Saturday, April 30, 2016

Integirty, The Beach & The Jinhou (Day 7 of 7)

This morning shave was great and it's also the last day of my Soap Commander appreciation week. I decided to go with their Integrity soap which is unscented. However since I'm NOT hunting, I decided to take the Commander to The Beach and pair this soap with PAA's The Beach which is incredible and has a sun tan lotion, sand, ozone, ocean and sweet coconut scent to it as it dries down which takes over 24 hours to do so. I've applied it and the very next day, I could still smell it in my shirt which is awesome and why I used Artisan made products:


The Jinhou done extremely well this morning and I got another "ice rink" type of shave in 3 passes. That is the maximum number of passes I will take because any more than that minus a few touch up spots, causes me irritation.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Gusto & The 208 (Day 6 of 7):

Today's shave was great. It was also Day 6 of 7 of my Soap Commander appreciation week and I went with their "Gusto" scented soap which has a raspberry pink lemonade scent which almost always makes me thirsty. I decided to pair it with Aqua Velva's classic ice blue aftershave splash which has a very refreshing and cool effect to it:


This was also a 2 pass "ice rink" shave. Out of my Gold Dollar razors, the 208 with false carbon fiber scales is my favorite at the moment.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

ATT's Single Edge Razor:

Today when I checked my "pages feed" over on my Face Book page, I got a really nice surprise today when I had seen this. The best part is that they are currently taking preorders and will be shipping them out around the end of May of 2016. Up until here recently you've had 3 choices for this style of razor. Colonial Razors, Mongoose Razors and the Cobra Classic. I ruled out the cobra classic because it starts at $200 dollars and it's NOT even stainless steel. If I'm going to spend this kind money, I'd definitely want stainless steel hands down. That and it's gone before you can blink and they've only done 2 batches of the Cobra Classic this year while Mongoose Razors has already done several batches and have more on the way:


The cost for the ATT SE1 isn't too bad at all which is $185 U.S. Dollars shipped and it's made of 303 polished stainless steel :


The fit and finish looks great so far. I'll know more when I can buy it and get a closer look at it which I am going to do. This will be my first Above The Tie razor:


The head looks a little bit similar to Mongoose Razor's design, but seems to have a more rounded cap while the Mongoose has a more angular shaped cap:


I'm also hoping that they will offer an option to where you can just but the head of the razor along with some different base plates like they do with their DE safety razors which is what I like about Above The Tie Razors:


I'm not sure when Ikon Razors will be releasing their version, but they have been putting concept drawings on their Face Book page and RazoRock has released images of their prototype which they are still working on and testing which should be released by the end of this year. I was correct in dubbing 2016 as year of the hardware and I'm loving it.

Confidence & DE 89 (Day 5 of 7):

This morning's shave was really good. Sorry for the late posting ladies and gentlemen, I had some errands to run this morning and pretty much had to shave and go out the door basically. Today is also day 5 of 7 of Soap Commander appreciation week and I went with their ever popular confidence scented soap and their integrity balm. This soap is becoming a favorite of mine with its overly sweet honey with musk and patchouli scent which calms the sweetness of the honey down and balances the scent out. The ladies love this scent too:


In terms of post shave feel, I was on cloud 9 today. Between the ultra slick but clean post shave feel of the soap and the fact that my Edwin Jagger DE 89 had a fresh Feather blade in the razor, I really don't need to tell anyone as to what kind of shave I got this morning. It was an "ice rink" type of shave again. It amazes me at how much of a difference it makes when you simply switch blades in a razor. I made the right decision by going with Feather DE blades.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Refreshment & The 208 (Day 4 of 7):

Today's shave was extremely good and very satisfying. It was also day 4 of 7 of Soap Commander week and I went with their "Refreshment" scented soap. It has an incredible sweet tea with lemon scent to it and I get thirsty every time I use it. This was a limited edition scent and there was no matching aftershave balm for this one so I went with their "Integrity" aftershave balm which is "unscented" and won't clash with the scent of the soap:


The Gold Dollar 208 peformed great. I couldn't have gotten a better a shave today. I really can't wait to get my finishing stone here in about a week. I'm going for the Arkansas surgical black oil stone. After that, I will be going on a soap run. I'm running low on my PAA collection and I'm nearly out of TTFFC which will be restocked first.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Vision & The 66 (Day 3 of 7) :

