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Noticing quality again — and the Rockwell Model T2
Every now and then I’ll pick up some tool to which I’ve become accustomed and suddenly encounter as if new an appreciation of just how good it is. My awareness of the tool’s excellence becomes dimmed...
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The weekend shave: Lea shaving cream and the Maggard V2OC
This morning I was struck by the realization that I get only one shave for the weekend — I realize that is by choice and habit, not necessity — so I should pay more attention to my choices. The...
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Great shave but forgot one thing
What I forgot is that I was going to use this Edwin Jagger razor for the entire week. I remember halfway through today’s shave. I have now set out the razor for next week, so the experiment will be...
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Nancy Boy and the Mixed Midget, with a Baby Smooth shave
Omega’s Mixed Midget (aka Mighty Midget) is a very good brush whose knot is a combination of badger and boar. The handle is small but the knot is a good size — its loft is greater than the length of...
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Phoenix & Beau Spitfire and RazoRock Lupo get along just fine
Yesterday I received the tub of Phoenix & Beau Spitfire shaving soap that was shipped from the UK on January 17. My Rooney Emilion — which has a very fine silvertip knot with the same hooked tips...
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Phoenix & Beau The Specialist — again, an extra-creamy lather
I want to reprise the Phoenix & Beau experience from yesterday — an exceptionally creamy lather — and to check whether the same would be true for my other P&B soap, The Specialist, an...
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International shave: Italian, English, French
Nationalities, L to R: English, Italian (shaving cream and razor), French In a sense, today’s shave is just a regular workaday shave: not trying any new products, not comparing products or techniques,...
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A honey of a shave
Mystic Water Sardinian Honey is a good shaving soap, though the honey fragrance is light. The lather was excellent, and the knot of my G.B. Kent BK4 Wet Shaving Products Monarch (see comment), a very...
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So-so shave
After my Saturday confusion of brushes, I decided that I would use all my wasp-waist brushes, beginning with this Wet Shaving Products Monarch. This handle is plain white, lacking the grain of the...
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No lather problems and a BBS result
Absolutely no lather problems today, and I like this brush, with its faux-ivory handle (note the grain) better than yesterday’s brush, which is also a WSP Monarch. The soap is Grooming Dept Mallard...
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Rustler’s Ridge with the Kent BK4 and my trusty Edwin Jagger
This morning the G.B. Kent BK4 felt as I expected: much gentler than the Monarch. It loaded well and the lather was silky smooth and reasonably dense with a fine fragrance: Top Notes Madagascar...
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Phoenix Shaving’s Quantum razor and Grooming Dept’s Amber Rose
Grooming Dept Amber Rose is a West Coast Shaving Exclusive, and it has a lovely fragrance: “honey, rose, amber, orris, myrrh, oakmoss, vanilla, benzoin, musk, and patchouli.” It is made with Grooming...
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Quantum Shaves: Yesterday Ω, Today α
I have a twin pair of Prince shaving brushes from Wet Shaving Products, but as you can see in the photo at right, they are fraternal twins. The two-band brush on the left has a slightly chubbier...
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Tobacco is good in a shave
Today I used the 3-band silvertip Prince, and I have to say that I prefer it. It’s not so stiff as the 2-band — more comfortable on my face and, I suspect, with a greater lather capacity. Certainly it...
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Slant razor debate now settled — also, a great shave
Not everyone agrees with my opinion on … well, just about anything. Yet, curiously, I have the feeling that my opinion, based on reading, observation, experience, and considered judgment, is correct....
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The Razor Company’s stainless steel razor and 345 Soap Company’s Aces Over 8s.
Aces over 8s, the dead man’s hand, is (legend would have it) the poker hand held by Wild Bill Hickock, pictured at the right, when he was shot dead in the back of his head in Deadwood, Dakota...
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Lo Haiku and the *true* semi-slant
Phoenix Artisan’s Lo Haiku is here in the CK-6 formulation, and with my Copper Hat shaving brush, it produced the usual exceptional lather. (“Usual exceptional” sounds very like an oxymoron, but you...
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Tallow + Steel Cognac and the superb Stealth slant
Tallow + Steel’s Cognac is a good soap with a satisfying fragrance: “Cognac (38%) | Oakwood (21%) | Vanilla (18%) | Orange (8%) | Tobacco (7%) | Cocoa (6%) | Jasmine (2%).” I easily got a very nice...
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Reader request: Return of the iKon Shavecraft X3
I received a reader request for a shave that features the iKon Shavecraft X3, here shown on the excellent RazoRock stainless-steel Barber Pole handle. I last shaved with this razor on January 30 (this...
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Aces over 8s once more, and a razor discovery
I had to return to 345 Soap Company’s remarkable shaving soap. (As I had assumed, the “345” is the street address — cf. Floris No. 89, TOBS #74, Alpa 378, 4711 cologne, and doubtless others). I used...
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