What's new

Phoenixkh: An Old Man's Continuum....

Phoenixkh

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Last night, as we were walking on the beach brick walkway along the beach, I noticed Taz got a new umbrella and a flower in his hair... for the Balinese New Year.

So here's Taz 2.0hhhhhh.

RS_Taz_Update.jpg
 
BigAlVista

BigAlVista

huck1680 said:
I got the wife a cat for her 60th BD. We both really like London and the UK...so I bought her a British Shorthair cat. Her name is MiaMeow, Mia for short. This is one of the quietest cats I have ever known. About the only time she makes a noise is if you step on her tail. She will give a noise of annoyance when I clip her nails but that's about it. When she does make sounds we rush to see if anything's wrong.
One day we went to work, when we got home late afternoon, we couldn't find the cat. Looked EVERYWHERE. Finally Carmen looked in the bathroom vanity under the sink...there she was and had been...ALL DAY. No noise, nothing. Looked at us as if to say "Well thanks for FINALLY showing up".
View attachment 1805419
Click to expand...
So cuuute!
 
BigAlVista

BigAlVista

Phoenixkh said:
I just finished trying the Feather Professional in my La Faulx.... I must have let my mind wander a bit because I nicked myself on my top lip.... That's the first nick I've ever gotten with the La Faulx so I'm confident it wasn't the blade, but user error. It took several applications of liquid styptic to stop the carnage. It was during one of my XTG passes. I've been pretty good at staying focused on my shaves of late, so it caught me off guard and taught me... Slow down, big boy... Don't get over confident... Let the razor guide you.... Since I don't shave every day, it will be completely healed by my next shave.. Lesson learned and hopefully, not forgotten.

I went with my wife to a wood carving lesson yesterday. She had a marvelous time. The guy and his wife couldn't have been more gracious. We met their HS son, also very nice. They have a daughter living in Australia who is already a degreed medical scientist but just returned to school to get her MD.....

It's interesting listening to people talk about their lives, successes, etc.. He still runs his family farm where they raise several varieties of bananas, pineapple and vanilla for sale... Not to mention all the fruit trees and rice fields. He has the carving business and teaches people from all over the world how to carve... make kites... he even offers
a chocolate making class. Multi-talented.

His wife is a licensed massage therapist and also teaches Balinese cooking....

View attachment 1807429

View attachment 1807430
Click to expand...
You are having my kind of vacation!
 
BigAlVista

BigAlVista

Phoenixkh said:
There used to be several shops in Florida that imported Indonesian furniture... we have two Rotan and Teak chairs in one of our sitting areas.... They are surprisingly comfortable.

We're taking the square roughly 5" square flower carving my wife did... with 3 other ones the local guy, Duka did, home with us. And we bought this small black wood (could be ebony, I'm not sure. There are several dark woods available here) statute of a guy folded up into a ball in a yoga pose. That's one of the motifs at the place we're staying so it will be a nice reminder. Duka also included 3 blanks, drawn out, with the cut-outs already completed, for my wife to complete at her leisure when we get home... along with a larger one of a grape vine design... All included for free. He liked us..... The main reason is because my wife is such a lovely woman.... The second? We bargained for the price... in US dollars... We did the Rupiah conversion... and I rounded up instead of down... He was shocked and quite pleased. The teak blanks he included were worth a Lot more than the few Rupiahs I added to the conversion numbers.

One other note: Monday at 6AM, the whole island of Bali closes down...... No one is allowed to leave their house... The airport is closed....The harbors are all shut down. All the restaurants, other than the hotel resort restaurants, are closed... all the businesses, shut... No cars or people on the streets.. for 24 hours: until Tuesday morning at 6AM.... Our hotel has two restaurants... one will be closed for that time period... The other will be open to hotel guests only.... and about half the seating, the part across that beach walkway I mentioned, will be off limits because the beaches are all off limits. No lights will be turned on in any of the houses... At least, that is what we were told. We've never experienced anything like this.... the new moon.. and their New Year. If the skies are clear, the stars should be something else with zero light pollution... The hotel has requested we keep our room lights off as well. I have no idea how they'll be able to serve food but I know, the evening meal is buffet only. We plan to avoid that mayhem and eat early... before the 6PM buffet starts. You aren't supposed to cook for those 24 hours, but I'm guessing, since Bali's economy is now tourist-centric, they've bent the rules a bit, so the buffet is allowed. They probably prepare all that food before the sun goes down to semi-comply.

