New Toys Are Coming!

After much debate, I decided to go ahead and place an order over at Italian Barber for some goodies. This will be an early Christmas present to myself. After all, I've been trying to keep from buying stuff other than what I need so why not treat yourself. First, I'm going to start with an old Canadian classic aftershave splash called Booster. I went with their most popular scent which is the Polar Ice. Italian Barber states that a lot of people thinks that it's closer to Aqua Velva's classic ice blue aftershave splash which I definitely love using and will always keep in my shave cave. But Joe seems to think that it's extremely close to the now discontinued Floid blue aftershave splash. We will soon find when it arrives provided that it doesn't get held up by U.S. Customs. I've been wanting to try this for years. Booster first started during the prohibition era (1920's) which will be turning 100 years old in 2020. So for them to be around nearly 100 years later and the fact that this specific product sells out rather quickly, I'm pretty sure that I will definitely enjoy this aftershave splash. 

Another item I really loved in the past was my Edwin Jagger DE89 which failed me. Rather than get another DE89, I went ahead and got Italian Barber's RazoRock MJ90A safety razor which is suppose to be an upgraded version of the DE89 which I have to think is true. The main reason I think that is because I've had a Merkur 37C slant fail me and of course my DE89 also failed me. My RazoRock German 37 slant has not failed me and has outlasted the Merkur 37C slant by several years. I've also got 2 other razors from RazoRock in my collection that are still going strong and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so for many years to come. The first upgrade that they mentioned was the choice of materials. The MJ90A is machined from one piece of billet using extremely tight tolerances versus casting using pot metal that's made from several different metals. That definitely makes a huge difference. Italian Barber could very easily charge more for the razor but one thing that I do like about RazoRock and Italian Barber is the fact that they believe that you should get more your money. I agree with this as well. So I am definitely looking forward to trying this razor out.

Another thing that I definitely needed was another handle. There's a bit of a back story to this one that involves my Rockwell 6C white chrome razor. Right now the handle off my RazoRock German 37 is currently on my Rockwell 6C razor. The reason is because the handle that came with my Rockwell 6C is warped so bad that it became a hazard to use. That specific handle doesn't even come close to the bottom base plate which should be mounted flush or at very least come extremely close. So I went ahead and borrowed the handle from my German 37 to use on my Rockwell 6C. The handle that came with my Rockwell 6C is currently on my German 37 and it also does not even come close to being safe to use on that razor. So this handle will be going on my German 37 and I'll be tossing out the original handle that came with my Rockwell 6C white chrome razor. No sense in keeping something around that can't be used on any other razor.

The cost of these items was extremely reasonable. The aftershave is a huge 400 ML or 13.5 ounce bottle and it was only $12.95 which will last me a really long time. The handle wasn't expensive either which was only $14.95 and it's made of 316 stainless steel so it will definitely last a lifetime easy. And the most expensive item that I ordered was the RazoRock MJ90A which was $29.99. The shipping was also very reasonable at $6.95. So I got a lot for my money as usual.

Of course it can take a couple of days before my order ships. Especially now that Italian Barber is in the middle of moving to a larger location and they also tend to get a lot of orders which usually does delay things. So I really have no clue as to when my order will ship. It could be tomorrow or even Friday before it gets shipped and it will probably take a couple of days to arrive once it's been shipped. So I'm more than confident that I will not be using these in my next shave video.

I will also demonstrate the issues with the original handle that came with my Rockwell 6C white chrome razor when these items arrive in an upcoming mail call video which people always seem to enjoy. It's always fun getting new toys in this great hobby of ours. There's not much left I can get in terms of hardware such as razors and blades but the soaps is another story in of itself and I've got plenty of those easy. About the only thing you will probably see me buy next is probably blades but I already have enough of those easy. I will try the Indian made Gillette Wilkinson Sword which probably won't arrive until December 4th, 2019 if I'm lucky and those with probably be used in my Leaf razor along with the Israeli Personna Red Platinum blades. The Brazilian made Gillette Platinum Plus blades will definitely be used in my new RazoRock MJ90A razor when it arrives. In the DE89, those blades feel like the back of a spoon going is across your skin yet your beard disappears easily with basically no effort at all. That's the kind of shave I'm looking for.

Gillette Wilkinson Sword Saloon Pack:

One more blog post before calling it quits for the night. One of my favorite YouTube channels is Ken Surfs out of Huntington Beach, California and his all time favorite blade is the Made In India Gillette Wilkinson Sword Saloon Pack blades. So for a really low cost of $7.80 U.S. Dollars shipped, I went ahead and ordered some to try out. I really enjoyed the Chinese version which can be found over at my favorite retailer Maggard Razors which I was told was a sharper version. I tried getting them off EBay but for some reason, Pay Pal would not let me order them from there. I'm guessing it's because they have to be shipped from India. Thankfully, Amazon has them I have had no issues with ordering anything from them at all but I did spend about $1 U.S. Dollar more for these blades than what they would have cost on EBay which is almost nothing.

