be produced, which is a great shame. It is among the very top tier of razors I’ve tried: extremely comfortable, no inclination at all to nick, and highly efficient. As is usual with this razor, I got a BBS result. If you ever see one on the secondhand market, I highly recommend it.

Three passes, then a splash of Floris JF, and we are getting near the end of the first week of the new year.

Chiseled Face’s Midnight Stag produced a very fine lather with the help of the Rooney Emilion shown, and the Razorock Black Mamba is an excellent razor, both very comfortable and very efficient. I easily achieved a BBS result with no problems. If Razorock is unwilling to produce their razors in sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand, then I wish they would license the production to some manufacturer willing to do it, accepting some sort of royalty. But there may be more involved than meets the eye.

A good splash of Ogallala Bay Rum + Sandalwood, and the week draws to a close.

It was a fine shave, and I have a couple of comments on it. The Razorock “synthetic badger” brush shown is a truly excellent brush; I see no reason why, at this point, synthetics will not in time dominate the market: excellent performance, wonderful feel, and low price. I do understand the attraction of natural fibers, but the day of synthetics is dawning.

I got my immediate great lather from Otoko Organics, and I am still puzzled by why it presents problems to some. I received from a blog reader this email that comments on the issue:

Some feedback on the Otoko. I’ve been following the various discussions around success/failure with it. I was on the failure side for the first three shaves. I couldn’t coax any lather out of it even following your instruction to shake the brush well. I tried coarser brushes (boar) and softer brushes (Plisson) to no avail. I tried adding a little water to the brush. Nada.  The only positive thing I could say was that the Otoko produced such a slippery lather (what little there was) that it gave an OK shave anyway.

Then a breakthrough as a result of desperation. After working the soap for a few swishes with the shaken brush, I added some water directly to the soap (not to the brush) and swished some more. Boom. Beautiful lather. Added some more water directly to the soap. Even more lather. I found I had to repeat this with each pass/rinse, but the end result was a consistently nice later, very slippery and lubricating. And with the IKON 102 Slant, a terrific shave.

YMMV is a fickle mistress.

Knowing what I now know, I would have been somewhat more measured in my appreciation of Otoko Organics. It’s for me a wonderful soap, but I have to recognize the struggle that others have reported.

I did three very easy, very smooth passes with the Stealth—another razor whose design I wish Razorock would license to others so that more could have access—and easily got a BBS result. The Stealth is another product with which some have reported difficulty. Apparently it requires using a very precise angle, and if you use a different angle it will not cut (instead of, for example, suddenly nicking you).

Some really do not like a razor that requires such precise angle control and want a razor that allows a greater range of angles to be used. One person said that he disliked the Stealth because he did not want training wheels for his razor, assuming somehow that requiring precise angle control was beginner stuff, and that razors that allowed a certain amount of slop in the angle were more suitable for experts. This seems exactly the opposite of what I would expect—and indeed in what the same person says about the Mühle R11: he praises that razor because if you don’t use just the right angle, you will probably get a cut. This, he says, helps novices learn good technique. I suspect novices would probably prefer a razor that, when you drifted from the correct angle, didn’t start cutting you but instead stopped cutting altogether.

Oddly, I’ve never had any problem in finding the correct angle with the Stealth: the sound and feel of the razor provide clear guidance. OTOH, I’ve also never had any problem with Otoko Organics, and I have to recognize that it doesn’t work well for some.

Today is a big day: The Wife and I are going up to San Francisco to have dinner with The Younger Daughter at Zuni Cafe. She is in town for a Classics conference, and it will be good to see her.

I was going through old files and found this copy of a Wicked_Edge post I made in April 2012:

I got to thinking about a comment another subscriber made, about the frequency and number of the “OMG” posts from newbies doing their first shave. First, the number is probably in part because of rapid growth (around 3,500 in October, and 12,575 today, not five months later) and also a good “closing the loop” response: the newbie gets encouragement and advice here, goes away to try it, and returns to report and thank us. That’s good. The rapid growth is probably a characteristic of the word-of-mouth way the information is spread: if one new traditional shaver convinces his friends to try it, and they convince theirs, then exponential growth sets in. (See subscriber figures above.) The acknowledgements also stem in part from this: when you get information via word-of-mouth, you feel you owe someone a thank-you when the information works out.

