Yeah a 30 ml syringe will probably fill about 40 cartridges. LOL
A journal of a Cajun's life wet shaving
- Thread starter cajunrph
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #1,422
It did make quick work of filling the LAMY converter. Haha.
You might have had a difficult time to control it and not over fill it and have an ink volcano on your hands.
- Thread starter
- #1,424
The ole reflexes were still sharp yesterday.
- Thread starter
- #1,425
300+ Shaves in 2024 80 of 300+
March GRUME 24/31
Shave Date 3/26/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable TTO
Blade: Tiger Platinum(5)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Saponificio Varesino Opuntia Special Edition 2018
Brush: Zenith Unbleached Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, S/V Opuntia SE 2018 A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 8 for smoothness, neck stubble, just shy of DFS+++ face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
Last shave for the Tiger, did it bite me like predicted, did it give its best shave yet? Nope on both questions. No blood today, yet some irritation as I attempted to get BBS with just the three passes plus two clean-up passes. It seems the edge is falling off in sharpness, as after the first three passes more sea lion fur was left around here and there. The two clean-up passes did help moderately.
I wouldn't call the Tiger a success, but in a way, it is, as some here feared the Tiger would be like this:
When in fact the Tiger was more like this:
But that second cat is deceiving. She lies in wait, ready to ambush any poor unsuspecting soul who dares to get close enough to her. In fact on the day I took that picture, she decided I had pet her enough and hung a few teeth in my hand. Just so I knew who the boss was. But much like the Tiger Platinum, those teeth didn’t hurt much. And no blood was drawn.
The Tiger for me is a meh blade. An ok blade, not terrible but not good either. For me, one tuck is enough and may very well last a lifetime as my superpower is to ignore open tucks and head to the next one. The next shave will either be a KCG or Sharks. I pulled them both out this morning in anticipation of tomorrow's shave.
On the fountain front, I brought Noodlers 54th Massachusetts in the Jinhao 86 to the store to see how it would do on the paper here. Nope. It bled through the multipurpose paper we predominately use at the store. Back to the house it goes. I also received the haul of inks from Pure Pens in the UK. Feast your eyes on this.
Pure Pens People’s Charter, Pure Pens King Charles III Coronation Blue, Pure Pens John Frost, Pure Pens Cadwaladr, Pure Pens Westgate Hotel, Robert Oster Fire and Ice and Diamine Writers Blood. Yep, the fountain pen ink rabbit hole is deep. I have Boris (@blethenstrom) to thank for this. And I do thank him. I spent most of the night trying out the inks with the dip pen, which left something to be desired but gave me an idea of what they’d look like in a pen.
‘Tis all for today, I gotta head back to work. I wish all a blessed Tuesday, and may all your shaves be the best.
March GRUME 24/31
Shave Date 3/26/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable TTO
Blade: Tiger Platinum(5)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Saponificio Varesino Opuntia Special Edition 2018
Brush: Zenith Unbleached Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, S/V Opuntia SE 2018 A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 8 for smoothness, neck stubble, just shy of DFS+++ face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
Last shave for the Tiger, did it bite me like predicted, did it give its best shave yet? Nope on both questions. No blood today, yet some irritation as I attempted to get BBS with just the three passes plus two clean-up passes. It seems the edge is falling off in sharpness, as after the first three passes more sea lion fur was left around here and there. The two clean-up passes did help moderately.
I wouldn't call the Tiger a success, but in a way, it is, as some here feared the Tiger would be like this:
When in fact the Tiger was more like this:
But that second cat is deceiving. She lies in wait, ready to ambush any poor unsuspecting soul who dares to get close enough to her. In fact on the day I took that picture, she decided I had pet her enough and hung a few teeth in my hand. Just so I knew who the boss was. But much like the Tiger Platinum, those teeth didn’t hurt much. And no blood was drawn.
The Tiger for me is a meh blade. An ok blade, not terrible but not good either. For me, one tuck is enough and may very well last a lifetime as my superpower is to ignore open tucks and head to the next one. The next shave will either be a KCG or Sharks. I pulled them both out this morning in anticipation of tomorrow's shave.
