Hello everyone!
I'm Crag...You all know me as Crag of TSN and B&B and Matt Manzano on the Facebook forums. I've been wet-shaving since 2001 using my dad's old SuperSpeed TTO and a Hagen brush I found at a Five and Dime. My first shave brush of worth was a Rooney Finest 3/2 that I got from Lee, which to me felt very scritchy so I sold it for $50. Yes, $50! lol...If I had known what they'd be selling for today I'd have kept it in a drawer! I've had more since then, but ended up trading or selling them all off.
My favorite brands of brushes are, in no particular order:
Simpsons Manchurian, and 2-band Silvertip
Declaration Brushes all batches
Rooney Stubby 3-band Heritage
Rudy Vey Shavemac 2-band Silvertip
Brett Mozingo
Leonidam
Wolf Whiskers
I love artisan soaps, but lately have gotten into the high quality ingredients varieties such as Nuavia, Saponificio Varesino, MdC, Sebum, and T+S. I have a mild allergy to lanolin, so while I do have some soaps with lanolin, I only use them sparingly.
I am a fair trader and seller, though I've mostly done B/S/T on Facebook forums. I sometimes PIF for no reason, especially to our service men and women. I love their service and sacrifice and think they should be rewarded for their actions to protect us in such a hard environment. I will always give a period for satisfaction because my goal in trading is for both of us to be happy with our trades.
This is a self funded hobby for me, and I haven't spent any of my earned money on anything since 2012. All purchases come from sales of another item. I tend to drool a lot, but always try to find a way to get what I want by trading for it, or selling something to acquire it, and I don't binge buy unless the above protocols are met first.
I like discussing new and upcoming things...I'm hoping that wet-shaving catches fire and goes viral...and by the AoS display at my local Target, I'm supposing that is happening.
I'm an easy going guy who loves to spend time with family. I am a systems designer/ solutions architect for a major company in the public safety sphere and I am a 911 Emergency Number Professional. That said I also appreciate and respect anyone involved in Law Enforcement, Fire Service or EMS, including our first-First Responders, our Dispatchers and Telecommunicators. I have been involved in Emergency Operations to some degree since 1990. I started as an EMT-D in Los Angeles County and evolved to Paramedic, then Paramedic Professor, then Firefighter/Paramedic, then Flight Paramedic, then I switched gears and became a 911 Center (PSAP) Director, then back to the Fire Service as a Supervisor and finally went back to school for an IT/Computer Science degree and became a 911 Solutions Architect. I love my job, and have a ton of experience driving 911 system decisions throughout North America through my affiliations in NENA and APCO.
There you have it! My life's story.
Feel free to reach out to me for anything you may need.
Matt
I'm Crag...You all know me as Crag of TSN and B&B and Matt Manzano on the Facebook forums. I've been wet-shaving since 2001 using my dad's old SuperSpeed TTO and a Hagen brush I found at a Five and Dime. My first shave brush of worth was a Rooney Finest 3/2 that I got from Lee, which to me felt very scritchy so I sold it for $50. Yes, $50! lol...If I had known what they'd be selling for today I'd have kept it in a drawer! I've had more since then, but ended up trading or selling them all off.
My favorite brands of brushes are, in no particular order:
Simpsons Manchurian, and 2-band Silvertip
Declaration Brushes all batches
Rooney Stubby 3-band Heritage
Rudy Vey Shavemac 2-band Silvertip
Brett Mozingo
Leonidam
Wolf Whiskers
I love artisan soaps, but lately have gotten into the high quality ingredients varieties such as Nuavia, Saponificio Varesino, MdC, Sebum, and T+S. I have a mild allergy to lanolin, so while I do have some soaps with lanolin, I only use them sparingly.
I am a fair trader and seller, though I've mostly done B/S/T on Facebook forums. I sometimes PIF for no reason, especially to our service men and women. I love their service and sacrifice and think they should be rewarded for their actions to protect us in such a hard environment. I will always give a period for satisfaction because my goal in trading is for both of us to be happy with our trades.
This is a self funded hobby for me, and I haven't spent any of my earned money on anything since 2012. All purchases come from sales of another item. I tend to drool a lot, but always try to find a way to get what I want by trading for it, or selling something to acquire it, and I don't binge buy unless the above protocols are met first.
I like discussing new and upcoming things...I'm hoping that wet-shaving catches fire and goes viral...and by the AoS display at my local Target, I'm supposing that is happening.
I'm an easy going guy who loves to spend time with family. I am a systems designer/ solutions architect for a major company in the public safety sphere and I am a 911 Emergency Number Professional. That said I also appreciate and respect anyone involved in Law Enforcement, Fire Service or EMS, including our first-First Responders, our Dispatchers and Telecommunicators. I have been involved in Emergency Operations to some degree since 1990. I started as an EMT-D in Los Angeles County and evolved to Paramedic, then Paramedic Professor, then Firefighter/Paramedic, then Flight Paramedic, then I switched gears and became a 911 Center (PSAP) Director, then back to the Fire Service as a Supervisor and finally went back to school for an IT/Computer Science degree and became a 911 Solutions Architect. I love my job, and have a ton of experience driving 911 system decisions throughout North America through my affiliations in NENA and APCO.
There you have it! My life's story.
Feel free to reach out to me for anything you may need.
Matt