rockviper's journal of shaving, gardening and chess adventures

[celestino]

Sam,
Wow, i am impressed! Congratulations on be persistent with the kamisori. After reading your journal, i may actually get my Iwasaki out and give it a go, again, after a ten month hiatus.
Let me think about it.
i will keep following your updates and good luck.

 

[rockviper]

Thanks, but you really do need to punish your kami by sending it away (... to me to abuse it!). And to demonstrate your frustration to it, it should be sold for $5!

Just kidding of course!

I'm enjoying it quite a bit and am now almost at the same speed for a 2-pass kami as a 3-pass DE, but the DE is still better quality. However, I can't recall 30 years ago what my first month of DE shaves was like, so I'm more than happy with what's going on. I have 2 normal straights and will retry with one of them tomorrow at 5:30am.

As I've noted, my 2nd time around is MUCH better than my first.

 

[rockviper]

Shave#19
Dovo/Col/Conk 6/8
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

Received a TI paddle strop (3" wide model) from the BST on Friday and it feels really nice in the hand. However, the leather felt funny and definitely different, depending on which way you ran your hand. Turns out, it is suede. Okay no problem, at least I understand it now. Added a bit of TI paste to refresh the pasted side and popped some Dovo red paste on another 9x3 piece of leather I have.

After Syngent/James left yesterday evening, I stropped on the red paste for about 40x, followed by the TI paste another 40, and about 50 on the unpasted side of the paddle strop. What do you know? The same straight that I couldn't use a few days ago was now shaving arm hair very easily and I would say was close to a HH4.

Used it this morning and it sounded like scraping a butter knife over toast, which is VERY different from the kami, which is a very solid piece of gear. I was pleasantly surprised by this shave, which was my normal 2-pass WTG/XTG combo, but I did need the old styptic as I added a new cat scratch tying to edge my newly forming circle beard.

After using the kami for a few weeks, this razor feels HUMONGOUS and I'm having a hard time seeing everything like I do with the kami, but the results are totally fine. Think I will mute the tip and heel of the kami a little as I didn't get any tip-nicks the way I sometimes do with the kami.

I'll probably be taking a few weeks off from straights now as we go on a two-week vacation starting next weekend, and I'm pretty sure SWMBO wants my neck to heal up fully from yesterday so that I'm semi-presentable in our vacation pics.

 

[rockviper]

As mentioned, we're getting ready for vacation soon, which means lots of pics which will last forever and ever, and I switched back to a DE over the past week. The neck chunk has healed up quite nicely over the past few days (see post-40 for the damage), making SWMBO happy.

Meanwhile, back in straight-land, I picked up a Magic shavette from Sally's over the weekend when we went down to Buffalo. Spending <$12 including taxes on myself for the whole trip meant I didn't get any hassle about buying "another razor." Haven't shaved with it yet, but had to use a pair of pliers and a towel to tighten down the blade holder arm piece. It was really loose and now feels much sturdier (can a Magic ever be called "sturdy"??) and safer. If it works out fine, it'll be my new travel razor ....... until the next one comes along!

Also just transacted the re-purchase of my very first straight, a Wapi, which I had sold last spring. Really looking forward to getting this back in my hands. Using the Dovo for my last straight shave makes me think that I really do prefer heavier grind blades and the wapi fits the bill here perfectly.

 

[rockviper]

Vacation starts tomorrow and I'll be on a Mediterranean cruise with SWMBO for ~2 weeks. Will be carrying a DE, but we'll be in Barcelona for 2 days before departure, so I'll be visiting the renowned Ganiveteria Roca and we'll see what SMWBO lets me buy for Christmas.

I'll get back into straights on my return and should have a few new things waiting for me:
- the wapi I mentioned above (repurchased my 1st straight, not just the same model, but the actual razor)
- a Liliput Wald-Solingen 4/8 full hollow from the BST this morning
- 2 combo coti's from the BST

I seem to have fallen for straights and their associated "stuff" pretty hard this time around.
Hmmm, maybe SWMBO will think I have enough "presents" for this year already

See you in a few weeks!

 

[pcumby]

Vacation starts tomorrow and I'll be on a Mediterranean cruise with SWMBO for ~2 weeks. Will be carrying a DE, but we'll be in Barcelona for 2 days before departure, so I'll be visiting the renowned Ganiveteria Roca and we'll see what SMWBO lets me buy for Christmas.