On the fountain front, I brought Noodlers 54th Massachusetts in the Jinhao 86 to the store to see how it would do on the paper here. Nope. It bled through the multipurpose paper we predominately use at the store. Back to the house it goes. I also received the haul of inks from Pure Pens in the UK. Feast your eyes on this.
Pure Pens People’s Charter, Pure Pens King Charles III Coronation Blue, Pure Pens John Frost, Pure Pens Cadwaladr, Pure Pens Westgate Hotel, Robert Oster Fire and Ice and Diamine Writers Blood. Yep, the fountain pen ink rabbit hole is deep. I have Boris (@blethenstrom) to thank for this. And I do thank him. I spent most of the night trying out the inks with the dip pen, which left something to be desired but gave me an idea of what they’d look like in a pen.
‘Tis all for today, I gotta head back to work. I wish all a blessed Tuesday, and may all your shaves be the best.
Oh yes the rabbit hole is deep on this one. The inks you can use with crappy paper are usually a bit of a chase. There are just a handful that do really well. Most people like wet flowy inks and such for their fountain pens. I say you need to forget about those for crappy paper. Unfortunately, you have to do to drier inks meaning they put less ink on the paper. They need to be slower drying inks (I know sounds counterintuitive) also smaller nibbed pens are a must. Yes it is a lot of limitations.300+ Shaves in 2024 80 of 300+
March GRUME 24/31
Shave Date 3/26/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable TTO
Blade: Tiger Platinum(5)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Saponificio Varesino Opuntia Special Edition 2018
Brush: Zenith Unbleached Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, S/V Opuntia SE 2018 A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 8 for smoothness, neck stubble, just shy of DFS+++ face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
Last shave for the Tiger, did it bite me like predicted, did it give its best shave yet? Nope on both questions. No blood today, yet some irritation as I attempted to get BBS with just the three passes plus two clean-up passes. It seems the edge is falling off in sharpness, as after the first three passes more sea lion fur was left around here and there. The two clean-up passes did help moderately.
I wouldn't call the Tiger a success, but in a way, it is, as some here feared the Tiger would be like this:
When in fact the Tiger was more like this:
View attachment 1818603
But that second cat is deceiving. She lies in wait, ready to ambush any poor unsuspecting soul who dares to get close enough to her. In fact on the day I took that picture, she decided I had pet her enough and hung a few teeth in my hand. Just so I knew who the boss was. But much like the Tiger Platinum, those teeth didn’t hurt much. And no blood was drawn.
The Tiger for me is a meh blade. An ok blade, not terrible but not good either. For me, one tuck is enough and may very well last a lifetime as my superpower is to ignore open tucks and head to the next one. The next shave will either be a KCG or Sharks. I pulled them both out this morning in anticipation of tomorrow's shave.
On the fountain front, I brought Noodlers 54th Massachusetts in the Jinhao 86 to the store to see how it would do on the paper here. Nope. It bled through the multipurpose paper we predominately use at the store. Back to the house it goes. I also received the haul of inks from Pure Pens in the UK. Feast your eyes on this.
View attachment 1818610
Pure Pens People’s Charter, Pure Pens King Charles III Coronation Blue, Pure Pens John Frost, Pure Pens Cadwaladr, Pure Pens Westgate Hotel, Robert Oster Fire and Ice and Diamine Writers Blood. Yep, the fountain pen ink rabbit hole is deep. I have Boris (@blethenstrom) to thank for this. And I do thank him. I spent most of the night trying out the inks with the dip pen, which left something to be desired but gave me an idea of what they’d look like in a pen.
‘Tis all for today, I gotta head back to work. I wish all a blessed Tuesday, and may all your shaves be the best.