I've literally have spent more on my coffee which is Dunkin Donuts Decaf and that costs me $12 U.S. Dollars at a local super market. So basically these are one of the most affordable double edge blades you can get on the market today. Another friend of mine, Anthony Esposito did a shave video a long time ago now and stated that these are one of the most comfortable blades he has ever used which says a lot. So we will see how they shave. But first, I have to wait until they arrive and as you can be see below, it's going to be a while before they get here. But that's okay because I've got plenty of good blades here.

My shave with these blades will once again be tested in 3 different razors just like the Gillette Platinum Plus blades were which was the Rockwell 6C White Chrome, The Fine Accoutrement's Marvel DE razor and of course my personal favorite, the Leaf razor. I'm hoping that I will get excellent results all the way around like I did with the Chinese version. I'm pretty sure that there's a 90% chance that I will like them. As for how many shaves I will get out of them, I'm thinking roughly around 3 multi pass shaves at the most. I was getting 4 and 5 out of the other version and I was told that these were no where near as sharp as the Chinese version was. But I'm willing to give them a try.

As for other vintage blades, I'm not sure what to try next. There's so many out there that it's not funny and it's hard to choose which ones to try next. I'm thinking that I will start with the fair to lower cost blades first because some of these Vintage blades can get extremely expensive to say the least. Just a single 10 pack of the Gillette Super Blue blades alone costs nearly 4 times what I paid for these blades. Gillette also has a few more that I've not tried that isn't as expensive as the super blue blades are but they are still not cost effective or budget friendly either. Basically I will have to see what I can find and go from there.  

New YouTube Restrictions:

Last night, I seen a notice about complying with a new law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. YouTube had been in violation of this law until this past September of 2019 and had been fined numerous times over which explained a lot as to why certain videos were demonetized and certain features restricted. This past September, YouTube reached a settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission and part of that settlement requires everyone on YouTube to set their audience to either kid friendly or made specifically for kids. I've already set mine to NOT being kid friendly which means that no one under the age of 13 can watch my videos. I am cool with that because my content is age specific any way. I've never heard of anyone shaving at the age of 12 or younger. So I am cool with their decision.

The reasons I went ahead and set my audience to 13 years of age and older in addition to what I stated earlier is because I'm also dealing with sharp objects such as double edge blades and some of my previous content also deals with straight razors. There's also some old videos up that currently involve blood from nicks and cuts. Plus there's always going to be a chance that something could go wrong and I end up getting cut which means that blood could be visible. So anyone under the age of 13 should not have to see that. Think of today's video game age rating system. If anyone has any questions about this then this video made by YouTube themselves, will explain everything in great detail and answer some of your questions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzXiSkoFKw 

Basically the only ones I see complaining about this are the ones that tend to possibly lose revenue from their monetizing efforts such as Google AdSense and if they have enough ad revenue from that, merchandise sales. That all goes away if the video/channel is deemed made specifically for kids or kid friendly videos/YouTube channels. There also won't be any comments allowed and there also won't be a community tab on such videos/channels either which can result in a loss of subscriptions. That could possibly effect those that barely meet the requirements which is 1,000 or more subscribers and over 4,000 watched hours in a single calender year. For those wondering, I have met the number of watched hours requirement mainly due to the fact that I now have 275 videos up on my YouTube channel but I don't have enough subscribers to meet the monetizing requirements. But that's okay because I do not intend to monetize my YouTube channel at all. I was forced to monetize my blog which I put the bare minimum number of ads up which I do not get to choose. The only thing I get choose is the category of ads and that's it and I really didn't want to do that.

The gamers that you find on YouTube could also be effected but most of those guys and gals already had to set their channels up due to the content of their video games being rated T for Teen or higher. So we will see how this comes about. I think if you just use a little "common sense" you should be okay and not have any issues.

Gillette Platinum Plus Final Part:

Yesterday when I used these blades in the Leaf razor and I didn't like them at all. In fact they were horrible. If you saw my YouTube video yesterday, you would have noticed that I barely made it through the first pass before shutting off my phone between video clips which is what I do to keep my videos short and sweet. If this was not a cold water shave and if I didn't use a preshave soap, you would have seen a lot more blood than you did. Thankfully the cream and the preshave soap done more than what they were designed to do and I have zero doubts that the cold water helped keep the weepers down to the bare minimum.

The first strokes was not too bad and wasn't too uncomfortable and they did seem like they was getting better. However, that changed when I got to my neck area. They started to tug and pull and once I got to my moustache area, I said myself that this was going to be my only pass with these blades. So once I shut the camera off, I took the time to switch out these Gillette Platinum Plus blades for my usual Israeli Personna Red Platinum blades. So these blades are only good for me in the Edwin Jagger DE89 and the Fine Accoutrement's Marvel DE razors. They didn't work for me at all in the Leaf and I didn't like them at all in the Rockwell 6C white chrome with the #4 base plate. These blades in the Leaf really tore my moustache area all to pieces. Thankfully, I was able to close everything off rather quickly and there was no more damage done. That's also my public service announcement for today as well. If you aren't getting a good shave and really don't like the blade, then stop shaving immediately and switch out the blade for one that you know will work for you. That will keep you from getting cut all to pieces and pretty much eliminate bad shaves. And if some troll tells you that "oh you didn't finish the shave with that blade", tell them to stick it. It's your skin not theirs. No sense in abusing it because some troll says otherwise.