I'll try to bring you along on that journey on Monday as best I can. We are looking forward to it. We got some extra water and a few groceries today just in case we need them.... I made sure I had enough coffee making supplies and my wife got ingredients for a couple kinds of tea concoctions she's had here and loves. I think if we embrace it, it should be a rewarding time.
Click to expand...
Cool tradition. Do you know the roots of it?
 
Phoenixkh

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Back home.... everything put away... It sure is nice coming home..... I'm enjoying a cup of well deserved coffee.....

We did miss out on $1200 by not delaying our flight by 6 hours out of Atlanta.... They had overbooked the flight and needed 7 volunteers.... We looked at each other... and said at the same time... We're too tired... We were already at 52.5 hours of travel time by that point...

In fairness to us... they started out at $300.... and it went up to $600 by the time they only needed one more person... But after that last person was willing to stay behind for a while.... she announced she was going to give each of the passengers $600...

Sometimes, money isn't everything... <eg>

In razor news... the Rocnel Elite looks magnificent.... the Canada Pre-War 1932 Tech????? Well, the ad and photos showed it pristine but all the nickel has been stripped away, leaving the semi-uneven polished brass behind. I know I could send it off to Chris Spencer... and was thinking I might do that anyway, but it is a bit disappointing the description wasn't more accurate.

Here's how it was described: "A very beautiful Gillette Canadian Tech 1932, in a stunning vintage condition.
The Bakelite case is undamaged and also beautiful!
Razor weight 47 grams"

I'm tired so I'm going to wait until tomorrow when I'm more sane and email the seller.
 
Balin

Balin

Phoenixkh said:
Back home.... everything put away... It sure is nice coming home..... I'm enjoying a cup of well deserved coffee.....

We did miss out on $1200 by not delaying our flight by 6 hours out of Atlanta.... They had overbooked the flight and needed 7 volunteers.... We looked at each other... and said at the same time... We're too tired... We were already at 52.5 hours of travel time by that point...

In fairness to us... they started out at $300.... and it went up to $600 by the time they only needed one more person... But after that last person was willing to stay behind for a while.... she announced she was going to give each of the passengers $600...

Sometimes, money isn't everything... <eg>

In razor news... the Rocnel Elite looks magnificent.... the Canada Pre-War 1932 Tech????? Well, the ad and photos showed it pristine but all the nickel has been stripped away, leaving the semi-uneven polished brass behind. I know I could send it off to Chris Spencer... and was thinking I might do that anyway, but it is a bit disappointing the description wasn't more accurate.

Here's how it was described: "A very beautiful Gillette Canadian Tech 1932, in a stunning vintage condition.
The Bakelite case is undamaged and also beautiful!
Razor weight 47 grams"

I'm tired so I'm going to wait until tomorrow when I'm more sane and email the seller.
Click to expand...
Hey Kim, welcome back! Can you return the tech?
 
Phoenixkh

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Thank all of you for the "welcome back"s... It is good to be in the same time zone as some of you.. And thx for those of you were around when I was 13 hours ahead of the East Coast... and you were around when I was... those in Europe and Australia, etc..

The travel back was grueling, as we knew it would be, but it was mostly uneventful, thankfully. The planes were on time and the layovers were smooth. We had a very good time at the Amsterdam airport and the 8 hours flew by. Atlanta was ummm Atlanta, but we survived a night stayover there and managed to catch the final 45 minute flight home. I only mention that because we asked the person at the gate counter 2.5 hours before our flight if our boarding passes were fine, since we had been traveling for 51.5 hours at that point and wanted to make sure everything was OK..... No problem, was the answer....until we tried to scan in our boarding passes, printed in Bali... and they were not accepted.... The gate person passed us on to an older guy who scanned our passports, printed new boarding passes and off we went. Whew.