View attachment 1818612
Inks that work well that I have tried and use:
Noodler's Black (undisputed champ in my book and also waterproof)
Pelikan 4001 Blue/Black
Pelikan 4001 Black
Parker Quink Permanent Blue
Parker Quink Black
Parker Quink Blue/Black
Rohrer & Klingner Salix (iron gall ink, water resistant)
Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa (iron gall, water resistant)
Diamine Registrars Blue/Black Ink (iron gall, waterproof)
Inks that I have not tested personally, but that I have heard are good for this
Lamy Blue/Black
De Atramentis Dokument Black (many colors here. Pigmented and super waterproof)
ESS Registrars Ink (iron gall, waterproof)
Noodler's X-feather Black (testing this right now. I have an ink sample) (waterproof)
Noodler's X-feather Blue (water proof)
Platinum Carbon Black(super water proof)
I am sure there are many others as well. Even within a make you will find some that work well and others that do not. You can get away with some moderately wet inks and small nibbed pens. Nothing larger than Pilot fine or European EF (Except Lamy EF which is huge). I am testing a load of Noodler's X-feather Black right now and while it is a great ink for not bleeding through I am having a bit of flow issues in my Pilot Prera fine. It could require a bit wetter writing pen.
- Thread starter
- #1,427
I have those in bold print already. I think LAMY Benitoite will work as well, I also received a bottle of that, but it was cut off in the picture. The John Frost ink shines on good paper, like Rhodia paper. On anything else, it is a bit wet as you have mentioned. I do have a good supply of Blue and black inks I can use at work already. That doesn't mean I won't get some of the others because of the depth of the rabbit hole, but for now, I'll look for other interesting inks.
Hmm...nice collection of inks John. Have to say, for myself, it's all about the pen. The ink is just something to facilitate using the pen. I know that there are crappy inks and really good inks etc, but I've found I really don't care about different colours and so on. I like black, not even blue...just black. I have the Ancient Copper ink in one of my pens and I doubt it will stay there...unless I start re-creating old treasure maps on parchment etc. It just doesn't do anything for me. But I am happy for anyone who gets pleasure out of not only using fountain pens but going all out with different inks as well.
For me, it's like Henry Ford once said "Many colour you want...as long as it's black".
For me, it's like Henry Ford once said "Many colour you want...as long as it's black".
- Thread starter
- #1,429
I was thinking about this the other day, for the longest of times I was a strictly Black ink writer. If I picked up a blue pen to take a script, I'd set it down and find a black ink pen. I had an English Teacher in High School who hammered home the point that we only write in Black for formal writing. As most of what I write at work becomes a legal document, I have always preferred black ink. I picked up some Blue Black ink when I got into fountain pens and that led to my current situation. I don't think I will mess with any shimmering ink as I don't want to have to deal with the additional clean-up concerns of shimmering ink. I must say the shading of John Frost is pretty cool. This coming from a guy who last year would have never written with anything but black ink.
- Thread starter
- #1,430
300+ Shaves in 2024 81 of 300+
March GRUME 25/31
Shave Date 3/27/2024
DE: 1948 Gillette Super Speed
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Southern Witchcraft Autumn Ash
Brush: Yaqi Caramel 26mm two band badger
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, Autumn Ash A/S.
Rating: 29/30 10 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
Tiger is out the door, in comes the Shark, I figured I'd go with another man eater and see how it goes. This shave was one of my best ever, right up there with the Lords and the GSB, a tad ahead of the Dorco. The Shark is worlds better than the Tiger. Unlike the Tiger, this blade was smooth from the onset, which led to me chasing BBS more with this blade than the Tiger. The sea lions were just about bald at the end of the shave, blubbering and crying in the bay on the end of the dock. The Dolphins were swimming nearby, doing backflips and splashing water on the sea lions to add insult to baldness. Just a hint of fur left on the neck and smooth as silk on the face. A great shave indeed. The Sharks are made by Lord in Egypt, which may explain the excellent performance of the blade. With the GSB out of production and dwindling supplies of the Holy Grail blade, it is good to identify some blades I can stock up on. I'll soon have a stash of Lords and Shark Super Stainless for my blade hoard. My hoard is not as extensive as some here, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500. I will be padding my stash soon. Today was truly a great shave, one of the all-time great shaves for me.
Witchcraft Wednesday, even though it’s not Autumn, the weather feels like it. It’s in the upper 50’s today. A great ride into work today. The scent is nice and Smokey but I didn’t get the spousal approval this morning. My lovely bride was outside in the flower beds. She loves her flowers and landscaping. I’d just as soon settle for plastic flowers. Haha.
