Shave Sticks Review Project

ksblazer said:

Look forward to the pic(s) and new stick review.

Never herd of Chicman shve stick. (I'm still fairly new to all this) I'll hve to google it.

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Wim posted a few pictures in post #99. I will add some more but I am not expecting the Speick to be finish right away. I would say another month.

This morning, I cheated a bit and took my Derby shave stick. I already wrote a little something about it but I will get back to it eventually. I took the Derby out, randomly, to do a "reality check". What it means, I take a product I know and decided to test drive it in the middle of this experiment to see how it compares with the product on stand. I'm glad I did.

For some reason, the Derby was better compared to the last time I used it. It's a very hard soap but Speick is a hard soap too compared to Derby. Sure, the scents are not the same but then, if they would all be the same, we wouldn't buy so many products. I found Derby to be easier to lather this morning compared to Speick. Don't get me wrong, Speick is a top notch product, but Derby felt more user friendly today. I think that introducing a random "reality check" is a good thing at this stage so I can compare the current product to a known product.

Oh yes, I plugged the scanner so I will try to scan and post the Chicman Paris instructions that came with the shave stick in this thread.

Luc, is it something in the formulation that makes the Derby more user friendly, or is it just because being softer it's easier to load?

Vlad said:

Luc, is it something in the formulation that makes the Derby more user friendly, or is it just because being softer it's easier to load?

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I was going to say Glycerin but they both have some. I see that Derby has Tallow as the first ingredient and it's #3 for Speick. The more fat the easier? I would need to test another stick that has tallow as the first to compare I guess.

I probably have 1/8 of an inch sticking out of the shave stick holder at the moment. I'm almost to the end of the Speick stick. I found the scent to be strong at first but today I noticed that it wasn't as strong. Maybe I'm getting used to it or maybe it's the every day usage that does that. Either way, it's a great product.

This morning I started pushing the shave stick from the bottom of the holder. I'm getting closer to the end. I still have many shaves to go but it's getting closer now...

Two things that I tried this week with what I got left of Speick.

Number one. You can't go any further without a bit of Uberlather. So I lathered with 3 drops of glycerin in my brush directly. Super-slick was the result! I do not think that this soap requires glycerin to perform well but adding that extra makes it extra!

Number two. I removed the soap from the holder since my soap is almost flush with the holder. Pushing on the bottom of soap is how I think it should be used but I tried turning the holder upside down and sticking the soap on it. If you try that, I can tell you right now, it doesn't work. I wasn't done applying lather on my cheek (first try), the piece of soap went flying in the bathroom. I re-installed it in the holder and pushed the bottom. The end is near, I would guesstimate at 2 weeks of shaves.

It seems that I will need to make some kind of fusion with the next stick and Speick. I was pushing the stick (now shorter compared to the holder) and it slipped. I had to pick it up from my shaving mug and Speick doesn't float so it wasn't great.

I'm interested to know what others are doing when getting to the bottom of those sticks? That would be Speick and Wilkinson Sword. They both have the same holder.

I read in some thread that some people moisten the stump and stick it to a coin with a slightly larger diameter. Apparently it allows you to squeez a few extra shaves out of the stump. It sound a bit fishy to me, perhaps someone with more experience can chime in and comment.

I tried that, and it didn't work well for me. Now I just mash the last of any stick into a small bowl.

I had some success getting a Speick stub to adhere to a D.R. Harris Arly stick, and later disposed of another stub the same way. But that Harris stick container has a sleeve, which kept the stub from slipping around much until it had bonded to the soap underneath it.

Mike H posted instructions from an old Handy Grip: take a look at step 5. The idea of scoring both surfaces is new to me, and might help.

Mike H said:

Handy Grip in hand!

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I might try to do that Mike and see if the threads work better than simply glueing the stick over the next one...

Okay, I did the cutting bit on a shave stick and on my Speick shave stick yesterday. I made the threads like the picture #5 that Mike posted. I wet both ends and pushed them together. The Speick was very soft and the bottom started to look like shaving cream. I let them dry overnight.

My plan was to use a different shave stick this morning as I wanted this to dry for at least 24hrs. I decided against it and thought if the Speick falls off, I will simply repeat the process and wait 24hrs. It didn't, it worked really well. I ended up sticking the Speick on my Tweex shave stick. Pictures to come tomorrow. I honestly have no clue is the threads that I made in the soap are the reason why it worked but I would think so if Vlad tried it and it didn't work.

Here's what it looks like.

I used a small knife to cut the top of the Derby stick and bottom of the Speick stick in the same pattern that was shown in the picture. The cuts are not very deep, maybe 1/16-1/8 of an inch, more 1/16. I wet the top of the Derby stick and bottom of the Speick stick and pressed them together. I left them that way for 12hours (around) and used it the next morning. They are holding perfectly together. Today was my second shave with the Speick.

Looks great, Luc. I will definitely try that with my next stub, which is probably a month or two away.

I was just reading that potters sometimes use a similar technique to join pieces of clay, called "scoring and slipping". In our case I guess the "slip" is just wet soap, but the scoring creates more surface area so the parts will stick together.

So far, the piece of soap did not move at all. I only wet the Speick bit at the moment so no issues there. When I get to the bottom of the Speick, I should have a better idea if it will unstick or not but I really doubt that.

The soap is still going strong, the piece of soap on top is getting much smaller. I will add a picture soon.

I am getting close to 100 shaves with the stick. I reckon I will hit it. So far, no problems with the Speick stick glued on the Derby stick. I got my next shave stick lined up which should start this week-end. Pictures to come...

How about Mystic Waters and Mike's Natural Soaps?

KWilliams40 said:

How about Mystic Waters and Mike's Natural Soaps?

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The reviews that I'm doing are not including all the shave sticks in the world. I'm trying to use what I have and that's fairly common.