Gus's Shave diary

[Gustav]

Shave #208

-C.W. Dahlgren 6/8
-omega professional boar
-Fitjar Telemark SS + Palmolive sensitive
-Speick ASB

I had test shaved the Dahlgren previously but the edge was rough so I tried Bart's beer bottle trick and subsequently re-honed it on the BBW. It turned out to do the trick in as much as the edge was much more comfortable to shave with. I then saw that some people use CrOx as a finisher for their razors so I took out the CrOx on balsa which Legion gave to me and gave it 50 laps with no pressure and then test shaved with it after my usual stropping routine. To my delight the result was even better in that the blade seemed to have become sharper.

I realize that I have no been over indulgent with pictures lately so here are a few of my current arsenal. I am sorry the pictures are a bit dark but it is the best my current camera can achieve In the top left picture you will find the Dahlgren on top, followed by a Borlänge maskinaffär in the middle, which looks like it has a frown and the E.A. Berg I started out with on the bottom. In the top right picture you will see my framebacks, from left to right: Törnblom 4/8 and Heljestrand 4/8 with barber notch, Heljestrand 5/8 real frameback and then Hellberg 5/8 and Söderén 5/8 faux framebacks. In the middle left picture from left to right you will find my Heljestrand wedge 5/8, a Heljestrand no2 4/8 and a Heljestrand no4 6/8 with the broken scales. In the middle right picture you will see my BBW hone and slurry stone together with my NOS Heljestrand Kloster 6/8 which is my current absolute favourite shaver. The factory edge just needed some stropping on TI paste (100 laps) on my paddle strop followed by stropping on leather (200 laps) and it was shave ready. They do not make them like they used to. The last picture is self explanatory.

[Gustav]

Shave #214

Söderén faux frameback 5/8
La Toja Shave stick
Vie Long horse hair brush
Hega balsam

I have not shaved with this razor for a long time because I have been having a bit of trouble with it! It used to be my absolute favourite and then I must have rolled the edge or something because it gave a very uncomfortable shave. I gave it the BBW treatment but it still felt a bit off. Anyway, in the last few weeks I have been testing the effect of Legion's balsa CrOx strop on the edge of my razors and it is astonishing what 50 laps with no pressure can do for the edge. I did not even feel the first stroke but when I wiped off the lather on my towel it was blackened with stubble. Three passes later I was comfortably clean shaven with only a minute quantity of bloodshed on my upper lip. The Söderén is now definitely back in business. It feels like I have just said hello to a dear old friend that I had not seen for a very long time. Here he is in a SOTD that I took for my 100th shave about a year ago.

[Gustav]

Shave #227

4/8 Heljestrand with Barber's notch
Fitjar Telemark SS superlathered with Aussie Palmolive SC
Vie Long Horse Brush
Speick ASB

Lately I have been trying to cut down on my shaving time by doing long confident strokes using a locked wrist and only my arm to do the movement: a move that Luc taught me and that has served me well. It is a bit daunting at first but if you contort your face in such a way as to present a nice flat stretch to the razor, it works really well. It is very satisfying to see the blackened lather smear that I wipe off onto my towel when I have shaved the right or left side of the face above the jaw line, using little more than three strokes. Obviously you need to be a bit more careful on the contours of your face. I also have to remember not to do this when I have had a few glasses of wine or I will run the risk of slicing into a birthmark I have on my right cheek which has been the scene of repeated bloodshed during inebriated shaving.

I am also growing very fond of the horse hair brushes, they are softer than the boars and seem to deliver more water to the lather, making it very easy to get the kind of slick watery lather that you want for straight razor shaving. I can only recommend anybody with BAD to get one and try it out. The basic model will only set you back about 10 €.

After three comfortable passes, I ended up with a very nice DFS using the above mentioned little razor which was honed entirely on my Belgian Blue Whetstone after refreshing the Bevel on a DMT1200.