Gonna cut it short today, I wish all a blessed Wednesday, and may all your shaves be the best.
March GRUME 25/31
Shave Date 3/27/2024
DE: 1948 Gillette Super Speed
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: Southern Witchcraft Autumn Ash
Brush: Yaqi Caramel 26mm two band badger
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, Autumn Ash A/S.
Rating: 29/30 10 for Comfort, 10 for cuts and weepers(0), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
Tiger is out the door, in comes the Shark, I figured I'd go with another man eater and see how it goes. This shave was one of my best ever, right up there with the Lords and the GSB, a tad ahead of the Dorco. The Shark is worlds better than the Tiger. Unlike the Tiger, this blade was smooth from the onset, which led to me chasing BBS more with this blade than the Tiger. The sea lions were just about bald at the end of the shave, blubbering and crying in the bay on the end of the dock. The Dolphins were swimming nearby, doing backflips and splashing water on the sea lions to add insult to baldness. Just a hint of fur left on the neck and smooth as silk on the face. A great shave indeed. The Sharks are made by Lord in Egypt, which may explain the excellent performance of the blade. With the GSB out of production and dwindling supplies of the Holy Grail blade, it is good to identify some blades I can stock up on. I'll soon have a stash of Lords and Shark Super Stainless for my blade hoard. My hoard is not as extensive as some here, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500. I will be padding my stash soon. Today was truly a great shave, one of the all-time great shaves for me.
Witchcraft Wednesday, even though it’s not Autumn, the weather feels like it. It’s in the upper 50’s today. A great ride into work today. The scent is nice and Smokey but I didn’t get the spousal approval this morning. My lovely bride was outside in the flower beds. She loves her flowers and landscaping. I’d just as soon settle for plastic flowers. Haha.
Gonna cut it short today, I wish all a blessed Wednesday, and may all your shaves be the best.
Our best successes will always be with sharpest blades. The shaper the blade the easier it is to acquire and maintain the elusive Soft Touch. I’m not surprised to see you embracing DE blades from straights. The same thing happened to me. Moving towards the Light Touch.
- Thread starter
- #1,432
Yes, I find I have a much lighter touch, and I am more attuned to the angle of the blade after 3 months on the straights. I did enjoy the straights and may get back to them, but my hurdle now is honing, sending them out every 3 months isn't what I what to do. The edges have fallen off from their shaving peak. I have plenty of straights to learn how to hone. Now I am enjoying figuring out which blades are the ones I want to hoard.
Honing is a very large rabbit hole. It takes an awful lot of time in the learning process. On top of that some of us just will never acquire the knack to approach the sharpness of an SE or DE blade. Than when you add in learning the actual differences in the shave, it can become overwhelming. My straight shave learning curve improved my DE shaves, a good experience. I am glad that I explored straights. My biggest takeaway would be my respect for the apex of a blade, any blade. If I had started as a much younger man I very well may have persisted in the art. If I had a strong urge to use straights or Kamisori razors it would definitely be with replacement blades. Honing successfully is a very fine art.
- Thread starter
- #1,434
300+ Shaves in 2024 82 of 300+
March GRUME 26/31
Shave Date 3/28/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1) (someone threw away the one from yesterday)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: RazoRock The Dead Sea
Brush: Zenith 502 Blue Wave Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, RR The Dead Sea A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 9 for cuts and weepers(2), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on the face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
I slept in today, sorta, I listened to my morning prayers and reflections as I laid in bed with a fat grey cat on my chest, I did not get out of bed till 15 minutes before I normally start getting ready for work. I had been a chronic snooze button abuser for all of my life. I kicked that habit in December of last year and for the most part, I'm up on the first ring. A few days I slipped and did what I did today, an in-between snooze button abuser and being productive. The days I stay in bed, it knocks me off my rhythm for my morning shave/shower routine. Such was today.
