L'Ultima Setola...

So, I've been working on getting a custom Boar brush made up. Why, you ask? Because they told me I COULDN'T!!!

L'Ultima Setola will be the culmination of all of man's hopes and dreams, from the earliest days of recorded history, mankind has dreamt of a quality boar knot in a quality, custom handle.

I have made it my goal to see this dream come to life.

I have made the first step. Due to a generous donation from a member at The Shave Den forum, I got an Omega brush and removed the knot.


This is an Omega 10048, I believe.

Here's the removed knot.


It's set in plastic...we'll see if that needs to be removed.

The next step is to get it off to Rodd, of knotty badger fame, to get the custom handle turned and the knot reset.

And then, Valhalla AND Nirvana will be within reach!
Hail the might boar!!!

A Rose by any Other Name..

Wow. So, I finally tried a top shelf English cream. Man. I can see the appeal!


Taylor's of Old Bond Street Rose. Fantastic stuff.
The scent was a bit on the strong side...lathering up it felt like someone had stuffed a bouquet of twelve long stems up my nose. And the pink is, well....pink. But the lather! I whipped enough thick, cushiony lather for 4 passes--USING A BOAR BRUSH! No nicks, no cuts, no razor burn and a DFS. It was almost too easy!


Of course, I just came off a term of using Cella Crema da Sapone, which is also a fantastic product. Lovely Almond smell, rich creamy lather and smooth shaving. It's been a good week!



This whole shaving this is just great!

Best Stay Away, It's Catching...

I caught this shaving disease from some random comment (NOT EVEN A POST!) on John Scalzi's blog Whatever, and it has rapidly taken control of my central nervous system. Now, my poor poor friend in Scotland has become infected with the same dread plague....Be careful, for you may be next.

Apart from the acquisitiveness, apart from the obsession with shaving that leads me to try it twice a day, apart from the almost insane amount of attention I am paying to my skin these days, it is the intense progression of the disease that frightens me. Me, who until very recently spent 4 minutes a day with a buzzing electric beast against my face, am now taking twenty minutes with a brush, soap and mind-numbingly sharp blade to scrape away my whiskers...and just now, JUST NOW, I found myself reading a guide to straight razor shaving.

STRAIGHT RAZORS!!!! Folding KNIVES that you drag across your skin! By all that is holy, what has happened to me? And how did this new thing come to me, this new symptom of the shaving measles?

By reading the Goddamned Internet...just like YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW!!!



So, does anyone have a half-hollow solingen and a strop they'd like to sell me?

Back in the saddle again!

Ok, so things are back to normal on the vast open plains of my face.

On the recommendation of a good friend, I returned to the warm, wooly bosom of Mitchell's Wool Fat, and the lanolin did work a charm. My face feels better after last week's shenanigans, and shaving is once more a pleasure.

What's more, the very day that my last drop of that sweet, sweet TSD Aftershave milk went, I got a new shipment in. This time Old Spice Type, Bourbon Vanilla and Mayan Gold (I couldn't resist...it's just so tasty!). I wasn't sure about the Old Spice, but my wife seems to like it so there you go.

I also got in some shave soap from Susie's Bubbles--Citrus Sage with Shea Butter and Honey Almond with Goat's Milk. The scents on these soaps is something else. Sweet and fragrant....like candy. I'll let the MWF take care of me for a few more days, and then see how these guys shave. Thanks Suzie!

In other news, I am working with the famous "Swede".


No, not that one...

Gillette Super Platinums, commonly known as "Swedish Gillettes", are some of the priciest, and well loved, DE blades around. They are reputed to be smooth, sharp blades that last forever; one gentleman of note claims that he got 30 good shaves out of one--and, as most good blades give about 5-6, that is something else. I find them sharp, but smooth...hmmm. I'm not ready to give up on my yellow/green 7 O'Clocks yet.

So that's the current state of affairs. In the near future, expect an extended series of Brush reviews as I get a silvertip in a hand-carved genuine horn handle from Kimson Handicrafts in Viet Nam, and a pre-Vulfix Simpsons Duke 3 to try out. Yay!

Takin' 'Er Easy...

You might have noticed, if you are very perceptive, that I haven't updated my "Daily Shave" for a couple of days. The reason is, this was a hard shave week for me. I didn't want to tell you , well, I didn't want anyone to worry. No, no, I'm ok, please, don't cry...It's just, well...I have some bad news.

Since I started shaving with a brush, soap and a DE razor, I have found that my skin is WAY more sensitive than I ever thought it was. I don't know if this is a thing that was always true and I was never in a position to notice it, or if it's caused by all the random things I've been doing to my face for the past couple of months, but there have been some...issues.

First, there were the infamous Japanese Shaving creams...Enough said.
Then, things went ok until I tried the Feather. Bad news, but not too bad.
Smooth sailing for a while, improving technique, getting better supplies, and then BANG! Institut Karite happened.

IK is billed as a soap for sensitive skin, gentle and loaded with moisturizing shea butter. When I read about this, I drooled..."MMMmmmmmm" I said, "Buuuu-tteeeeer..... SO I acquired some (4 pucks actually...) and tried it. It burned me. And when I sayburned, not like "Oh, my, that's slithly irritating..." but more like "Dear god, I can't touch my face for two days...".

And that, I think, is where it started. Because I couldn't let it rest. I had to keep scraping that sharpened steel across my face. In the process, I learned that C&E Sienna is also a No No (Dammit! I LOVE the scent!). And now, this last week, I think I did another bad thing.

This last week I tried a Gillette Super Platinum from India, in the black pack. It was sharp. And I just kept scraping. And my skin kept getting rawer. What's worse, I kept putting Musgo Real on it...Musgo real is another one of those products I was drooling after, an old fashioned European cream, loaded with lanolin and a lovely green scent (It is also a fantastic latherer, and gave a great shave...if you aren't sensitive to it, I highly recommend it). But it is also lightly mentholated, and at the end of my third pass it left my skin raw and painful. Not enough to make me give up right away, but eventually I realized there was no way I could continue using it. Just oo much irritation.

I used it for four shaves, with the Blackpack, and...well, let's just say that last Friday my face said "Stop it." I got 5 nicks and serious burn from my Swede, which hasn't happened to me for ages. So yesterday and today I did not shave. Even though I got some new Cella Crema from my mom for Christmas. Even though I have unopened soaps waiting for me. I gotta let it go. For now.

But I'll be back.

I feel special!

So, a while back, when I first got into this gig, I sent an Email to Omega, the boar brush company, asking for information about their brushes, and wondering about how to get a brush "for review purposes" (hey, I was new!). Looki what they sent me!


I got what has to be their ENTIRE sales catalogue, with posters, brochures, sales info...all their professional brochures! It's nice, in that old-fashioned Italian barbershop kind of way. And, of course, I found something I want. Several somethings, in fact...

So, Thanks Omega! And well done, I'm gonna buy!

Yeah...

It was the Williams.


The blade is sharp, and not quite as balanced as the yellows, but yep...yesterday's fiasco was very likely the Williams.

Hmmm...might not even be worth the trouble of trying it again.