I started my DE shaving journey in the early 2000s. Looked through various forums/reviews and ended up purchasing the (new at that time) Merkur 38C along with a Rooney silvertip brush and a few types of TOBS cream. I want to say I also started with Merkur blades as well. The 38C has been with me ever since and it's wonderful. Even took it on my tour in Afghanistan and the guys were impressed seeing me use it. Over the years I switched to Derby blades as I could get a ton of them extremely cheap. Eventually moved to Feather blades as the Derbys were kind of dull and always pulled my hair.
The first few years I was living in an apartment, and of course apartments suffer from a lack of soft water. I think the quality of water must have ruined my Rooney. A good 12 years ago I became a homeowner and my house has a water softener. Even since then I've never been able to make a good lather with it. It would take an extremely long time to mix up anything and usually I barely made enough at all.
This last week I finally decided to purchase a new brush. As I was looking I thought maybe it would be nice to purchase a stand with it as well. Didn't really see much of anything on the Merkur website. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. I ended up purchasing an entire set from Parker including a Parker 82R, badger brush, and stand.
Received the set last night and used it or the first time this morning. Used the brush with Trumpers Sandalwood and WOW, I made an extremely hefty lather! Was never able to do that with the Rooney. I even did 3 passes which I've never been able to do and still had plenty of shaving cream leftover. It was an extremely smooth and comfortable shave. Again, don't know if the hard water ruined my Rooney years ago but it's just never been able to do what my new brush did today.
As a side note, I thought the 82R with Feather blade did a really good job. It doesn't feel quite as heavy as the 38C but it just felt a little different.
The first few years I was living in an apartment, and of course apartments suffer from a lack of soft water. I think the quality of water must have ruined my Rooney. A good 12 years ago I became a homeowner and my house has a water softener. Even since then I've never been able to make a good lather with it. It would take an extremely long time to mix up anything and usually I barely made enough at all.
This last week I finally decided to purchase a new brush. As I was looking I thought maybe it would be nice to purchase a stand with it as well. Didn't really see much of anything on the Merkur website. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. I ended up purchasing an entire set from Parker including a Parker 82R, badger brush, and stand.
Received the set last night and used it or the first time this morning. Used the brush with Trumpers Sandalwood and WOW, I made an extremely hefty lather! Was never able to do that with the Rooney. I even did 3 passes which I've never been able to do and still had plenty of shaving cream leftover. It was an extremely smooth and comfortable shave. Again, don't know if the hard water ruined my Rooney years ago but it's just never been able to do what my new brush did today.
As a side note, I thought the 82R with Feather blade did a really good job. It doesn't feel quite as heavy as the 38C but it just felt a little different.