I started on the wrong foot this morning and it stayed off the whole morning. I noticed my Shark blade from yesterday wasn't on the magnet, we have someone who comes in and cleans the house every two weeks. My wife has a soft spot for those in need and we were supposed to stop using her when my wife retired but the lady always seems to be in a perpetual financial bind. And she likes jacking with my stuff. I had to pull out a new Shark blade for today, which added to my aggregation. To add to the distraction and aggregation, the shave started later than my preferred time. Ok, time for the shave, the RazoRock soap did a fantastic job of lathering, producing more than enough lather for many additional passes if needed. I noticed off the bat that this Shark was rough, more rough than the Tiger had ever been. I pushed through the shave and even chased BBS on the neck, where I noticed the blade was really rough, as rough as the PAA blade was that only lasted two shaves before I binned it. I thought maybe it was a bad blade in the tuck, as I had heard of others who experienced a random off blade in an otherwise tuck of fine blades. The ATG on the neck where I was chasing BBS was particularly rough, but I was able to get a darn near-perfect shave. The sea lions again are off the dock, in the water, and left just a hint of hair, and the dolphins are swimming with glee close by again splashing the sea lions with water as they dance around the bay. Then I noticed some blood and two good nicks where I was having irritation with the ATG work. I was bewildered as to why the blade was performing so poorly, I had the razor on level 5, which I had used before with the Tiger without an issue. Then as I set the razor down after the last pass, I felt a rattle. Yes, I had failed to ensure I fully closed the doors of the razor. I looked in the mirror, and those immortal words of Fred Sanford to his son Lamont rang in my head.
To add insult to injury, as I put up yesterday's Southern Witchcraft soap, the top wasn't fully screwed on to allow the soap dry, it slipped in my hand and while I was trying to catch it, I cut my finger on the inside edge of the jar. My middle finger. I stopped when I noticed the blood, today is Holy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples before he started his Passion and death on the cross. I looked at the blood coming from my finger, looked in the mirror at the nicks and realized these small cuts were nothing compared to what Jesus endured for us. I said a prayer of thanks and carried on getting ready for work.
The result of the shave, minus the blood, was fantastic. Truly one of the closest shaves I've had. I know I have been saying that a lot lately but it is true. If I hadn't been such a knucklehead and not verified I had the razor fully shut, which I usually do, this would have scored 29/30. The cuts healed very quickly with a few applications of the Styptic pencil and now all is good. Bandaid on the finger and I am showing the workers the bandaid on my middle finger. I'll let you guess how I show them the bandaid. Haha.
A new cat found its way to our house. Which wasn't surprising as my wife drove the little fuzz ball home. He's a black and white cat, looks like he has a tux on or a skunk minus the strip on the back. To soften the blow to me my wife said I could name it, I suggested PePe La Pew, which was shot down, then I suggested Zorrillo, and call him Zorro, she looked it up, Zorrillo is Spanish for skunk, which was shot down as well. After some research we settled on Katz Domineaux, I don't know how good he is on the piano, but we have one and will set him loose on it at some point.
I present to you Katz Domineaux:
SOTD Pic:
March GRUME 26/31
Shave Date 3/28/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1) (someone threw away the one from yesterday)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: RazoRock The Dead Sea
Brush: Zenith 502 Blue Wave Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, RR The Dead Sea A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 9 for cuts and weepers(2), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on the face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
I slept in today, sorta, I listened to my morning prayers and reflections as I laid in bed with a fat grey cat on my chest, I did not get out of bed till 15 minutes before I normally start getting ready for work. I had been a chronic snooze button abuser for all of my life. I kicked that habit in December of last year and for the most part, I'm up on the first ring. A few days I slipped and did what I did today, an in-between snooze button abuser and being productive. The days I stay in bed, it knocks me off my rhythm for my morning shave/shower routine. Such was today.