Today's shave was extremely good and very refreshing. It's also day 3 of 7 of Soap Commander appreciation week and I went with their Vision scented line. This is my personal favorite combo. You get a really nice and refreshing chill with this combo. This soap and aftershave balm has an Aqua, Amber and Mint scent to it. Even though there's no menthol in the soap, you still get and amazing chill from it and the menthol in the aftershave balm puts it over the top. The Aqua Velva ice blue aftershave is one of my favorite aftershave splashes and it seems to go with just about every soap in my collection especially this one: 


The edge on this razor was perfect. I got a 3 pass BBS shave that was extremely comfortable and there was no stubble left behind either. I did have to touch up a couple of my trouble spots, but it was a very enjoyable shave and zen like experience this morning.

Monday, April 25, 2016

The 66 Gets Rehoned:

Even though I was confident that the touch up I performed this morning would have helped, I decided to re-hone the Gold Dollar 66. I simply did NOT feel comfortable with a simple touch up and thought more was needed:


First I drew a grid on my Norton 4/8K combo stone and lapped it with the Ultra Sharp II 600 grit Diamond plate and let me tell you, the diamond plate was awesome on the Norton 4/8K water stone. I was done lapping both sides of it in less than 2 minutes :


Next I killed the edge by gently pulling the razor across the back of my diamond plate. You can use an ordinary drinking glass, another water stone, or even and ceramic bottle to kill the edge :


Ok next I reset the bevel on my Naniwa Professional 600 grit stone using the usual routine of 40/40, 20/20, 10/10, 5/5, seconds followed by 10 round trips to clean up the edge a bit and then I repeated half of that routine to make sure that the bevel was set:


Next up was my Soft Arkansas oil stone in which I did my old routine that I use to do with my Norton 4/8K combo stone which was 100 round trips followed by the usual 40/40, 20/20, 10/10, 5/5, seconds followed by 10 round trips to clean up the edge. I spent extra time with this stone by choice mainly because I wanted that extra polished look on my edge and it worked. Now here's where things get interesting. I stropped the razor 25 round trips on this stone  To me this makes for a more comfortable shave and it also deburrs the edge if there is any on the razor and I didn't see any through my Loupe:


Next Up was the old 4K side of the Norton 4/8K combo stone and let me tell you, the slurry was instant with this side of the stone while in the past it would take several minutes to get a slurry. I did the usual 40/40, 20/20, 10/10, 5/5 seconds followed by 10 round trips to clean up the edge. I also stropped 25 round trips on this side of the stone as well:


Now I repeated the same process above only I did an additional half of the routine along with the stropping I mentioned above on the 8K side of the Norton water stone:


Now I returned to the Soft Arkansas and I stropped the razor 100 round trips and the reason for this was to take harshness of the synthetic edge off the razor to make for a much more comfortable shave for tomorrow morning:


Now to finish the razor off, I did my usual routine on my 3 inch black latigo hanging strop which is 10 round trips on the Linen (nylon webbing in my case), 25 round trips on the scrub leather and 50 round trips on the smooth leather. I also plan on getting a bench mounted leather strop and trying the CBN Emulsion system to see what happens later on:


After my next stone purchase, the Norton 4/8K combo stone will no longer be in my progression. It will be the Professional 600, followed by the Soft Arkansas and then a little extra time on the Arkansas surgical black oil stone. To me these Arkansas oil stone edges are the most comfortable edges I've shaved with to date. I love the Japanese natural water stones but they are kindly hard to get and depending on which Japanese natural water stone you get, they can be expensive. And I simply can't afford one just yet. It will probably be around maybe August before I can get a Jnat.

Resolution & The 66 (Day 2 of 7):

Today's shave was good and it was also day 2 of 7 of Soap Commander appreciation week. I went with their Resolution scented soap which is a Mistletoe, Frasier Fir, and fresh cranberry scented soap. I also paired it with Aqua Velva ice blue aftershave splash and Soap Commander's "integrity" balm which is unscented and has a really nice menthol chill to it which was needed this morning after my shave:


The Gold Dollar 66 did NOT perform too good this morning. In fact it kept wanting to dig into my skin this morning and if it wasn't for Soap Commander having really good cushioning ability, I would be using a DE safety razor tomorrow for sure. So I did a quick touch up on both the Professional 600 grit water stone and the Soft Arkansas oil stone after my shave.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

#16 of 2016 is done:

Apparently I have miss counted the number of soaps I've killed off this year. I forget when I finished this one off but apparently I did NOT document it and put the empty tin back in my collection and had forgot about it. 16 empty soap containers in 2016 alone has got to be a new record:


I loved the scent on this soap which was black licorice & star anise, unfortunately my friends and family didn't care for this one too much which is also why I didn't get the matching aftershave. I was kind of "told" not to get this one again due to the black licorice. My mom and a good portion of my friends can't stand ANY kind of licorice period. I would order it again if certain people wouldn't get upset about it. Maybe I should reorder it just to see what happens.

