Hi all,
Short time listener, first time caller ... It's so refreshing to find a civilized, and polite corner of the internet.
Some three years ago, I met up with a buddy on a ski vacation in Utah. He was arranging his toiletries on the bathroom counter, and I noticed his shaving brush.
Me: "what's with the shaving brush?" (I asked curiously)
Him: "I was at a farmers' market one day, and someone was selling them"
Being an OCD type, this piqued my curiosity, and upon my return home I started to surf the web. Unfortunately, I didn't happen upon B&B, and my searches took me to mostly generic sites (Amazon in particular).
I read of Merkur, Parker and such and became quickly overwhelmed with the choices. Knowing my tendencies, I cut myself off then and there. I had no time for yet another rabbit hole.
Some three years passed, and the inevitable occurred. I was drawn back to this pursuit - triggered by a Henson razor ad. I've since learned that they're not the only game in town, but their engineering based sales pitch intrigued me.
In my post corporate life, I took to building turntables and vacuum tube amplifiers, and if you know anything about audiophiles, the folks on this forum have nothing on turntable junkies ;-)
In turntable setup, we have the equivalent of blade angle, spacing, chatter, etc. I set up a phono cartridge using USB microscopes, software, and other measuring tools. Henson's sales pitch made perfect sense, as I work with machinists on a regular basis. I was hooked.
I picked up a Henson +, and was initially dismissive of brushes. My thoughts were that brushes are merely a way of slowing you down so you saturate/soften your beard, and this can be done with generic shaving gel - as long as you spend time lathering (by hand).
So my wife put an inexpensive badger brush he purchased a while ago in front of me, and I began to see that this is a useful tool. She then presented me with some Jack Black shaving cream, and I was hooked.
About a month ago, I happened on BnB, and now I'm up to two brushes (a Mühle STF 25mm, and an AP Shave Co. Synbad, 22mm).
Oh dear me ... I see a Wald in my future. Life is short.
Lathering is starting to make sense (currently using some Cella and Spieck). My wife wouldn't let the smell of Arko in the house, but I see a soap collection in my future. I'm a patient, methodical sort, and now that I've "mastered" one soap (Cella), I'll take to blade exploration.
I'm looking forward to interacting with y'all.
I have a brush stand project in the works, as everyone I've seen seems to be either unstable, or take up too much space. Even if I found the perfect one, where's the fun in just buying something when you can suffer and build your own ?
I'll probably complete it within the next 10 days (parts are on order), and I'll post it in the brush forum.
... Thom
Short time listener, first time caller ... It's so refreshing to find a civilized, and polite corner of the internet.
Some three years ago, I met up with a buddy on a ski vacation in Utah. He was arranging his toiletries on the bathroom counter, and I noticed his shaving brush.
Me: "what's with the shaving brush?" (I asked curiously)
Him: "I was at a farmers' market one day, and someone was selling them"
Being an OCD type, this piqued my curiosity, and upon my return home I started to surf the web. Unfortunately, I didn't happen upon B&B, and my searches took me to mostly generic sites (Amazon in particular).
I read of Merkur, Parker and such and became quickly overwhelmed with the choices. Knowing my tendencies, I cut myself off then and there. I had no time for yet another rabbit hole.
Some three years passed, and the inevitable occurred. I was drawn back to this pursuit - triggered by a Henson razor ad. I've since learned that they're not the only game in town, but their engineering based sales pitch intrigued me.
In my post corporate life, I took to building turntables and vacuum tube amplifiers, and if you know anything about audiophiles, the folks on this forum have nothing on turntable junkies ;-)
In turntable setup, we have the equivalent of blade angle, spacing, chatter, etc. I set up a phono cartridge using USB microscopes, software, and other measuring tools. Henson's sales pitch made perfect sense, as I work with machinists on a regular basis. I was hooked.
I picked up a Henson +, and was initially dismissive of brushes. My thoughts were that brushes are merely a way of slowing you down so you saturate/soften your beard, and this can be done with generic shaving gel - as long as you spend time lathering (by hand).
So my wife put an inexpensive badger brush he purchased a while ago in front of me, and I began to see that this is a useful tool. She then presented me with some Jack Black shaving cream, and I was hooked.
About a month ago, I happened on BnB, and now I'm up to two brushes (a Mühle STF 25mm, and an AP Shave Co. Synbad, 22mm).
Oh dear me ... I see a Wald in my future. Life is short.
Lathering is starting to make sense (currently using some Cella and Spieck). My wife wouldn't let the smell of Arko in the house, but I see a soap collection in my future. I'm a patient, methodical sort, and now that I've "mastered" one soap (Cella), I'll take to blade exploration.
I'm looking forward to interacting with y'all.
I have a brush stand project in the works, as everyone I've seen seems to be either unstable, or take up too much space. Even if I found the perfect one, where's the fun in just buying something when you can suffer and build your own ?
I'll probably complete it within the next 10 days (parts are on order), and I'll post it in the brush forum.
... Thom
.
)