But as I pondered it, it struck me that perhaps something else is afoot. In addition to the delight of discovering something that’s really good, newbies also have to deal with their simultaneous discovery that what they’ve been repeatedly told, through Gillette marketing (and from the mouths of respected sports figures) that the new Fusion/whatever razor is the very best way to shave: comfortable, close shaves that feel good and are kind to your skin. The ads are ubiquitous, and when the newbie tries traditional wetshaving and discovers from his own immediate direct experience that he has been lied to for years, it’s something that he naturally wants to talk about.

For one thing, his experience is totally at variance with everything the ads have told him about how the Fusion/whatever is the greatest—it’s not only untrue, but based upon his own direct and immediate experience, it’s obviously untrue. And all the money spent for cartridges hurts, and all the shaves that provided no enjoyment hurt.

So the newbie needs someplace to go to talk about it as part of validating the experience and understanding that, yes, he’s right, it really is better and all his prior beliefs, based upon those ads, were wrong.

I think the impact is much greater because the difference is discovered not be reading a news story or a study that contradicts statements made by another party—the difference is discovered by comparing his own experience with cartridge/canned-foam shave with his own experience with traditional shaves. It becomes his own knowledge, not knowledge accepted from another source. So it hits harder.

As a result, he returns to WE to confirm that, yes, this really is better

Per a reader request, I’m comparing QED’s soap to the Eufros soap made by Jabonman in Spain. Since the Satin Tip brushes are identical save for color, they are ideal for such comparisons.

Loading the Eufros soap was a snap, but in loading the QED I quickly detected the presence of clay in the ingredients, since it required a couple of driblets of additional water. Now that I have some experience with soaps using clay, I can more easily see and understand what’s happening when the soap shows a slight reluctance to load, and I know how to handle it.

I actually did not recall for sure whether QED soaps contain clay, though it sure seemed like it, so I checked just before writing this. Yep: ingredients are:

shea butter, kokum butter, palm oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, apricot kernel oil, jojoba oil, vegetable glycerin, and clay

You may detect that QED doesn’t use a waterproof label. In case you are unable to read it, the soap I used is his Mint Zest, which uses spearmint, orange, and lavender essential oils, which (he writes) “not only provide a subtle delightful scent but are purported to be antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and toning.” I do like the fragrance.

This tub of Eufros is his vetiver fragrance, which I like a lot. I would rate both soaps excellent in the quality of the lather, once you take into account the presence of clay in the QED soap and thus the requirement for a little more water in the loading.

So far as glide and slickness, I really could not detect any significant difference with the razor I used today, the Stealth stainless steel. This razor is hefty and cuts easily, so it easily moved through the lather and over my beard. After three passes I had an exceptional BBS result, with no trace of a nick.

A good splash of Fine’s Clean Vetiver, a favorite aftershave, and the week begins.

A very nice shave today. Wet Shaving products makes two soaps, a vegan soap (a Martin de Candre shavealike) and this shea butter and tallow soap, Formula T, whose ingredients are:

stearic acid, water, tallow, coconut oil, potassium hydroxide, glycerin, butyrospermum parkii (Shea butter), fragrance, & sodium hydroxide. Free of synthetic dyes & preservatives.

The soap makes a really superb lather—indeed, the two WSP soaps are really top-notch—and it was easy to load the Omega brush shown. (Since it’s boar, I wet the knot well before I showered and let the brush stand on its base, dripping wet, during my shower.) No clay in the ingredients, which makes the loading somewhat easier.

The Above the Tie R1, riding on the UFO handle shown, did a really fine job. For me, that particular baseplate is spot on. Three passes to a fine result, with no problems at all.