Sam
On your way back, feel free to stop in St John's and leave any excess gear with me. I'll be sure to keep it all safe and sound until your next trip to the island.

Have a great trip

Phil

 

[rockviper]

Shave#20
Azuma kami
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

Well, I've returned from vacation safe and sound, but after two weeks with a Milord DE (decided to take it with me rather than my birth year slim), I was super yearning for my kami this morning. Given that I was up at 5:30am and trying to adjust from 12+ travel hours and a 6-hour timezone shift yesterday evening, I'm not sure this was the wisest course of action. But as they say, "fortune favours the brave," so off I went.

A quick 20 laps on the strop for the kami, followed by a standard WTG pass, an ATG on the neck and an XTG on the cheeks and all is well. Not even a weeper in the one or two regular culprit spots, and as good a shave as I've have since my vacation started. A splash of Clubman and I'm set for the day.

Based on this, I think I need to spend some time over the next month or so and start getting used to the shavette so I can take it the next time I travel.

After getting home from work today, found 2 straights and 3 hones waiting for me in the mail. So now I have enough new playthings to keep me busy for a while I think. Yes, indeed. This was a good day..... except for how tired I am from jetlag. *yawn*

 

[rockviper]

Shave#21
Magic shavette w/Shark SS
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

Okay, so I'm semi-cheating here with a shavette but it's going to count anyways

First time using the Magic, but I did try a shavette about a year ago for 2-3 shaves. I know you're not supposed to change more than one thing but I decided to use both hands as a "normal" person would. I've only been using my left hand before to go ATG on the right side of my neck before this.

As folks have mentioned, a DE blade in a shavette is more aggressive than a normal straight, but the only weepers I got was do to left-handed clumsiness trimming my sideburns and goatee edge, so I think I did pretty well this morning. A standard WTG pass followed by ATG on the neck and XTG on the cheeks resulted in a shave which was actually a little smoother than I've been getting so far.

I'll take a few more shaves with the shavette over the next week or so just to use up the blade, but I think I'll be comfortable taking the shavette as a travel razor.

 

[rockviper]

Shave#22
Liliput Wald-Solingen 4/8
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

Now that I've semi-adjusted to my timezone change, last night I started to play with a nice little 4/8 shorty (blade is 2 1/4") I picked up from the BST on a (new to me) combo-coti. Spent about 5 mins with a medium slurry before diluting down to just water after another 5 or so. Wasn't quite where it should be, so rather than try to learn both the coti and razor at the same time, I went to a strop with TI paste to see what would happen. Probable getting a HHT4 on most of the blade, which I hoped would be good enough for now, so I stroped on leather for about 40-50. Edge feels good on the thumbpad, but I think I'll buy a cheap loupe soon.

The shave was very nice and I went with 2 WTG passes followed by an ATG on the neck and cheeks (no XTG this morning) . Finished up with some Clubman and now I'm smelling nice for SWMBO as well.

The small blade is much easier for me to maneuver than a normal straight and provided me with a nice clean result. Very happy I picked this one up.

 

[Shave_Rat]

I've become a big fan of the shorty blades as well. Guess I have some competition on the BST when they pop up... lol

 

[rockviper]

Not sure I'm a straight collector, but somehow there are now 5 in the house...... but only one shorty ..... so far

Shave#23
Azuma kami
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

I thought it was jet-lag beating me out over the past few days (which it might have been on Monday), but it now seems like I have a cold. Nothing better than sinuses and achy neck muscles to start the day off on the right foot

Shave went well enough but there's still a few areas that I need to work on more from a "getting a comfortable grip" aspect. Namely, XTG on the right cheek and ATG on the right side of neck, but the results I'm getting are more than satisfactory, so I guess I'm doing something right.

While stropping post shave, my sinusy head was off in la-la land thinking about the coffee brewing and an "oopie!" happened. I forgot to flip the blade and took off a small layer of my Big Daddy strop in a pie shaped thin slice about 5mm at its widest and about 20mm long. The good news is that the slice was very thin and some light sanding will fix it up without any problem. Not bad, considering this is the first mis-strop I've had so far.

