A very smooth finish to the shave today. As you see, the Blackbird has landed, including a tub of soap.
I used my brush from The Copper Hat, and as I loaded, I found I needed to add small amounts of water 3 or 4 times in the course of loading to get sufficient soap into the brush. After the shave I checked, and the soap does include Bentonite clay. It seems that soaps containing clay do require more water worked in during the loading.
Clay or not, the soap is quite good: a very nice lather indeed, and a distinct and pleasant fragrance. I could not identify it exactly, but ouzo came to mind. The lather was rich, thick, and lasting, and provided good glide.
The razor has excellent heft—it’s machined from stainless steel. The black finish looks good to my eye and seems as though it will last: not a coating on the metal so much as a coloring of the metal. The 70mm (3.54″) handle is a trifle short for my taste—I should have opted for the longer handle (101mm, 3.97″)—but it works fine and feels quite good. The handle is fluted, a design style I like a lot. (The Apollo Mikron and the Progress also have fluted handles, though the fluting on the Blackbird is more distinct.)
There’s a lot of blade feel—the edge of the blade is distinctly present. It seems somewhat like Fatip with a bar guard instead of a comb guard. I did not get any nicks or cuts, but it felt as though that were a distinct possibility. I would guess that this razor has a fair amount of blade exposure. The result was a highly alert shave that left a BBS result. I would rate it as being highly efficient but only moderately comfortable, verging on uncomfortable. Still, it might well be something that you can get used to, and I know that many really like the feel the presence of the blade’s edge: NeedsMoreMenthol, for example, routinely shims his razors to get more blade feel.
A good splash of D.R. Harris Arlington to finish the shave. I think it’s a good omen for the first shave of the year to be nick-free and BBS. :)
Black-eyed peas are soaking, and I think I’m going to cook them with mustard greens and a smoked ham shank. This recipe, more or less.
Filed under: Shaving