Consistent with the tobacco them, I end the shave with a splash of Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements Cavendish aftershave, which has an excellent fragrance.

A great way to start the day.

I’m selling another razor on eBay (listing). It’s really a fine razor, but I have another Wolfman Razor and I’m trying to shrink the collection. (It also seems a bit greedy to have two when they are so difficult to procure: the BBS-1 is very seldom available, and Wolfman Razors has a backlog of orders so the wait times are severe.

Extremely good shave: iKon has another great razor in the Shavecraft Short Comb ($40 for the head, at the link). Highly recommended.

However, it’s best to start with the prep. The Razorock angel-hair synthetic is somewhat larger knot (24mm, and 22mm is my preferred choice, or even 20mm), but with sufficient loft so that the knot has good “give” and does not poke at your face, as it would with a shorter loft. (Dense knots with short loft have a lot of what people call “backbone,” and those are not pleasant to use, IMO: they have little “give,” and don’t feel soft on the face.)

I quickly got an excellent lather from Shaver Heaven’s Oatmeal Stout, which (like the brush) is vegan—so this is a vegan shave. I like the fragrance of this shaving soap—maybe I should do another beer fragrance tomorrow.

The iKon Shavecraft Short Comb head here rides on the Above the Tie Kronos handle, a very nice handle indeed: a crisp knurling that is not so sharp-pointed as to be aggressive. The end of the handle is rounded, so you cannot stand the razor on the end of the handle (as for a photo), but in practical terms, that matters not at all.

Three very easy and smooth passes left a BBS result. I got one tiny nick when I placed the razor onto my face at just the wrong angle (at a spot just above my upper lip on the right side, where this has happened before). It was quite small, and pressing the alum block for about 20 seconds against the nick after the shave sealed it easily.

A good splash of D.R. Harris Pink After Shave, and the task was complete—until tomorrow.

I am really impressed by both of the shaving soaps—the vegan Rustic and the tallow Formula T—from Wet Shaving Products, and Rustic soaps are available in 1-oz tins, as shown in the photo: a good way to try it out (and have a soap for travel).

I got another wonderful lather. I’ve heard from Strop Shoppe that vanilla fragrance can cause the soap to darken somewhat, as this soap has, but with no diminution of performance or fragrance.

The Eclipse Red Ring (the one in the photo has been replated in rhodium) is a very nice razor indeed. I easily got a BBS result with no problems at all.

A little splash of Truefitt & Hill’s Trafalgar as an aftershave, and the day is launched.

An extremely enjoyable—and good—shave this morning.

When I go for a horsehair brush, I find that I almost always pick this particular Vie-Long brush, to the point that I think I should probably sell the others to free up some brush-shelf space. The others are quite good, but something about this handle and knot seem to appeal to me. I do wet the knot well under the hot-water tap before I shower, so that the brush softens before use.

The brush generated a very fine lather indeed from Meißner Tremonia’s Black Beer No. 1 shaving soap. I did have to add one driblet of water during loading to fill the brush fully, but then the lather was perfect.

The razor is the flat-bottomed Gillette Tech, which I learned about just a while ago from NeedsMoreMenthol. I’ve angled the razor so you can see the bottom—the top looks like any other Tech. Not only does the baseplate have a flat bottom, it is also substantially thicker than the regular Tech baseplate—just estimating by eye it’s more than twice as thick.

The shave was superb: extremely comfortable and an absolutely first-rate BBS result, with no problems at all.

A good splash of Geo. F. Trumper Spanish Leather, and the week ends on a high note. (Plus bacon for breakfast, in the oven now.)

An interesting infographic from Prim & Prep:

An extremely fine shave today, and I must start using Nancy Boy Shave Cream more regularly—and a good New Year’s resolution for you, if you’ve not tried it, is to get at least a travel jar of Nancy Boy Shave Cream sometime this year. I highly recommend the Signature fragrance. The full size costs less per ounce, of course, but not a lot less: $3.17/oz instead of $3.50/oz.