The Canada Pre-War Tech....Shipping it back at my expense isn't an option... too much cash for a relatively inexpensive purchase. I'm going to use it, after I chat with the seller a bit... and if it's as good as some people think, I'll either polish it with the new electric polisher delivered while we were in Bali and get it looking "pristine" down to the brass.... or sent if off for replating by Back Roads Gold.... Nickel? That would match its original manufacture state... or just get it plated in hardened 24K gold to make a show piece for myself.. This one wouldn't be of interest to a collector, since it would be replated, anyway... At least, that is what I usually see from collectors.. photos of razors that look like new... but are ancient. A replate doesn't usually appeal to them.

Edit: I'm guessing, though unlikely, Gillette could have released a Canada Tech with no nickel plating, just polished brass. I've never heard of such a thing, but I know next to nothing about Vintage Gillette razors. I'll ask around before I contact the seller, to make sure I'm not making an idiot of myself. <eg>

The Bakelite case is interesting.... sort of a triangle. Now that is in almost pristine condition... It had some sort of sticker on top, I think, as there is a circle slightly indented in it that probably said "Gillette", but that is missing. There doesn't seem to be one on Mr. Razor's site, so I have no clue about it... There is room for one of the Bakelite blade holders and that was included.

I really bought it to see if a Tech is really something I'd enjoy using. I'll let you fine folks know in a while... I think I'll pit the two Elites against each other... I read a review of the brass Elite earlier today that said it was nothing like the SS Elite he had that was too aggressive for him and he sold it. He didn't specify which model year he had. I actually quite like my 2022 SS Elite and am very interested in how the brass Elite differs.... or remains mostly the same.

After I do a few shaves with them, I might try to finalize my RR SuperSlant dilemma.... As I've mentioned, I'm going to try more aggressive blades in the L1++OC to see if I can get it just a bit more efficient.. and try a Wizamet or Personna, etc. in the L2++ to see if I can reduce the efficiency enough to make it enjoyable. My favorite blade: the Perma-Sharp... just doesn't work in either of them. I'm hoping a Kai or Feather will boost the L1++OC enough to get it to 12 hour shaves... and the other blades to reduce the L2++ from 15 hour shaves down to 12. I haven't taken this much time to decide if I like a razor with any other ones I've owned.... I really, really want one of these base plates to make it into a razor I look forward to using. I like the design that much.

Then who knows my razor schedule? I'm sure I'll be missing my two La Faulx razors by then..... and I need to do back to back shaves with the SS and the Bronze to compare them... in my mind, at the moment, I can't think of any real differences, even though I'm using a lighter Ti Crown on the SS.... and the much heavier OEM bronze handle as designed with the bronze razor head. 12 hour, extremely comfortable and smooth shaves with them both.

Then the Tech?.... I think that's likely.... though by them, my WR4 might show up... All bets are off if that happens. Man, not shaving every day sure stretches out any testing I do. I did do better in Bali... the longest I went without shaving was 3 days and mostly I was able to shave every other day. Having spare time... and not using brushes, sure sped things up. That said... as I was looking at my brushes sitting out on the counter as I put the two travel razors back in their stands reminded me how much I missed using them, even if bowl lathering and brush clean up take around a half an hour combined.

I promised myself, I will get to the Tech... I believe the Tech deserves my attention... and I owe it to all the Tech users here, though I'm not sure how many of you folks who read my journal are Tech users, to give it a try and report back.

OK... enough ramblings of a tired, old man... We get enough of that on the news these days... <eg>
 
cajunrph

cajunrph

Welcome back home Kim and to your Bride as well. I’ll be searching for Vintage Gillettes soon as well. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with the Tech. My 1948 Super Speed is my best razor, I don’t have the array of razors you have and don’t intend to go down that route, or at least I say that now. <eg> Haha. But really, I can easily see myself satisfied with the vintage razors alone. That’s one of the draws I had to the straights, shaving with a piece of history so to speak. Best of luck with the Tech and settling in to life back home. Thanks for posting your adventures for us. It was great to travel with you vicariously.
 