[Gustav]

Shave #231

4/8 Heljestrand with Barber's notch
Palmolive SS
Vie Long Horse Brush
Speick ASB

Another great and uncomplicated shave. I have been shaving with straights only for around a month by now and I can easily see myself continuing this way for the foreseeable future once I have tried out all major types of razors. I still want to a try a slant and revisit my Sensor Excel and maybe even my Mach3 to see if better shave prep and software makes any significant difference. Anyway when I visited the local brick and mortar shops in order to acquire a slant they either did not have them or had discontinued them on account of customers who had done themselves a series of serious injuries. Instead I purchased a Dovo Shavette which will be the next item I want to try as a sideline to regular straights. I thought I might give it a go on Saturday so that my face has time to heal on Sunday before going back to work. I have loaded it with half of a no name Personna blade which I know to be quite forgiving. I feel a mixture of excitement and anxiety at the prospect of shaving with this device because it is lightweight and the blade is probably much sharper than most of my much heavier straights. Light and sharp seems like a very daunting combination to me. Anyway I will keep you posted on my progress.

[Gustav]

I enjoyed my first shavette shave yesterday evening and to my delight I could do the usual routine of three passes in much the same way I do with my regular straights. The one thing I did pay particular attention to was not to apply any pressure. I only nicked myself once under my lower lip but it was more through excess abrasion more than a true cut. I found the whole shave rather enjoyable since only my best straights have a sharpness at the same level making for a particularly mild and irritation free shave. I was pleasantly surprised at how well balanced this light weight shaver is. Last but not least, I am glad I tried it after learning on regular straights since I can see that this light-weight and sharp razor would have been a menace in my inexperienced hands when I started to shave with straights

[Gustav]

The second shave with my Dovo Shavette last night was a nick free repeat of the first shave. Thus it appears that if you have learnt to shave properly with a regular straight, there is no learning curve when switching to a Dovo Shavette. I find this very surprising considering that there is such a huge difference in weight and blade sharpness between the two. I must say that I am enjoying this sharp edge a lot and hope that it can be emulated on a regular straight. I have a NOS Heljestrand straight which I bought and then just gave it 100 laps on TI alumina paste followed by 200 laps on leather and it comes really close but I do not have the faintest idea how it was honed.

Question: Is it possible to get the same level of sharpness on a regular straight? If so how do you go about achieving it, do you use a progression of hones or a progression of pastes?

[global_dev]

great question... i have straight edges that were really really sharp and some that were smooth... i think finding the progression for your likes is key though... just keep moving up the stones/films into pastes/sprays and you might find yourself too sharp for comfort.

does it really matter how it was honed up until 8K? probably not... as long as bevel was good and progression was fine... i think when you lok at some of the spray past experiments, you see people talking about how "crispy" an edge might be... to me thats an indication of too sharp...

[Gustav]

Thanks for the answer, that is very interesting! I might have to give some serious thought to purchasing RasurPur's 4 sided paddle strop and diamond pastes to go with it.

[Gustav]

Shave #257
Heljestrand 6/8 full hollow Kloster
Floris no 89 shave soap
HJM Boar
Balea ASB

Last night's shave was not particularly comfortable, I have been tinkering with this Floris soap on and off sporadically since I got it from Floris customer service in 2009 (as a replacement for a particularly disastrous offering) and have now decided to give it a solid 30 shave trial to see if it is just a matter of finding some sweet spot. If not it will become bath soap. If I soak it in copious amounts of warm water and use a good stiff brush, I can produce mounds of rich lather with good staying power and slickness but very little protection. On previous shaves I was using Tabac and the difference in terms of protection is off the charts. With Tabac you can complete an entire pass and then go back to touch up any part of the face without reapplying lather and get acceptable glide, with Floris it is like shaving a dry face if you attempt to do the same.

I am now back to regular straight razor shaving after doing some comparative experiments using one razor on the left part of the face and the other on the right side: Dovo Shavette vs Gillette Slim adjustable at setting 9 and in a separate set Heljestrand 6/8 Kloster vs. Gillette Slim adjustable at setting 9. I was expecting to get better and longer lasting shaves with the straights or even the shavettes but it was not to be. Even SWMBO you did not know which side was which could not tell the difference, directly after the sahve or even 12 or 24 hours post shave. Obviously this is a YMMV thing. I will go on shaving with regular straights because I enjoy the whole process more. If I am on a sort trip or somewhere not suitable for straight razor shaving under optimal conditions, I will shave with a DE, knowing that the shave will be just as good.