The lather is excellent and the fragrance is compelling. It’s somewhat cooling, but from peppermint rather than menthol. Ingredients:

Distilled water, potassium stearate, sodium myristate, sodium stearate, glycerin, coconut oil, essential oil fragance, organic aloe leaf juice, avocado oil, allantoin, pistachio nut oil, extracts of yarrow, burdock, calendula, chamomile, bitter orange, sea kelp, elder flower, comfrey and cucumber, methyl gluceth-20, polyquaternium-7, sorbic acid, hydroxyethylcellulose, vitamin E.

I worked up a very nice lather using the Rod Neep brush shown, a one-off, and then set to work with the Maggard open-comb head on a Maggard stainless handle, which has displaced the Parker 24C in my affections: same excellent shave with a better handle at the same price. (The handle in the photo is their MR7, currently out of stock but on order.)

Three passes to a flawless and trouble-free BBS result, then a small squirt of Esbjerge aftershave gel—and this time I was careful not to do a full squirt, but only a tiny squirt, which was ample.

A great start to the weekend. And if you try the Nancy Boy Shave Cream, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.

“Full Cavendish” because Cavendish shaving soap and Cavendish aftershave. How To Grow A Moustache traded its awkwardly long name for Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements—still a mouthful, but generally abbreviated as PAA.

I used the Fine Classic 20mm synthetic, a favorite brush now. I like a brush that feels on the face like a cloud of lather: soft, warm, and yielding. Some like a brush with a lot of backbone, that pokes at the face, but not me. And the Fine Classic is an extremely efficient brush: it worked up a great lather very easily, helped to some degree by the large working surface of the 5″ puck. The Cavendish aroma definitely comes through.

The #102 did three easy passes to a perfect BBS finish. Indeed, my face was largely BBS after the second pass: it’s an extremely efficient razor, but also highly comfortable and smooth shaving.

A good splash of PAA’s Cavendish aftershave and the week is launched with a holiday.

I continue to pare down the collection, so I am reluctantly selling my Wilkinson “Sticky.” I believe the design looks like something by Raymond Loewy, but it is in fact by Sir Kenneth Henry Grange, CBE, PPFCSD, RDI, and was patented in 1968. (See this post for more information, including the original 1968 patent.) The razor did win several design awards when it came out in the 1960s, right about the time that Wilkinson Sword DE blades started to eat Gillette’s lunch. (Wilkinson pioneered the use of coatings for the new stainless steel blades, which made all the difference in the world: the uncoated stainless blades sold by Gillette were rough and harsh in comparison, and ultimately Gillette had to license the coating technology from Wilkinson, which gave Gillette the push to bring out the multiblade cartridge razor, starting with just two blades: technology that Gillette owned and patented.)

From the Wikipedia article on Grange:

One quality of much of Grange’s design work is that it is not based on just the styling of a product. His design concepts arise from a fundamental reassessment of the purpose, function and use of the product. He has also said that his attitude to designing any product is that he wants it to be “a pleasure to use”. Grange was a pioneer of user-centred design, in seeking to eliminate what he sees as the “contradictions” inherent in products that fail to embody ease-of-use.

Grange designed products with the goal that the product should be  pleasure to use, and with this razor he definitely met the goal.

My visit to Victoria resulted in three shaving purchases shown in the photo.

The Copper Hat has its own line of brushes, and that’s one of them. The handle is made of Delrin™, a plastic dense and tough enough to be used for gears, and the silvertip knot is soft and resilient at once.

The soap has a very nice fragrance and seems exceptionally hard. At first it seems that the brush is doing nothing, but soon the loading is visible, though with little lather on the soap. I add just a little water and load some more, and it does fine. The lather is not quite so dense as with some soaps, but quite workable.

