2015 Remembered:

2015, wow what a crazy year! Hope you didn't blink because it went fast as well. I really don't know where to begin so I'll just go over some highlights for this past year. I learned a lot this past year:

One of the best highlights was finally getting over my straight razor learning curve and being able to perform a 3 pass shave with no issues and get a great shave. If you told me this in 2014, I'd probably say no way and laughed at you. But if you stick with it for a minimum of 30 days and try various methods out there, you'll get the hang of it:

My best highlight is no doubt setting my first bevel and learning the basics of honing hands down. Once I learned how to do this, I became independent and no longer have to rely on someone else to have a shave ready blade and I no longer have to worry about getting a bad blade either:

I also discovered single edges this past year such as the replica of the Schick Injector you see below which has been an amazing razor provided I don't get a blade that's a dud:

This was 1 of 2 prizes that I won this year out of 5 different contests that I entered. I won this from Zen Shave and the other contest was becoming member 1K and getting a surprise soap. Robert Carey does some amazing work:

My only surviving DE this year that saw a lot of action and abuse, was my Edwin Jagger DE 89. Also I ended my DE blade search this year when I discovered Perma-Sharp DE blades:

What next for 2016? As far as soaps go, I'm just about done at 39 different soaps which includes all of the samples that I have. Plus we'll have to wait and see what lies ahead. In terms of hardware, I'll be getting another 37C slant for not just face shaving which I will get to in a moment. I'll also be looking at getting some more honing stones in 2016. I'm looking at both synthetic and natural stones at the moment, but for now Arkansas natural oil stones are the very top of the list. I'm also planning on getting some new brushes in as well. I'll also be looking to start head shaving here pretty soon. If you follow me on FB or have seen recent photos of me, you will know why. Here lately I've also been looking at the Mongoose razor along with its variants as of late. Basically we'll wait and see how things start in 2016 and go from there.