Shaving notes of the MaineYooper

The Case of the Irritated Face and the Weepers



This morning's shave reinforced for me why the Eversharp (Schick Type I) Hydro-Magic is my favorite injector. What an outstanding shave! Of course, to have an outstanding shave, all the parts have to be a team! And they did. From the Nacar Oscuro with the AP Shave Co. 2BED to the Ethos Clean, together making a great lather warmed by the scuttle, then the razor doing its part with the blade. I didn't want to stop!

So what is this Mystery Case? Well, for 3 days I have used the Japanese Schick blade in the Type J razor and had irritation and weepers. So, I put that Schick blade into the Hydro-Magic and loaded a new sChick blade into the Type J, which I reported on yesterday. If you recall, there was still irritation and weepers, albeit not as much. Today, nothing. No negatives to report. This leads me to believe that for my face, the Type J is a more aggressive shaver than the Hydro-Magic. The final part of the case will be to do a shave as above but with the J instead of the I.

This is my "short week," so I get some days off at the beginning and end of the week. Which is good, as there seems to be a lot of home front stuff to deal with. Stay well, my freinds!

Nascar Oscuro for the w … oh wait.

Messier with G5C. check back later for thoughts, off to early morning meeting to take my lumps!

This morning I let the brush soak as I did the cleaning rituals. It was like a different brush! I don't get it, synthetic hair does not need soaking, but this knot, and its G5A sibling, perform better for me when soaked. Decent splay, great lather generator, and no "bump" feel. 

As for the meeting, I survived, but was put on notice. I get where they are coming from, but it is scary to be in the target of their ire. Nuff said! Onward and upwards!

The G5A knots I've seen (also from APShavCo) have rather high glue bumps, so I am not surprised that yours benefitted from a good soak. I imagine it must help to have the remaining, unglued hair as wet as p[possible, and perhaps as pliable as possible too.

It's been a while since I wrote anything, but I'll make up for it! Great mail calls yesterday and today. First, that giver known as mrdoug sent me not only a wonderful Ever Ready vintage handle with a Maggard boar knot, but also a new AP Shave Co. Cashmere knot! Thanks, Paul! 



And our other Paul Stubble Daddy supplied me with a T1 Manchurian badger knot that I'll put in the Quasar handle. 


Today's shave was great, the brush from Paul (mrdoug) paired well with the Schick Type G. The knot does seem to love eating lather, I think I returned to the tub twice, depending on how you count! But it made great lather!

Badger Bliss

This is my first shave with a full-on badger brush since early April 2016! I was less than 1 year into DE shaving and was getting irritation whenever I used various the badger brushes from Whipped Dog. One was set high and one lower. The high one was too floppy for me and the low one may have caused the irritation from being too scrubby? My notes just say that whenever I used it I noted irritation. Some threads on forums mentioned others getting irritation and questioned allergy or too scrubby as the cause. I decided to stop, as by this time I had several synthetics that were working great for me. My original badger was an Amazon find and it was wonderful for a first brush. But I couldn't get an offensive fragrance out of it, a fragrance that triggered sinus headaches with my wife, so I binned the brush. If only I'd kept it and tried other methods to remove the scent!

So today was the Manchurian knot set in the Quasar Trotter Handcrafts handle. 


This is the set depth I used. No fancy calipers here, just eyeballing and playing around with various washers before using the silicone. This has 1 thin washer, as the knot didn't want to reach the bottom without a big push, and the result looked too deep to me. 

This knot loaded fast! I went longer because I am used to my boars taking at least 30-45 seconds and this guy seemed ready to go at about 15-20 seconds! The result was a heavy brush with lots of wonderful lather! And splay! Holy smokes did it have splay! And soft! Holy mackerel was it soft! Folks, these T1 Manchurian knots are the bees' knees! Paul Stubble Daddy warned me to not set it as high as he knows I typically do that with synths. I don't think I set this high, but what splay! As of this morning, I do not think it is too floppy, but I look forward to using it more and seeing what I think. 



Schick Type J
sChick blade (3)
Quasar badger
Ethos Clean

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Yesterday was a midday shave with the Type G and a blade on its 13th use. And what a shave! Later in the day I was amazed to find parts of my face still glass-like. So I am thinking that the Type G and the Quasar badger will be making more appearances for the upcoming week. As for the Ethos, I am not sure if I want to finish it off, or start using it every other day. I have gone 2 weeks with it now to get that donut ring shown above, and would love to have one less tub in the (very full) soap drawer, but my wandering eye wants to use other soaps! The Ethos has been a very good soap for me. Unfortunately, I think my drawer is full of very good soaps and the minimalist that was banished to the back of my brain is starting to yell a lot!

Great read Eric and glad you have a Badger you're happy with now !

Pretty stoked right now, as over on TOST3 I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of the Type J and offered it to anyone interested. Jim (aka Jayaruh) PM'd me, and I get to send him a knot as well as the Type J and he is going to make a handle for me! Not that I need/want more brushes, but hey, another artisan willing to give/trade a handle?! How cool and fun is our community!

Looking like the week is going to start with a Winter Storm while I am working Monday and Tuesday, followed by appointments and working the weekend. But the shaves will be great!


I plan to return to my weekly set up shaves and try to settle down some! But I have enjoyed switching up razors and brushes so much during DecemBoar and early January that maybe I'll still sneak in a switch now and again. So for the week I have chosen to use the Quasar badger, the Schick Type G with a new sChick blade, and keep on making that donut disappear in the Ethos Clean. Great shave today so I think I'll be solid for the week!

Have a great week and be safe out there folks! See you around the forums!

Brrrr! It's zero F outside, and I woke up to a cool house. Boiler not firing, so I'm waiting for the plumbing and heating company to call me back. Not cold, yet, in the house. Hopefully we'll be at the top of the list.

I have had more issues with the boiler, starting with its installation back in '09. Time to look at other options.

That STINKS, hope it gets sorted out soon for you !