First time DE shaving with good quality materials

TorzJohnson · Post by **TorzJohnson** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:22 am

Yesterday I received a jar of Tabac soap and a tube of Speick in the mail. Today I received my Shavemac brush and a tub of Taylor's "Mr. Taylor" cream. Up until now I have been using my HD with a cheap boar brush and Williams soap. The quality of the shaves has been much better than canned goo and a Trac-II, but when my boar brush bit the dust last week I ordered the Shavemac and the soap / creams.

So here are my first impressions. The Speick definitely has an unusual fragrance. Rather medicinal. The Tabac was pleasant but quite different than what I expected. And the Mr. Taylor was my favorite scent, although not too powerful, which is what I like.

The Shavemac was a model 429 in finest badger. I was pleased with the quality and feel of the brush, and for me it is the exact right size. To start with, I used a fingertip full of Mr. Taylor and started whipping up a lather in my bowl. Here is where I saw the major differences between the cheap boar brush and the badger, as well as those between a puck of Williams and a good cream. The cream built up a fantastic lather with very little work, and when I put it on my face, it didn't thin out and start to disappear like the Williams did. It does give a great shave.

I will note that I was prepared to smell an odor with the badger brush. Out of the box there was no odor. BUT... I have smelled various members of the Mustelid family, such as ferrets and skunks. This brush, when wet, emitted a stench the likes of which I have never smelled before. Well, I have smelled it before but this is a ladies/gentleman's forum so the less said there the better. I have shampooed it 3 times and now I am leaving it to dry. Based on what I've read here, I am sure the fetor will be gone in a week or so.

BTW I should add that the service I got from the vendors, Vintage Blades LLC and Em's place, was exemplary. Both shipped quick, sent e-mail notifications and both included nice notes thanking me for their business. Mr. Ayars actually hand-wrote his. This was greatly appreciated - Emily and Jim, if you're reading this, thanks for the great service!

Leisureguy · Post by **Leisureguy** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:58 pm

Very cool. One of the pleasures of traditional shaving is that the supplies and products, amortized over their lifetimes, is relatively low, while still extremely satisfying.

Enjoy!

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:56 pm

There you go. Now you know what we're yakking about all the time, and why we spend the extra money for the good stuff. It's not just some sort of elitist affectation, or nostalgia trip....it really makes a hell of a difference ( see my post in Richard's thread about stuff that really changed one's shaving experiance ).
Regards,
Gordon

TorzJohnson · Post by **TorzJohnson** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:32 am

Progress report on Operation StenchBrush:

I searched here and at B&B for keywords "stinks" and "stinky", and found all kinds of good info. First I noticed some people got rid of the stink with repeated applications of Proraso and letting it sit. I don't have Proraso but I do have Speick, and with its medicinal scent I thought it would be the most likely candidate to battle the pungent effluvium from this brush.

I mixed up a batch of Speick lather and let it sit for an hour, mashing the brush around occasionally to make sure it penetrated deep into the brush. I did this three times. Now, the malodorous redolence from the brush was reduced significantly. It was still pretty much the same, but now a tiny dwarf as opposed to the mighty giant it was to begin with.

Then I noticed some threads about using Febreze. We happen to have this product in our house, as we have 3 kids and a dog. At first I wasn't too sure about spraying a deodorizer on my new brush, but the others who have used it indicated that it didn't hurt the brush. I read the ingredients, it says the deodorizer is derived from corn. I realize this doesn't mean much since the poison gas Ricin is derived from nature's own castor beans, but for some reason it comforted me.

I liberally sprayed the Febreze on the brush, and opened it up and got the spray deep down inside. After 15 min I rinsed it and shampooed it, and now the smell was nearly gone!

In the morning, I gave it another Febreze treatment while I showered, and rinsed it out and whipped up a batch of Speick lather. It worked great and I didn't smell anything but Speick. The smell of Speick is growing on me, I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but it really helped save my brush from the foul mephitic reek of badger B.O.

Kudos to Febreze and Speick!