Fortitude & DE 89 (day 1 of 7):

Today shave was great and is Day 1 of 7 for Soap Commander appreciation week. Today I went with their Fortitude scented soap which has an aged tobacco, aged hay and dark rum scent and I paired it with their Purpose aftershave balm which has a bay rum scent to it and it goes extremely well with the soap. And since it's Sunday, I went with Edwin Jagger DE 89 : 


My post shave feel is great, but not quite a BBS or "ice rink" type of shave as I like to call it. Mainly because that was the 3rd and final shave on this particular Feather blade. So I've got a new blade soaking in Barbicide along with the razor disassembled to clean it up a bit and remove any internal residue that may have accumulated on it.


Saturday, April 23, 2016

Yogurt Anyone?

This is a typical 30 second load using the Omega 10049 Professional Boar brush. Now this is also before I face lathered as well. Now for creams and soft soaps, I cut the load time way down to 10 seconds. Once I get the water dialed in, my straight razors rinse cleanly without having to wipe my straight razors off. That's pretty much when you know you've got it dialed in:


Soap Commander, Barrister & Mann, Tiki Bar, RazoRock, Reef Point, TTFFC, and PAA all get the same or similar load time and have extremely good performance. The Vegan based soaps seem to perform better with the water that I have here. The tallow based soaps perform good here, but not quite as good as the vegan based soaps and often require a shade more load time but not much though. So far my favorite brand is Soap Commander .

Latha Limon & The Jinhou:

Today's shave was great. I needed a Barrister & Mann fix and the only scent I have of theirs at the moment is "Latha Limon" which is an incredible scent. You have lemon, orange and rose. To me, I don't get hardly any rose at all, but I do get some of the orange once it's been bloomed. Starting tomorrow, I will be doing Soap Commander appreciation week in honor of Luke Seibert:


Here's what my brush looks like after a 30 second load and the soap has been bloomed:


The Post shave feel I have right now is yet another BBS. My Gold monkey wasn't quite as comfortable as my 208 was, so I did 15 more stropping strokes on my soft arkansas oil stone followed by my usual stropping session. The Gold Monkey is a mixed steel razor and it's obvious to me that they used more stainless steel than their usual carbon steel mixture. The reason I say this is because it takes more time to strop and hone a Gold Monkey than it does a Gold Dollar and it also performs better when you do spend more time stropping and honing it.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Jack Frost & The 208:

Oh wow what a great shave I got this morning. SteamBath Factory was up next in my rotation and I only have their Jack Frost scent which is a sweet vanilla and mint scented croap. This one will take forever to finish off because it doesn't take much at all to make a lather and the fact that I've had it for nearly a year and haven't even come close to the half way mark says a lot. Aqua Velva's classic ice blue aftershave goes perfect with this product:


The stropping technique I posted yesterday worked extremely well. There was no tugging or pulling like there had been before and it removed that harshness that the synthetic stones tend have. I got another BBS shave again. Even my aftershave didn't burn when I applied it. The Arkansas oil stones win hands down because both this razor and the Gold Monkey were tugging and pulling something fierce before I did that touch up on the Soft Arkansas oil stone. Now in terms of the Gold Monkey, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I shave with it. But the stropping technique did work on my Gold Dollar 208 which is awesome.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

A Pasted Strop Alternative:

One of the things that people often ask about is pasted strops and people often ask about the different pastes and sprays also. Well here's an alternative you can use if you don't have any pastes or sprays and if you don't feel like the razor needs to be re-honed from start to finish and that would be stropping on a stone. I wanted to remove the harshness that the synthetic water stones had so I used my Soft Arkansas oil stone using the weight of the blade only :