 

[Shave_Rat]

I need to use my straights a bit more, get ahead of the learning curve faster. Congrats on the progress.

I'm not collecting straights, I just really prefer to shave with the shorties. If you fall out with that one and are looking to trade it for a different straight, I have a couple nice ones I'm not attached to. lol

 

[rockviper]

Shave#24
Magic shavette w/Shark SS
VDH deluxe
SOC

I'm still all stuffed up with a cold, but since I managed to get a few good restful hours sleep last night, I saw no reason to revert to a DE this morning. Alas, this 2nd time with the shavette went worse than shave#21.

The shavette is a little deceptive when compared to a real straight. The outside end of the blade is just a few mm inside the the end of the blade holder and the inside end ends quite a bit before the blade holder as well. Both of these made it difficult for me to judge exactly where the blade was and I ended up with 2 neck nicks and 3 cheek nicks. Had to actually bring out the styptic pencil as the alum block alone wasn't good enough this time.

Think I'll be sticking with real straights from here on out. Not sure if the shavette will find a new home or if it'll sit in my drawer for a few years to try and tempt me later on down the road.

To top things off, the knot fell out of my SOC at the end of the shave Everything looks to be in good shape though, so I'll clean things up, rough up the knot's base a little for better glue-grip, and epoxy it back in. It should end up as good as new.

Well, that's enough bad news from today's shave. There has to be something good from this morning, yes?

syngent lent me his bottle of VEG yesterday, and I decided to give it a shot for the first time this morning. Morning was bad enough already, so the rumored cat-pee wasn't going to bring it any lower. As mentioned, I'm all stuffed up, so can't provide any valid commentary, but:
a) I didn't pass out
b) SWMBO said it smells sweet when I asked for her opinion, and
c) co-workers didn't wrinkle their noses and ask what the stink was.
Therefore, it seems to work just fine I'll need to wait for my cold to finish before I can pass judgement, but it looks promising.

 

[rockviper]

Shave#25

Liliput Wald-Solingen 4/8
VDH deluxe
Omega mixed Mighty Midget

Stropped about 25 times on Dovo red paste, then another 25 on Dovo black, followed by 50 on the Big Daddy strop. Boy, that 3" strop makes the Liliput look ... well, tiny! (but then again, it IS tiny).

Thought I might have trouble with today's shave due to the damage left behind from yesterday's shavette adventure. There's always the chance the the blade will catch on an existing nick and dig deeper, but no such problem at all this morning. The only weeper was right on the tip of my adam's apple. This confirms that the shavette is not for me.

Finished off my shave with the Veg but SWMBO has declared it to be too sweet, so out it goes. Nothing wrong with reverting back to Clubman as both of us love it's scent.

 

[syngent]

Sam you have pics up of your new hardware kicking around the forums,...

Your little guy is still one of the coolest razors ive seen Kami or western styles

 

[rockviper]

There ya go, James. Uploaded a pic for you.

 

[syngent]

That looks cool,. 4/8ths ? lol building up to the 11/16th ones slowly huh lol, i like the lines on it

 

[Shave_Rat]

That looks cool,. 4/8ths ? lol building up to the 11/16th ones slowly huh lol, i like the lines on it

It's not the size, it's how you use it?

 

[rockviper]

I showed syngent the Liliput alongside my wapi. It took a few minutes for him to stop laughing at how small it is, but I think he's now somewhat intrigued.

 

[rockviper]

Thought that I should post up the kit I've collected since near the end of September....

Straights are (clockwise, starting at the bottom) Azuma kami, Wapienica, Gold Dollar 66 (haven't taken the stabilizers out yet), Col.Conk (Dovo) Best, and last but not least, the little Liliput Wald-Solingen 4/8

Strops are a TI 3" paddle strop (back side is with TI white paste), Dig Daddy 3" strop with felt and a Robert Jones 3x9" piece of leather with Dovo Black paste on the smooth side and Dovo Red paste on the back side.

Stones and hones are 180, 260, 360 grit 2x6 diamond plates, DMT EEF 8", OVB barbers hone, Coti La Dressante #9 bout, two combo cotis (47x180mm and combo 35x125mm), and what I think might be a Llyn Idwal next to the barbers hone.

This should be enough to keep me going for a while