BigAlVista

BigAlVista

Phoenixkh said:
Thank all of you for the "welcome back"s... It is good to be in the same time zone as some of you.. And thx for those of you were around when I was 13 hours ahead of the East Coast... and you were around when I was... those in Europe and Australia, etc..

The travel back was grueling, as we knew it would be, but it was mostly uneventful, thankfully. The planes were on time and the layovers were smooth. We had a very good time at the Amsterdam airport and the 8 hours flew by. Atlanta was ummm Atlanta, but we survived a night stayover there and managed to catch the final 45 minute flight home. I only mention that because we asked the person at the gate counter 2.5 hours before our flight if our boarding passes were fine, since we had been traveling for 51.5 hours at that point and wanted to make sure everything was OK..... No problem, was the answer....until we tried to scan in our boarding passes, printed in Bali... and they were not accepted.... The gate person passed us on to an older guy who scanned our passports, printed new boarding passes and off we went. Whew.

The Canada Pre-War Tech....Shipping it back at my expense isn't an option... too much cash for a relatively inexpensive purchase. I'm going to use it, after I chat with the seller a bit... and if it's as good as some people think, I'll either polish it with the new electric polisher delivered while we were in Bali and get it looking "pristine" down to the brass.... or sent if off for replating by Back Roads Gold.... Nickel? That would match its original manufacture state... or just get it plated in hardened 24K gold to make a show piece for myself.. This one wouldn't be of interest to a collector, since it would be replated, anyway... At least, that is what I usually see from collectors.. photos of razors that look like new... but are ancient. A replate doesn't usually appeal to them.

Edit: I'm guessing, though unlikely, Gillette could have released a Canada Tech with no nickel plating, just polished brass. I've never heard of such a thing, but I know next to nothing about Vintage Gillette razors. I'll ask around before I contact the seller, to make sure I'm not making an idiot of myself. <eg>

The Bakelite case is interesting.... sort of a triangle. Now that is in almost pristine condition... It had some sort of sticker on top, I think, as there is a circle slightly indented in it that probably said "Gillette", but that is missing. There doesn't seem to be one on Mr. Razor's site, so I have no clue about it... There is room for one of the Bakelite blade holders and that was included.

I really bought it to see if a Tech is really something I'd enjoy using. I'll let you fine folks know in a while... I think I'll pit the two Elites against each other... I read a review of the brass Elite earlier today that said it was nothing like the SS Elite he had that was too aggressive for him and he sold it. He didn't specify which model year he had. I actually quite like my 2022 SS Elite and am very interested in how the brass Elite differs.... or remains mostly the same.

After I do a few shaves with them, I might try to finalize my RR SuperSlant dilemma.... As I've mentioned, I'm going to try more aggressive blades in the L1++OC to see if I can get it just a bit more efficient.. and try a Wizamet or Personna, etc. in the L2++ to see if I can reduce the efficiency enough to make it enjoyable. My favorite blade: the Perma-Sharp... just doesn't work in either of them. I'm hoping a Kai or Feather will boost the L1++OC enough to get it to 12 hour shaves... and the other blades to reduce the L2++ from 15 hour shaves down to 12. I haven't taken this much time to decide if I like a razor with any other ones I've owned.... I really, really want one of these base plates to make it into a razor I look forward to using. I like the design that much.

Then who knows my razor schedule? I'm sure I'll be missing my two La Faulx razors by then..... and I need to do back to back shaves with the SS and the Bronze to compare them... in my mind, at the moment, I can't think of any real differences, even though I'm using a lighter Ti Crown on the SS.... and the much heavier OEM bronze handle as designed with the bronze razor head. 12 hour, extremely comfortable and smooth shaves with them both.