I started on the wrong foot this morning and it stayed off the whole morning. I noticed my Shark blade from yesterday wasn't on the magnet, we have someone who comes in and cleans the house every two weeks. My wife has a soft spot for those in need and we were supposed to stop using her when my wife retired but the lady always seems to be in a perpetual financial bind. And she likes jacking with my stuff. I had to pull out a new Shark blade for today, which added to my aggregation. To add to the distraction and aggregation, the shave started later than my preferred time. Ok, time for the shave, the RazoRock soap did a fantastic job of lathering, producing more than enough lather for many additional passes if needed. I noticed off the bat that this Shark was rough, more rough than the Tiger had ever been. I pushed through the shave and even chased BBS on the neck, where I noticed the blade was really rough, as rough as the PAA blade was that only lasted two shaves before I binned it. I thought maybe it was a bad blade in the tuck, as I had heard of others who experienced a random off blade in an otherwise tuck of fine blades. The ATG on the neck where I was chasing BBS was particularly rough, but I was able to get a darn near-perfect shave. The sea lions again are off the dock, in the water, and left just a hint of hair, and the dolphins are swimming with glee close by again splashing the sea lions with water as they dance around the bay. Then I noticed some blood and two good nicks where I was having irritation with the ATG work. I was bewildered as to why the blade was performing so poorly, I had the razor on level 5, which I had used before with the Tiger without an issue. Then as I set the razor down after the last pass, I felt a rattle. Yes, I had failed to ensure I fully closed the doors of the razor. I looked in the mirror, and those immortal words of Fred Sanford to his son Lamont rang in my head.
To add insult to injury, as I put up yesterday's Southern Witchcraft soap, the top wasn't fully screwed on to allow the soap dry, it slipped in my hand and while I was trying to catch it, I cut my finger on the inside edge of the jar. My middle finger. I stopped when I noticed the blood, today is Holy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples before he started his Passion and death on the cross. I looked at the blood coming from my finger, looked in the mirror at the nicks and realized these small cuts were nothing compared to what Jesus endured for us. I said a prayer of thanks and carried on getting ready for work.
The result of the shave, minus the blood, was fantastic. Truly one of the closest shaves I've had. I know I have been saying that a lot lately but it is true. If I hadn't been such a knucklehead and not verified I had the razor fully shut, which I usually do, this would have scored 29/30. The cuts healed very quickly with a few applications of the Styptic pencil and now all is good. Bandaid on the finger and I am showing the workers the bandaid on my middle finger. I'll let you guess how I show them the bandaid. Haha.
A new cat found its way to our house. Which wasn't surprising as my wife drove the little fuzz ball home. He's a black and white cat, looks like he has a tux on or a skunk minus the strip on the back. To soften the blow to me my wife said I could name it, I suggested PePe La Pew, which was shot down, then I suggested Zorrillo, and call him Zorro, she looked it up, Zorrillo is Spanish for skunk, which was shot down as well. After some research we settled on Katz Domineaux, I don't know how good he is on the piano, but we have one and will set him loose on it at some point.
I present to you Katz Domineaux:
SOTD Pic:
Last edited:
Is it much different than sharpening kitchen knives? I taught myself how to do it last year with some diamond stones and YouTube. Got tired of paying $8 every 3 months per knife. Honestly I don't do enough handywork, and I find this an enjoyable task.
Not sure I even want to dive into straight razors though.
- Thread starter
- #1,436
I hear tell it’s easier. You typically lay the spine flat on the stone. Others can chime in. I just didn’t set the time aside to try and learn how to hone. I tried to hone a few knives and I could never get it right. Holding the angle right proved to be more challenging than I cared to try and overcome. With the straights you don’t have to hold an angle at all. Some tape the spine. Others don’t. There is some very thin tap you can put on the spine to protect it. If you can hone a kitchen knife you’re ahead of me. I never got to that point. It’s a matter of prioritizing the time to learn. Just like anything. I want to learn the guitar. But I need to sit and practice. Right now my time is used up with other pursuits that have my attention now. Maybe one day I’ll get the stones out and tackle that mountain. I’ve already scaled the straight shaving mountain.
God bless you, John.300+ Shaves in 2024 82 of 300+
March GRUME 26/31
Shave Date 3/28/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1) (someone threw away the one from yesterday)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: RazoRock The Dead Sea
Brush: Zenith 502 Blue Wave Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, RR The Dead Sea A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 9 for cuts and weepers(2), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on the face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
I slept in today, sorta, I listened to my morning prayers and reflections as I laid in bed with a fat grey cat on my chest, I did not get out of bed till 15 minutes before I normally start getting ready for work. I had been a chronic snooze button abuser for all of my life. I kicked that habit in December of last year and for the most part, I'm up on the first ring. A few days I slipped and did what I did today, an in-between snooze button abuser and being productive. The days I stay in bed, it knocks me off my rhythm for my morning shave/shower routine. Such was today.
