SOTD 26 April-2 May 2020

Paradigm Diamondback 2020
Nacet (1)
NO Nectar Amissa soap and AS

April 29, 2020
OneBlade Genesis
Feather FHS
30DC LE with Zenith Boar
A&E Bad Habits
Shave Soap & Aftershave

Razor:  The original Tradere First Gen OC,

Blade:  Personna 74 (24)

Lovely photo, Clint. 

Wednesday, April 29

La Savonnière du Moulin~~Simpson CH2 Synthetic~~1908 Gillette/Personna 74~~SMN Nostalgia
Have a great day!

Dorian Tortoise-Briar/ TOBS Avocado/ Oneblade Copper/ Aqua Velva/ SC Integrity balm

Second shave with the Square Root Pascal-SLOC hybrid/Astra SS. I like this enough I ordered a black head from China to match the SRP plate.


Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

SOTD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2020

Another great shave with one of my stalwarts, the Karve Shaving ‘Christopher Bradley’ razor, fitted with my new wide body top cap and an E-OC plate. This razor was my first new razor purchase after 50+ unsophisticated single pass Barbasol shave years with my faithful Schick Krona, which gave up the ghost in 2019. The quality of the Karve design and the razor’s weighty feel in hand was the beginning of a bad case of RAD. I can thank my good shave brothers at TSD for both the conscious and unconscious enablement of both vintage and modern shave tools that followed. The first shaves I experienced with this Karve razor literally exploded my shave horizons. The excellent photography and rave reviews that I consumed at TSD, B&B and DFS led me to purchase a very large variety of old and new shave tools. 

The true revelation arrived this last December. At TSD the adage is “technique trumps tools”, or more simply, “it ain’t the arrow that kills you, it’s the Indian!” I realized that 50 yrs of DE shaves did leave me with decent technique that readily transferred to modern DEs and non-pivoting SEs, and that the quality of my shaves improved immensely when I incorporated multiple passes into my routine. At my point in life, I have no interest in cart shaving or shaving with transitional pivoting SEs. I’ve had one experience with CART shaving, the Omnishaver, which initially seemed to deliver great head shaves, until I began to develop ingrown hairs on the back of my neck. That was that for CARTs.

This particular razor, while opening my eyes to new shaving vistas, did tend to nick my ears with the exposed blade tabs that were part of the original top cap design. While not a consistent problem, it did eventually lead to my putting the Karve aside more and more. The new wide body cap completely corrects this deficit. I know I’ll be using this razor with much greater frequency. It is an awesome shaver. My shave today was a real pleasure! I really enjoy OC DEs for the efficient shave delivered. They tend to have a much more generous sweet spot, and because of this do require some minding, but the head and face shaves they provide more than make up for the increased attention required. Mr. Bradley put the baby to bed after two and a half passes (WTG, ATG, ATG), where the last half pass consisted of buffing cleanup. The 6 drops of M-Bomb added to one of my favorite shave creams, Kapo, left me feeling incredibly cool, smooth and refreshed. BBS land is where I prefer to dwell, and this particular razor is one of my 12 keys!

RAZOR: Karve Christopher Bradley with E-OC plate and Wide Body Cap
BLADE: Suneko (1)
PREP: Cold water rinse
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger Fan
CREAM: Kapo Menthol w/ 6 Drops of M-Bomb
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with Glyce Glycerin soap followed by Thayers Lavender WH and Fine Accoutrements Lavender Pour Homme AS Splash. Finished with Cremo Post Shave Balm.

Wednesday AM 2020-04-29

Rooney Polo 1 Ivory Finest (24/54)
Harrods by Floris shaving soap (tallow)
Carbon CX-Titanium
Personna 74 Tungsten (5)
Calvin Klein Obsession aftershave

Max Sprecher 9/8 Spanish Point in Abalone
That Darn Rob 26mm Fanchurian
M&M Kodiak Triskele