[Grips]

Gustav. Good to see the update. I thought that you might have given up on the journal.

[Gustav]

Gustav. Good to see the update. I thought that you might have given up on the journal.

It is nice to see it is appreciated! How are you doing?

[cleanshaved]

Gustav. It is the art of using and maintaing a straight that I like the most.
have you thought of mixing a small amout of cream with the Floris soap to see how that works for you?

[Gustav]

Yes, I have done that with Aussie Palmolive and it works a treat and that is probably what I am going to end up doing most of the time. Every now and again however I test the soap on its own again to see if the repetitive loading has resulted in my drilling deeper into the soap and hopefully hitting some sweet spot where the lather all of a sudden becomes more protective. Up until know no such luck.

And I agree with you, the maintenance of the razors are one of the most enjoyable things about straight razor shaving. Whilst cleaning out a relative's apartment, my in laws found two Heljestrand razors that they passed on to me. So some time later on I will team them up with some other razors that did not make the cut last time around and engage on a new honing spree. I was also delighted to find a coticule that my father had given me a while back and that had disappeared out of sight and out of mind during a recent move. It has some imperfections and will probably need some lapping but after that it is going to be great to try it out.

Question: What do I use to generate a slurry on the coticule when I do not have a coticule bout? Do I use a coarse DMT, sandpaper or could I use my BBW bout or will it contaminate the coticule somehow?

[sanfranciscian]

HI Gus, as noted good to hear from your again, I tend to drop out of sight myself every winter, any ways, I have one of those dmt cards that can be had cheaply, i believe it to be 325 and it works a charm for the slurry.

Ian

[Grips]

It is nice to see it is appreciated! How are you doing?

I am doing well and hope you are the same. Yours is one of the many journals I've gained a lot of knowledge from.

[Gustav]

HI Gus, as noted good to hear from your again, I tend to drop out of sight myself every winter, any ways, I have one of those dmt cards that can be had cheaply, i believe it to be 325 and it works a charm for the slurry.

Ian

Great, thanks for the hint!

To Grips: I find I learn from all the journals I read, we all go down a slightly different road and raise questions that complement each other. It is great to see that so many have caught on relatively recently.

[Gustav]

Shave #258

Same stup as last time except for adding some Aussie Palmolive cream to the soap. The difference could not be bigger. I enjoyed a comfortable shave and did not need to worry at all about skipping during touching up. It is a mystery to me why so many companies seem reluctant to add some vegetable based stearates to their formulation when it makes such a difference.

[cleanshaved]

good stuff another soap saved.
I have trouble with getting a good lather out of my GFT Eucris soap. waiting for a boar brush to see if that does the trick.
have mixed with a little cream and got ok results. soap seams too hard for my silver tip badger brush.
have found if you have a bad lather no matter what you do from there your shave will be bad as well.

It's the simple things that matter with the SR. get all the small things right on the day and results will follow.

[Gustav]

I could not agree with you more Chris. When I was DE shaving I had a ranking list for my soaps and creams where amongst others Tabac SS, Floris SS and Fitjar SC were all near the top but when I started straight razor shaving I had to make a new list which was surprisingly different from the DE list. IMO, when DE shaving high quality lather is not necessarily a prerequisite to getting a good shave, in the world of straights however it is. Tabac SS is still in the top tier, but Floris SS is now on the list of soaps to finish and not buy again. The criteria which determine where on my list the soaps and creams lie are surprisingly subtle, how much touching up you can do safely without relathering is one of them (aka protection or cushion), how much water you can add to the mix without the lather collapsing is another since I tend to use very wet lathers, how moisturising the soap feels, is a third. With Tabac SS I hardly feel the need to put on ASB at the end of the shave. Another aspect is how much work I need to put in to get a decent lather, here Tabac SS excels whereas Floris SS has to be soaked repeatedly in warm water and then worked hard with a stiff brush to get anywhere near shaveable lather.

Obviously this is yet again a YMMV issue and probably depends on water hardness and such things but at the end of the day, it is so much easier to use a no fuss shave soap which gives great protective lather every time than to have to resort to soaking pucks and making superlather in order to try and coax a good shave out of a sub-standard soap.

[Luc]

Love to see that you're still at it mate!