SMF

I received mine today from BullGoose, and am looking forward to trying it out.

Spent some quality time with the hones/strops this past weekend. Am looking forward to a few rewarding SR shaves in the coming days and weeks, encouraged by one of the best shaves ever from a big full hollow Clauss, the first test shave of the group. I haven't yet had a chance to test the most recen...

Wednesday

Domenico Caraceni 1913
MadeRite Finest
Merkur Slant
Personna Hospital Use

I will say that if someone can get past the crack in the handle of that Big Boy Deluxe, they will have as fine a shaver as any Gillette ever made. That is a bold statement, and maybe some might think it's too aggressive, but paired with the right blade, in my case , it's one of the best I have. It's...

It may be a tiny bit of extra effort for me to warm my distilled water in the scuttle for a few seconds, but the payoff is priceless when the soap explodes into that superb lather we all hope for. It's a price I'm happy to pay.

Wasn't there some talk that the AoS creams are/were being manufactured in England? I guess that's not accurate, since the whole thing's now leaving for good. As a side issue, is it possible that AoS is completely shutting down all shaving cream and soap products, not just in England? I guess maybe t...

Does anybody find that using distilled water while shaving creates a better lather? For sure, it does. Our house has hard water and it works just fine with creams, but soaps do not respond with the kind of lather they're engineered to create. It took me a long time to discover that I must use disti...

Monday

Domenico Caraceni 1913 SC
Big Rooney
Big Boy Deluxe
PHU

Don't abandon it outright Lindy, Dragon's Breath seems to be a warm, spicy, possibly exciting fragrance. (I'm not scared of Dragons or repelled by anything associated with them. They're imaginary, and in my imagination they're mysterious and powerful creatures.)
Cinnamon, eau de quinine, bay rum???

I think my senses are a little bit dull anyway, so when the blade's getting noticeably dull, then it's probably about time to make a change.

Think Deep Woods Off!

Congratulations Aaron. This is a great discussion thread, btw.

A new LH Progress is enroute to me now. I suspect this instrument at the appropriate setting will complete my very small collection of razors that enable me to use the US made Personna Hospital Use blade to its full potential.

Great observation Paul. I prefer the concept of slicing as opposed to chopping.

Sunday

Domenico Caraceni 1913
Omega Lucretia Borgia ST
H & JW King 5/8 Sheffield

It's a 289 2bbl, automatic. The wheels are 5 lug.

Sunday Fatip OC Personna Prep (2) FS Finest Badger TOBS Avocado Shave Cream Prep After Shave Balm Old Spice Original After Shave An extremely close and smooth shave. The TOBS shave cream makes mounds of lather with ease. Someone gave me a heads up that BullGoose had a few of the Fattip razors for s...

Today I used the Gillette long handled Super Adjustable set on 6. The shave was superb. I wanted to start out on 9, then 7, before actually starting and finishing on 6, but at those settings, the feel of the blade getting ready to take (what felt like) a chunk out of my skin on the first cut was jus...

Saturday

Domenico Caraceni 1913
BK8
Gillette Super Adjustable LH (set on 6)
PHU blade

Nothing needed after the shave, thanks to DC

I haven't used QC, so I can only offer a suggestion. If I eventually get some QC I'd be taking a slightly different approach. I've been in the habit of applying the stiffer products such as Castle Forbes and Harris Rose SC by taking a healthy almond-sized portion and rubbing it directly into the whi...