2012 Badger and Blade Member Interviews -Seraphim

[Kentos]

Our second interviewee of the Year is Seraphim, AKA Craig. Seraphim is the member I credit, or blame, for my foray into Feather AC razors, as well as an obsession with pasted hanging strops. Without his gentle prodding I may have never acclimated to the laser sharp AC razors. Thanks Seraphim!

If you have any comments or other questions please post them in this thread. These interviews will be entered into the Interview Wiki for future reference


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Who are you? / Where are you located?
I’m Craig, located in Massachusetts

What is the significance of your Screen Name and Avatar?
My screen name is my middle name, and my avatar is a stock standard Gold Dollar, simple beauty!

What beverage do you start your day with?
Are you kidding? This some kind of trick question? Coffee, black.

What happened that made you start Wet Shaving?, or if the chicken came before the egg, how did you find B&B?
I had used electrics for a number of years, but every time I tried to get replacement foils/blades for them, they never had them in stock-I suspect as a ploy to get you to have to buy a whole new razor…While doing web research on that kind of thing I came across an article on wetshaving, signed up here, and viola!

What was it that held your interest?
Shiny steel, and the ability to muck around with it: finding the way to get the best edge on a razor, plus the whole shave ritual is really relaxing. Stropping, whipping up a lather, dremeling atrocities... it’s all good.

How did you get started with Straight Razors? What did you start with?
I had a DE for about 1-2 months but found myself always browsing the straight forums, like a deer in the headlights, I knew I was a goner. My first razor was a 7/8 Friodur roundpoint.

Shave Cream & Soaps? What did you find that worked well from those initial trials?
I’ve never given creams much of a try. I’ve been a soap guy the whole time. TABAC is a fave, Williams has all of a sudden become a good performer for me, I used it just this morning , as a matter of fact.

Determination is key when shaving, how did you push through the Month + of sub par shaves? Did you know there was a light at the end of the tunnel?
I didn’t find much in the way of sub-par shaves. They were pretty decent from the get-go. The first thing I did when I received my “shave ready” razor from the vendor was to take a look at it under the scope….It didn’t look so good. We had some lapping film here at the lab, so I utilized that to hone up my first razor about 15 minutes after receiving it. Definitely an improvement!
The biggest “aha!” moment was after a shave with a vintage W&B, and I finally achieved the much ballyhooed “12 hour BBS”, I was really shocked how long lasting a shave I got, just awesome.

Now my favorite question... if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose:

1 razor:
Hmm, maybe something stainless: I guess my Stainless Tuckmar 6/8. But I’d probably sneak a couple more razors onto the island with me as well…

1 strop:
My vintage Sunasack. I use it all the time, even when I travel to Japan, that baby comes with me.

1 brush:
I’m not too picky about brushes, I guess my 21mm homemade in cocbolo.

1 soap:
TABAC

1 cream:
Coppertone SPF45 is the only cream I’d be bringing to a desert island…

[paco664]

nice...... i was expecting more gold dollar content.... lol...

[htownmmm]

Somehow, I thought he was going to say a Feather AC was his desert island razor!


marty

[paco664]

Somehow, I thought he was going to say a Feather AC was his desert island razor!


marty

[Antique Hoosier]

This guy Craig is absolutely strange....but a good kinda strange.... I like the guy!

[Go West Young Man]

"My middle name is Seraphim" was probably deserving of a follow-up question!

[Kentos]

Sadly the interview contract sent to me by his lawyer expressly forbid follow up questions...

[Antique Hoosier]

Sadly the interview contract sent to me by his lawyer expressly forbid follow up questions...

OY!!! The fine print on that document! Ecetera, ecetera, ecetera....

[Kentos]

LOL!! One of my favorite movies.

[Wid]

Always nice to get to know a member a little more. Thanks for sharing Craig.

[Seraphim]

I had thought the interviewer was going to throw me a few "hardball" questions about my dubious experiments with tungsten , ceramic , questionable far east razors, microscope obsessions, etc.

Here's a pic of that Tuckmar. I haven't used it in ages (been using mostly GDs), but I could live with that one on an island for quite a while...

[hillbilly]

Oh gawd thats purdy.

[honed]

Nice one!

I have proposed to Seraphim twice, so that probably makes me non-objective...
But anyhoo, I find Mr Seraphim to be one of the greatest members around. Always funny, always helpful & often slightly controversial. Just how I like 'em

[Woodash]

All this talk...and no mention of LAPPING FILM!?!.....Oh, the humanity!

[mycarver]

Very interesting. I'd like to know more, but for now this will do. Always keep them wanting more as they say. Thanks.

[Earcutter]

Great interview!! That was more fun than I thought it was going to be!

[global_dev]

nice,, great addition and wonderful looking razor!

[Mike H]

Congratulations, great interview.

[Seraphim]

All this talk...and no mention of LAPPING FILM!?!.....Oh, the humanity!

I think instead of "interviews" we'd all be alot more interested in the information gathered from a B&B "interrogation".

[Kentos]

I was thinking I could fund another Kamisori purchase if I did a live chat interview with you and charged admission..maybe 40/60 split?