First, a comment on the Brent ebony-handled brush. This has a knot similar to that in my Strop Shopee snakewood brush: very soft and fluffy. I realized that I was not exploiting that characteristic—these brushes don’t feel so firm on the face as my other silvertips, and I had sort of bypassed them in the daily shave until I realized: wait—what if I accepted the brush on its own terms and used it for what it is, rather than comparing it to its siblings. And when I approached the snakewood brush with that mindset, I realized what an excellent brush it is: very soft on the face, holding a ton of lather, and extraordinarily pleasant to use. So, too, with this ebony brush. Once I understood, “Yes, this is a soft brush. Go for it,” I found that I really liked the brush. I expect you’ll be seeing more of both in the future. (And, BTW, Brent is very good to work with, and it’s cool to have a hand-crafted brush.)
Doug of How To Grow A Moustache (HTGAM, pronounced (I believe) “hot-gam”) send me a complimentary soap and aftershave, and so I naturally tried. them. The first thing one notices is the soap’s packaging: a flat tin 5″ in diameter, almost like soap in a Petri dish. I was intrigued, and on using it I discovered that this unusual shape is absolutely terrific for loading the brush. In fact, I would expect to see other shaving soaps copy this format—I truly enjoyed loading the brush with the greater real estate available. As readers of my book (or Wicked_Edge comments) know, I use a sopping wet brush when I start loading. The larger surface made it easier to use the water, working it back into the developing (and superb) lather.
I was taken totally by surprise by this big, flat puck, but after I’ve used it, I love it. It helps that the soap is excellent in itself. The ingredients: Bay Rum, Kokum Butter, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerine. The bay rum scent is evident, though I imagine these ingredients are not listed in order of volume/weight. At any rate, the lather is everything you could ask (and the price, IMO, cannot hold at that level, so stock up now).
Three smooth passes with the Feather AS-D1 holding a new Feather blade. I used the razor to test the assumption made in this comment, specifically:
I do straight razor shaving but some days will use a DE to do a final ATG pass for an extra-smooth shave. The AS-D2 is great for this, it’s almost impossible to make it irritate your skin, however I don’t think I would use the AS-D2 as a primary razor. I wouldn’t want to use it if I had anything more than one day of stubble; I’m not sure it would get through a beard.
I misread this to mean that he had actually tried shaving a multi-day stubble with the AS-D2 and found the razor didn’t work. When I commented requesting more information, he pointed out my misreading, but I still wanted to try it to re-verify my previous experience.
This is another example of the downside of making judgments on experiences you’ve yet to have: people in general (including me) are terrible at predicting accurately what untried experiences will be like. We all know of things we dreaded that turned out to be not bad or even enjoyable, or things we eagerly anticipated that turned out to fall flat or were even horrible, and yet we still automatically assume that we can know in advance what we’ll think of something we’ve not tried. A common example: the child who refuses to taste a food because s/he knows that it will taste bad. Indeed, in today’s shave although I didn’t judge in advance the large flat puck, I certainly would not have predicted that it would work so very well.
At any rate, I think that many shavers don’t realize that a razor can be both extremely comfortable and also highly efficient. They are stuck on judging on a linear scale from “mild” to “aggressive,” with the latter cutting well (and feeling perhaps a little harsh) and the former being very comfortable but not cutting well. The models for this usage are the Weishi (mild) and the Mühle 2011 R41 open-comb (aggressive).
But I believe this usage conflates two ideas: comfort and efficiency. The Weishi is comfortable and inefficient and the R41 (for me) is uncomfortable and efficient. But it you allow the two characteristics to be independent, you have four possibilities:
Comfortable and efficient: the Feather AS-D1/2, the Slant, the iKon razors.
Comfortable and inefficient: the Weishi, the Gillette Tech (at least for me)
Uncomfortable and efficient: the Mühle R41
Uncomfortable and inefficient: these don’t hang around long, for obvious reasons, but some cheap knock-offs would fall here.
At any rate, I had no problems whatsoever cutting a two-day stubble with the Feather razor. It’s fearsomely efficient while being totally comfortable. Indeed, I was almost BBS after the second pass. And “being comfortable” means this razor rarely nicks and never produces razor burn (unless, I suppose, you really work at it, pressing as hard as you can with a steep angle).
Doug’s aftershave is witch-hazel based, which doesn’t have the cooling and quick-drying effect of alcohol-based aftershaves, but very pleasant withal and provides the skin benefits of witch hazel in lieu of the skin drawbacks of alcohol. I got a little hit of a gingerbread fragrance, but my nose is not to be trusted. The ingredients: Witch Hazel, Rum, Rose Water, Neem Oil, Glycerin, Bay Leaves, Allspice Berries, Fresh Ginger, Cinnamon Stick, Vanilla Bean, Orange Zest. Hmm. I had not looked at the ingredients until now, but I can see where the gingerbread aspect comes from.
Altogether a very fine shave. Thanks to Doug for the gift, and thanks to Brent for making a fine brush. I think I may have to buy more of his work.
Filed under: Shaving