I started on the wrong foot this morning and it stayed off the whole morning. I noticed my Shark blade from yesterday wasn't on the magnet, we have someone who comes in and cleans the house every two weeks. My wife has a soft spot for those in need and we were supposed to stop using her when my wife retired but the lady always seems to be in a perpetual financial bind. And she likes jacking with my stuff. I had to pull out a new Shark blade for today, which added to my aggregation. To add to the distraction and aggregation, the shave started later than my preferred time. Ok, time for the shave, the RazoRock soap did a fantastic job of lathering, producing more than enough lather for many additional passes if needed. I noticed off the bat that this Shark was rough, more rough than the Tiger had ever been. I pushed through the shave and even chased BBS on the neck, where I noticed the blade was really rough, as rough as the PAA blade was that only lasted two shaves before I binned it. I thought maybe it was a bad blade in the tuck, as I had heard of others who experienced a random off blade in an otherwise tuck of fine blades. The ATG on the neck where I was chasing BBS was particularly rough, but I was able to get a darn near-perfect shave. The sea lions again are off the dock, in the water, and left just a hint of hair, and the dolphins are swimming with glee close by again splashing the sea lions with water as they dance around the bay. Then I noticed some blood and two good nicks where I was having irritation with the ATG work. I was bewildered as to why the blade was performing so poorly, I had the razor on level 5, which I had used before with the Tiger without an issue. Then as I set the razor down after the last pass, I felt a rattle. Yes, I had failed to ensure I fully closed the doors of the razor. I looked in the mirror, and those immortal words of Fred Sanford to his son Lamont rang in my head.
To add insult to injury, as I put up yesterday's Southern Witchcraft soap, the top wasn't fully screwed on to allow the soap dry, it slipped in my hand and while I was trying to catch it, I cut my finger on the inside edge of the jar. My middle finger. I stopped when I noticed the blood, today is Holy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples before he started his Passion and death on the cross. I looked at the blood coming from my finger, looked in the mirror at the nicks and realized these small cuts were nothing compared to what Jesus endured for us. I said a prayer of thanks and carried on getting ready for work.
The result of the shave, minus the blood, was fantastic. Truly one of the closest shaves I've had. I know I have been saying that a lot lately but it is true. If I hadn't been such a knucklehead and not verified I had the razor fully shut, which I usually do, this would have scored 29/30. The cuts healed very quickly with a few applications of the Styptic pencil and now all is good. Bandaid on the finger and I am showing the workers the bandaid on my middle finger. I'll let you guess how I show them the bandaid. Haha.
A new cat found its way to our house. Which wasn't surprising as my wife drove the little fuzz ball home. He's a black and white cat, looks like he has a tux on or a skunk minus the strip on the back. To soften the blow to me my wife said I could name it, I suggested PePe La Pew, which was shot down, then I suggested Zorrillo, and call him Zorro, she looked it up, Zorrillo is Spanish for skunk, which was shot down as well. After some research we settled on Katz Domineaux, I don't know how good he is on the piano, but we have one and will set him loose on it at some point.
I present to you Katz Domineaux:
View attachment 1819600
SOTD Pic:
View attachment 1819601
- Thread starter
- #1,438
May the LORD bless you and keep you as well my friend.
Have to like the little new member of the household. Kittens are always fun.300+ Shaves in 2024 82 of 300+
March GRUME 26/31
Shave Date 3/28/2024
DE: 1967 Gillette Slim Adjustable
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1) (someone threw away the one from yesterday)
Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Pre-Shave soap
Soap: RazoRock The Dead Sea
Brush: Zenith 502 Blue Wave Boar
Post-shave: Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel, Momma Bear's Winter Post-Shave Balm, RR The Dead Sea A/S.