Then the Tech?.... I think that's likely.... though by them, my WR4 might show up... All bets are off if that happens. Man, not shaving every day sure stretches out any testing I do. I did do better in Bali... the longest I went without shaving was 3 days and mostly I was able to shave every other day. Having spare time... and not using brushes, sure sped things up. That said... as I was looking at my brushes sitting out on the counter as I put the two travel razors back in their stands reminded me how much I missed using them, even if bowl lathering and brush clean up take around a half an hour combined.

I promised myself, I will get to the Tech... I believe the Tech deserves my attention... and I owe it to all the Tech users here, though I'm not sure how many of you folks who read my journal are Tech users, to give it a try and report back.

OK... enough ramblings of a tired, old man... We get enough of that on the news these days... <eg>
Click to expand...
Hi, Kim. Glad you had a good trip and the return flight home wasn't too onerous.
 
Phoenixkh

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I finished my first shave with the Rocnel Elite brass a few minutes ago.. with a Perma-Sharp. For less than 1/3 of the price of the 2022 SS Elite I have, it's a steal. I'm going to shave with the SS Elite next before I make any conclusions but at first shave, I think they are more similar than different. The most noticeable visible differences are the scalloped safety bar and the softened edges of the cap and base plate on the SS Elite. The brass Elite is a rectangle... no curved edges. There is little doubt the SS Elite and the Elite hybrid are more refined products, but as I said, they are far more costly. The 2022 Elite, if you haven't seen one, is about half way between a simple rectangular head and a RR Lupo. I'll post photos of them side by side after the next shave to better illustrate this. I'm sure the brass Elite is easier to manufacture and that is one good reason for the reduced price, not to mention how much easier it is to machine brass than stainless steel.

Here are three photos from the Rocnel site, though the SS Elite photos are the 2023 model.

RS_Rocnel Ellite brass razoe head.jpg

RS_Rocnel Elite SS.jpg


RS_Rocnel Elite SS2.jpg


I did something I know better than to do with a new razor, but while we were gone, the Pacific brushless unscented shaving cream showed up and I wanted to use it while the Cremo unscented was still fresh in my mind. I really wanted to get back to using a brush again but time was a bit short tonight and we leave early tomorrow morning for our weekly trek down to our son's place. I threw the Cremo away. I didn't care for it at all, as I've mentioned. It doesn't seem worth it to PIF it when the shipping costs would be more than the product itself. The Pacific is just as slick for me, without leaving that film on my hands when I have to wash them to hold my razor... and after the shave, it rinsed off much easier and completely than the Cremo. I think I found my travel shaving cream when I can't or don't want to bring along brushes, bowl, etc., etc..
 
Guido75

Guido75

Phoenixkh said:
and I owe it to all the Tech users here, though I'm not sure how many of you folks who read my journal are Tech users, to give it a try and report back.
Click to expand...
Just give it a go Kim! The Canadian Tech is a good effective and comfortable razor.

By the way - Gillette rarely issued their razors unplated. As far as I know at least. So this Tech would have been nickel plated. From your descriptions (which is another way of saying pictures please!) it is in a lesser condition than I got mine in. So far I have been tempted to think about replating some but overall I am pleased with their conditions. The only one I have polished back to bare brass was my NEW Short Comb - and it turned out to be red brass/copper rather than brass. It now looks excellent.

Use the Tech!! And welcome back!!
 
Phoenixkh

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Interesting: From FedEx:

Hi. International clearance of your package has been delayed.
Exception Reason
proxy.php
1. Animal parts or animal products clearance required.
proxy.php
Recommended Action
proxy.php
1. No action required at this time.
This over a badger brush shipped from Italy. I didn't realize this was a thing in the US.... but I guess it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Russ622
The tales of a one eyed man.
3 4 5
Replies
94
Views
3K
thombrogan
thombrogan
T
New convert
2
Replies
24
Views
936
blethenstrom
blethenstrom
86-foxtrot
86foxtrot shaving odyssey
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
86-foxtrot
86-foxtrot
Chrispy73
Well, I got my Leaf Thorn in today!
Replies
3
Views
638
gdawg55
gdawg55
WhiskerLess
WhiskerLess DE Shaving Journey
2 3 4
Replies
69
Views
3K
cajunrph
cajunrph
Top Bottom