What you simply do is 25 stropping strokes on your favorite finishing stone. Both my Gold Monkey Triple 6 and Gold Dollar 208 were in really good shape, but they were starting to tug a little bit (especially the Gold Monkey) and needed a touch up and I really don't like the synthetic edges anymore. The 66 with an Arkansas oil stone kindly spoiled me a little bit:


After I did that, I went to my hanging strop and I did a different routine for each razor. For the Gold Dollar 208, I did the usual routine which was 10 on the linen, 25 on the scrub leather, and 50 on the smooth leather. And for the Gold Monkey I did 15 on the linen, 30 on the scrub leather, and 60 on the smooth leather :


This left a really nice and polished looking edge under my loupe and I'm really looking forward to shaving with these razors to see how well this worked. Best Sharpening Stones has the grit listed for the compounds as follows. Black = 3,000 grit, Green = 6,000 grit, and White = 12,000 grit. Here's the link for that specific web page: http://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/catalog/Stropping-Compounds.htm . So for those who want to touch up their razors and don't have any pastes and/or sprays, this is a reliable alternative that should help.

PAA's 9, Tombstone & DE 89:

Today's shave was awesome. I was craving something strong and very masculine this morning and Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's #9 was speaking to me. This has the same scent as Hoppe's #9 gun cleaner with gun powder added and since I don't have the matching aftershave just yet, I paired it with their Tombstone aftershave which has a pipe tobacco, rose water, leather and gun powder scent to it and it's awesome as well:


In terms post shave feel I have a 2 pass "ice rink" type of shave. In the past the Feather DE blades use to eat me up in this specific razor, but that was well over 2 years ago now and my beard has gotten a lot tougher. I've got to get these 2 scents in a complete matching set.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

RazoRock & The 66:

Today's shave was epic and very refreshing. And since it has been a while, I went with RazoRock which has phenomenal performance. Their classic scent was up next in my rotation which is an old school cherry and sweet almond scent and it pairs extremely well with Aqua Velva's classic ice blue aftershave splash:


In terms of post shave feel I have a really nice and comfortable "ice rink" type of shave. I can now say that the Arkansas oil stone edges are my personal favorite. No hair left behind and yet it feels like you are shaving with a butter knife which is exactly what I like and look for in a straight razor. So my next online order will be for some Arkansas oil stones. I'm going with a wood mounted 8 by 2 inch set. The soft Arkansas I purchased some time back is awesome, but I have an upcoming expense that I've got to care of before I can order any more than what I am this coming pay day.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Go West & The Jinhou:

Today's shave was great. I needed a Tiki Bar fix and since it's been a while since I've used it, Go West was up next in the rotation. It's got a fresh leather jacket scent to it for those whom are wondering. The Jinhou is just now starting to get a slight tug to it and it's got a lot of shaves on it. I do NOT have any pastes or sprays here at the moment but if I did, now would be the time to use it. But there's something that I can use which is my Norton 4/8K water stone and all you do is strop the razor on the 8K side (10 round trips). But I do recommend using a finishing stone of 10K or higher:


In terms of post shave feel, I have another ice rink but it's not too comfortable. I have a slight touch of razor burn mainly because I did an extra touch up pass which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The Arkansas oil stones have won hands down in terms of comfortable edges. The Japanese natural water stones are smooth but deadly. I'm a bleeder and those Japanese natural water stone edges tend to be a bit too sharp for their own good at times. And what I mean by that is you often don't feel it when you do get cut with the Japanese natural water stone edges. They are still one of the best edges though and I still plan on getting a Japanese natural water stone soon.

Monday, April 18, 2016

TTFFC Mixed & The 208:

Today's shave was great. I needed a Through The Fire Fine Craft fix very badly this morning so I pulled out my mixed version. Other than this container right here, I am completely out of Maria Arman's soap which I need to rectify as soon as possible. But first, I've got one more mail call for some Arkansas oil stones:


In terms of post shave feel, I got another "ice rink" with my Gold Dollar 208. But during the shave, I noticed that the Arkansas edge that my friend put on the 66 was much more comfortable and smoother than my 208 was which I will be fixing here pretty soon. The synthetic water stones may be more accurate in terms of grit, but to me they're more harsh to use compared to the natural stones. Of course this is just my opinion, but I have yet to see one person complain about the edge that a natural stone provides. Especially the Japanese natural stones.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Diamond Plate Review:

As many of you know, I purchased an Ultra Sharp II 600 grit diamond plate to flatten my stones with and to create a slurry if I need to (more on that later). Well I can happily say that this was the best choice I ever made. I had my Naniwa Professional 600 grit stone and my Soft Arkansas oil stone flattened in roughly 10 minutes, maybe not even that:


First I drew a grid on the professional stone using any pencil:


And under running water, I created a slurry. In my humble opinion, the 1,200 grit version would be better for creating a slurry because the 600 grit diamond plate wanted to flatten more instead of creating a slurry:


After I rinsed the 600 professional stone and patted it dry, the diamond plate did leave a few scratches, but you really can't see them in this particular photo but other than that it was effortless :


I also wanted to see how this diamond plate performed on natural stones or in this specific case Arkansas oil stones. This is my 8 by 3 inch Soft Arkansas oil stone and the diamond plate did extremely well:


First I drew a grid on it the same way I did with the professional stone earlier:


And under running water I created a slurry which was a little bit easier to do with this oil stone so I'm pretty certain that this will work on ANY natural water stone:


In terms of results, this stone is in excellent shape after flattening which I patted dry using a paper towel. No scratches were present in this stone at all and it was even easier to flatten compared to the Professional 600 stone was which is pretty cool. Remember 1,200 grit for creating a slurry. That seems to be the best route from what I've seen:


Once I rinsed my oil stone out in running water, time to soak it in some oil:


This was an easy way to flatten my stones and unlike the Norton flattening stone, the diamond plate does NOT require flattening. The lapping plates are too expensive and in my opinion, these little diamond plates are a much better route. I got the diamond plate from Best Sharpening Stones for exactly $24.90 shipped. The diamond lapping plates you see costs around $300+ dollars so to me and anyone else, this is a much more economical alternative that are just as effective.


Number 15 of 2016:

Just when I thought it would be a really long time before I killed another soap, I run out of my MLS The Kraken, Dang it I says. But that's number 15 of 2016. I honestly thought I had more of this soap than I actually did:


As you can see below, I have about a sample's worth of this soap left:


My next online order is also being changed as we speak. Mainly because I have a few unforeseen extra expenses this month so I'll have to see what all I can order after I'm done paying the bills and what not. So that soap buying spree will be taking place here pretty soon.

The Kraken, Brut & DE 89:

This morning's shave was epic. Once again Mickey Lee Soapworks has delivered another amazing shave. The Kraken was the last MLS soap that I had at the moment and it has a very nice ocean side barbershop scent to it for those that have never used it. The lather this soap has is phenomenal. I had plenty of cushioning ability and slickness during my shave. My mom picked out the Brut aftershave splash which is one of her favorites:


In terms of post shave feel, I was pleasantly shocked to get a 2 pass "ice rink" type of shave with only 3 spots that needed touching up. Using a Feather blade in my DE 89 which was a comfortable shave. In the past, that would have been a nasty combo and then some for me. But I can get away with NOT shaving for a couple of days because of how good of a shave I got today. But we all know that's no fun.

Feather Blades Win:

Well I tried this combo again today and it was awesome. Unlike in the past, they were comfortable to use in the Edwin Jagger DE 89 but they still have that legendary sharpness to them. I'm guessing it's where my beard has gotten tougher over the past year along with a much better technique which a friend pointed out. So it looks like Feather blades are in my rotation from now on:


This used to be nearly unusable combo for me at all.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

It's Decent at Best:

As most of you guys know, my mom bought me a Van Der Hagen pure badger brush last night at Walmart. I used it in today's shave and it was decent. During the break in procedure that I use, I noticed that it lost an epic amount of hairs and it still lost some more in today's shave. That's a turn off for me and it drives me crazy too. Another problem I have with it is that it has zero backbone and since it's still losing hairs, this will get worse. With that being said, I do like the softness it has and the size is perfect for me. I don't think this brush is worth $19 dollars to be honest about it. I think it should be priced at around maybe $7 dollars because I honestly don't think it will last:


Of course this is just my humble opinion as an experienced wet shaver.