Rating: 27/30 9 for Comfort, 9 for cuts and weepers(2), 9 for smoothness, neck stubble, just BBS on the face, and DFS++ neck.
Notes:
I slept in today, sorta, I listened to my morning prayers and reflections as I laid in bed with a fat grey cat on my chest, I did not get out of bed till 15 minutes before I normally start getting ready for work. I had been a chronic snooze button abuser for all of my life. I kicked that habit in December of last year and for the most part, I'm up on the first ring. A few days I slipped and did what I did today, an in-between snooze button abuser and being productive. The days I stay in bed, it knocks me off my rhythm for my morning shave/shower routine. Such was today.
I started on the wrong foot this morning and it stayed off the whole morning. I noticed my Shark blade from yesterday wasn't on the magnet, we have someone who comes in and cleans the house every two weeks. My wife has a soft spot for those in need and we were supposed to stop using her when my wife retired but the lady always seems to be in a perpetual financial bind. And she likes jacking with my stuff. I had to pull out a new Shark blade for today, which added to my aggregation. To add to the distraction and aggregation, the shave started later than my preferred time. Ok, time for the shave, the RazoRock soap did a fantastic job of lathering, producing more than enough lather for many additional passes if needed. I noticed off the bat that this Shark was rough, more rough than the Tiger had ever been. I pushed through the shave and even chased BBS on the neck, where I noticed the blade was really rough, as rough as the PAA blade was that only lasted two shaves before I binned it. I thought maybe it was a bad blade in the tuck, as I had heard of others who experienced a random off blade in an otherwise tuck of fine blades. The ATG on the neck where I was chasing BBS was particularly rough, but I was able to get a darn near-perfect shave. The sea lions again are off the dock, in the water, and left just a hint of hair, and the dolphins are swimming with glee close by again splashing the sea lions with water as they dance around the bay. Then I noticed some blood and two good nicks where I was having irritation with the ATG work. I was bewildered as to why the blade was performing so poorly, I had the razor on level 5, which I had used before with the Tiger without an issue. Then as I set the razor down after the last pass, I felt a rattle. Yes, I had failed to ensure I fully closed the doors of the razor. I looked in the mirror, and those immortal words of Fred Sanford to his son Lamont rang in my head.
To add insult to injury, as I put up yesterday's Southern Witchcraft soap, the top wasn't fully screwed on to allow the soap dry, it slipped in my hand and while I was trying to catch it, I cut my finger on the inside edge of the jar. My middle finger. I stopped when I noticed the blood, today is Holy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples before he started his Passion and death on the cross. I looked at the blood coming from my finger, looked in the mirror at the nicks and realized these small cuts were nothing compared to what Jesus endured for us. I said a prayer of thanks and carried on getting ready for work.
The result of the shave, minus the blood, was fantastic. Truly one of the closest shaves I've had. I know I have been saying that a lot lately but it is true. If I hadn't been such a knucklehead and not verified I had the razor fully shut, which I usually do, this would have scored 29/30. The cuts healed very quickly with a few applications of the Styptic pencil and now all is good. Bandaid on the finger and I am showing the workers the bandaid on my middle finger. I'll let you guess how I show them the bandaid. Haha.
A new cat found its way to our house. Which wasn't surprising as my wife drove the little fuzz ball home. He's a black and white cat, looks like he has a tux on or a skunk minus the strip on the back. To soften the blow to me my wife said I could name it, I suggested PePe La Pew, which was shot down, then I suggested Zorrillo, and call him Zorro, she looked it up, Zorrillo is Spanish for skunk, which was shot down as well. After some research we settled on Katz Domineaux, I don't know how good he is on the piano, but we have one and will set him loose on it at some point.
I present to you Katz Domineaux:
View attachment 1819600
SOTD Pic:
View attachment 1819601
Yeah it is a very good skill to have to be able to sharpen at least your normal knives around. My dad taught me when I was a young lad. Fond memories of that. Not so fond memories though when I checked if my dads scythe was sharp. It produced a nice deep cut in my finger. Yep I pulled my finger along the blade and it sure taught me how NOT to check, if a blade is sharp.
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