I am still becoming accustomed to my Blackbird razor, and I have resisted taking a honing stone to the sharp corners, though that may happen in time. I still don’t find it a fully comfortable razor, and in particular the XTG pass seems challenging, but it is undoubtedly efficient. I got a BBS result with no nicks by shaving with some care. I feel the blade’s edge distinctly with this razor, and I do not get the feeling that I could not nick myself if I tried—more a feeling that if I don’t shave carefully, I will nick myself, though to be fair I have not yet had a nick from the razor in three shaves. More shaves are needed to get comfortable with it. It will probably appear again this week.

The big discovery was the Anthony Gold Red Cedar aftershave. The brush is remarkably good, but good silvertip brushes are not particularly rare—I have several, in fact—whereas aftershave with a good clear red-cedar fragrance are uncommon. This one has the fragrance and in addition feels good on the face—i.e., there’s more to it than water, alcohol, and fragrance. Quite nice.

It’s raining cats and dogs here, a welcome experience.

The Rooney Style 2 Finest is one of my favorite brushes despite its asymmetrical knot, and the fragrance of the vintage Lenthéric is absolutely wonderful and it produces a lather as good and rich and luxurious as the fragrance.

I have found that I like the Standard head on a somewhat heavier handle, and this intriguing Wolfman handle fills the bill very nicely: three passes, no problems, BBS result.

A good “splash” (several sprays into the palm of my hand) of Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit as an aftershave, and we’re already half through the week.

It’s listed here. It’s in current production, so lacks the rarity factor of the vintage Wilkinson “Sticky” I recently listed. But it’s a well-made razor, hefty and efficient.

When I decided to use Maggard Razors Chai Tea shaving soap, the word “tea” triggered memories of the tea shops The Wife and I visited in Victoria, and so I decided to go all British: Simpson Emperor 3 Super Badger brush, one of the several Gillette British Aristocrat razors, and Mr. Taylor’s “A Gentleman’s Aftershave Lotion.”

I got a very fine lather quite easily, and the British Aristocrat shown (and I have another Aristocrat identical to the one shown except it has a comb guard in place of this one’s bar guard) gave a very fine and efficient shave indeed: BBS in three passes, and with total comfort and no nicks. A good splash of Mr. Taylor’s aftershave, and I’m ready for the day.

And the great news:

Not only is Fine Accoutrements coming out with a slant (6-8 weeks from now: for St. Patrick’s Day, perhaps?), but Fine notes:

All the cutting geometry is an exact match to the [Merkur – LG] White Bakelite Slant, we just removed the boxy underside, updated the handle design, and utilized a less brittle material. As a result, The parts from the Superlite are 100% interchangeable with the original (even the screw post and threaded insert are the same).

I replied:

Wonderful. I’ll note for others that because a slant cuts so easily/efficiently, a light weight works fine. (Head mass helps a conventional razor, which cuts with compressive rather than shearing force.)

In fact, I find the Merkur white bakelite slant a tad better than the Razorock Stealth, which is based on that design with some modifications (with the result that the cutting angle is somewhat different, among other things). That this is an exact copy of the white bakelite slant is wonderful, and the fact that the plastic used is not so brittle as bakelite is also very good news.

An extremely smooth shave today. Fine’s Classic synthetic brush is becoming a favorite, and it worked up a very satisfying lather from my Floris No. 89 (pre-reformulation) shaving soap. As is typical of synthetic brushes, this one will harbor a lot of water, which can spoil the loading unless you shake the brush free of excess water: two good shakes this morning.

The iKon S3S is a massive razor that is both extremely comfortable and extremely efficient. The head mass helps drive the blade’s edge so that for a conventional razor the cutting is quite smooth and easy. Although one often feels that the first pass, WTG, does not do much, with this razor the first pass is noticeably productive and the stubble is significantly reduced. By the second pass, most of my face felt BBS when I rinsed, and the final pass left everything smooth.

A good splash of Floris No. 89 aftershave, and we are on the verge of the weekend. Ginger Honey Chicken Wings for dinner.

Update: Missing “not” added; thanks, Craig.