11235 & The 66:

For today's shave, I needed a PAA fix and I just happened to see the 11235 scented soap and let me you, it's incredible. I get a fresh citrus cologne with rose and woody undertones and to me it pairs perfectly with Pinaud's Clubman so I used it along with PAA's ClubGuy for my aftershave. I love the scent on this soap and do plan on getting the matching colonge (4711) here pretty soon. It also won't be long until I'll have go on a bit of a soap buying binge either. Between killing 14 soaps in 3 months (and no I'm not even close to killing another one) I have gotten low in my soap collection. So it's time to re-stock my supply if you will:


The post shave feel I have today is yet another "ice rink" and these Arkansas oil stones produce an extremely nice and comfortable edge. I've already got the soft Arkansas which is my lower grit (1 to 2K) stone. The next 2 stones I'm buying will be the hard Arkansas (4 to 6K) and the Surgical Black (10 to 12K finisher). Bare in mind that those are rough estimates in terms of the grit rating which is one of the drawbacks to natural stones, no one really knows what the exact grit is on them and it really changes if you use the Japanese grit system versus the American version.

Brush Cleaning & Post # 600:

One of the things I get asked about is how I clean my brushes and how come my Omega 10049 Professional boar brush has only lost approximately 6 hairs over the past 2 years and why has it lasted as long as it has. Well I'm about to show you what I do to not only keep my brushes clean, but it also keeps them from losing excessive amounts of hair which annoys me to no end. The brush cleaner below can be found at Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's online website and you mix it with just plain old tap water. I usually just add 1 cap full to roughly 6 ounces of water which is done later on in this post :


Step #1 : Take ANY ordinary hair shampoo that you want and add it to the brush. I tend to favor Prell shampoo mainly because it works for all hair types but since I didn't have any, I used VO5 shampoo instead which will work just as well:


Step #2: using the brush like you would to build the lather, shampoo the brush until you get some suds and let it sit for 1 minute give or take a little. The scent of the shampoo will remove the stink that new animal hair brushes tend to have and it also helps break in the brush better as well:


Step #3 (secret #1) : Before you rinse the brush, take a fine tooth comb and comb the shampoo into the brush. Basically this removes any loose hairs and untangles any knots that the brush may have. It's a little rough so don't force the comb through the brush. I also rinse the brush the same way as you can see below:


Step #4: Soak the brush in the brush cleaning solution I mentioned in the beginning of this post for 20 to 30 minutes but don't go more than that if you can help it. If you have timer of some kind, I strongly suggest that you use it to keep from forgetting about it:


Step #5: Using a fine tooth comb, rinse the brush thoroughly. At this point the comb should have no trouble gliding through the hairs and if there's any loose hairs, they will come out of the knot itself so please don't be alarmed about this. It's normal and it's also what keeps the brush from losing hair later on as you continue to use it:


Step #6: Now repeat the shampoo method you used earlier with the conditioner. I tend to favor the strengthening formulas which is also another secret to help keep the brush from wearing out prematurely and last much longer:


Step #7: Using a fine tooth comb, rinse the brush thoroughly:


Step #8 (secret #3): Take approximately 1 to 2 tablespoons of your favorite fabric softener and add it to roughly around 6 ounces of luke warm water and let it soak for roughly about 30 minutes :


I tend to favor Downy's April fresh fabric softener myself, but any will work. This removes what's left of the remaining animal stink that's left behind and it softens the brush up and breaks it in pretty fast. I try not to let it go past 30 minutes but I did soak my Omega 10049 Professional Boar brush over night by mistake because I had forgotten about it:


Step #9: Using a fine tooth comb, rinse the brush again thoroughly:


After you rinse the brush for the last time, rapidly whip the brush across a dry towel using a paint brush type of motion to remove any remaining water and allow the brush to AIR DRY over night. Please do NOT use a hair dryer because it will ruin the brush and make the hairs extremely brittle. After approximately 2 or 3 shaves, the brush should be extremely close to being broken in and there should be zero animal stink left behind. I tend to clean my brushes every 6 months but I ONLY use the brush cleaner and rinse once and I'm done. The techniques listed above are usually for brand new brushes and brushes that keep losing hair.

Post # 600:
First let me say thank you to all of those who took the time to read my blog on a regular basis. It means a lot and is greatly appreciated. To post 600 blog articles without getting burned out is really tough to do. Some people have had their blogs much longer than I have, but don't have many posts due to this very reason along with other factors and various other reasons that can't be controlled. I will continue to post as often as I can and hopefully my blog articles can help someone in the wet shaving world with any questions they might. So have fun and God bless.


I'm In A Good Place:

First, let me take a moment to say thank you for all the prayers and well wishes during this difficult time. I also want to take a moment to...