Once I did my recap and told how my shave went, I also went ahead and stated that I took the time to switch out the blades and held up my usual blades. Whether or not I'm going to try anymore Vintage blades is still up in the air. There's quite a few Vintage DE blades out there that I really want to try but they are somewhat expensive and I'll have to do a search on EBay to see what all I can find in terms of Vintage DE blades and shave soaps/creams. I've also been asked repeatedly if I am planning on getting another Edwin Jagger DE89 or similar razor. My answer to that question is NO. I've got far superior razors in my collection now that I'm enjoying. I also don't have to worry about mechanical failure now either since my original Leaf razor has since been upgraded to the latest version.

So me getting another DE89 or similar razor is out of the question. 5 to 6 years ago, my answer would have been different because there was no where near the amount of DE razors available like there is today. That's how much the wet shaving hobby and industry has grown over the years. I've also been asked about the new Gillette Heritage repeatedly too. My answer to that question is also "NO". Basically what Gillette did was copy the Edwin Jagger DE89 and put their logo on the razor. And they have all but stated that this is a limited edition razor for the 2019 holiday season. Proctor & Gamble simply can't see the forest for the trees and are stuck on the cartridges.

I'll be doing an EBay search to see what I can find in terms of Vintage DE blades. I'll also take the time to see what I can find on Etsy as well. Those are the 2 places I check out for Vintage DE blades. I also want to try and find some of the non aerosol Barbasol original shave cream. I can get the sensitive skin version off Amazon but I've always liked the original. But if I don't find anything, then Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's C.a.D. will more than suffice. So we will have to wait and see what I can find. I also plan on doing a little bit more blogging too.

Gillette Platinum Plus Part 2:

Tonight's blog post features the Fine Accoutrement's Marvel DE razor and as I suspected, this was a far superior and much more comfortable razor and blade combo than the Rockwell 6C white chrome with the #4 base plate was with these specific blades. This was just an eyelash below the Edwin Jagger DE89 in the comfort department but I can chalk that up to the massive blade gap that the Marvel has over the DE89 which makes it a far more efficient razor. The shave can be seen in my latest video over on my YouTube channel. The oversized safety bars done exactly what I predicted and provided an extremely comfortable shave.

I also wanted to show what the blade looks like out of the packaging. They went with the old school look of the 60's and 70's. First the front of the blade.

Here's the back of the blade. If you have ever seen or used Vintage Gillette blades before, then you will notice how close they came to the 1960's and 1970's version with the arrows printed on the blade. I also find it ironic that these are now vintage blades themselves.

The next part will be the final part in this series and it will feature a brand new Leaf razor which will be arriving in 2 to 3 days. Let me fill you in on what happened and has already been taken care of via private messaging over on Twitter. The original version I have now is having some mechanical issues. The thumbscrew on the back of the razor head is nearly stripped out and getting extremely weak. Plus the left side of the top plate seems to be slightly lop sided. I also had a really tough time removing the blades so I can try these Gillette Platinum Plus in the Leaf. So I contacted Adam over at Leaf shave to tell him about these issues and he informed me that the newer version has a far better thumbscrew over the original version that I have. So he has sent me a brand new Leaf razor in their new Mercury finish along with a prepaid shipping envelope to return my original Leaf razor to them. That's what I love about the Leaf. It has a lifetime warranty. So if something happens, they will replace it. I wish I had done that with my Edwin Jagger DE89.

Hot Lather?

One of my favorite experiences when I go to the barbershop is the hot towel and hot lather shave after my haircut which I will be getting sometime this week. Probably Monday to be exact. I also get asked about hot lather for a wet shave at home. Now there's 3 ways to achieve hot lather. The first way can be seen below in the form of a candle warmer which is fantastic. 

The candle warmer can be used to heat up your water to soak your brush in which is what I do while I'm in the shower getting cleaned up which makes for a great hot lather when you load your brush up. After that, I leave the coffee cup on the candle warmer during the shave between passes which not only keeps it warm, the lather continues to heat up and get hot. Sometimes it gets a little too hot but usually after the first pass, I unplug it and let it cool off. At that point, the lather is more than hot enough to retain its heat and I have no issues finishing off my shave. I also have a shave scuttle which can be seen below.

^ This specific shave scuttle I got from Straight Razor Designs which are out of business so as a result, this scuttle is no longer available. This specific one was built for face lathering and it works like a double boiler. You fill it up with water in both the brush cavity and the outer boiler and microwave it for 2.5 minutes and soak your brush while you shower before shaving. After that you empty it and refill the outer boiler with water again and microwave it for another 2.5 minutes. You should have hot lather before face lathering and the lather will continue to get hot until you get to about the 3rd pass (if you require one). Unlike the candle warmer which has its own heating element, this scuttle does not retain heat as long and the lather does not get as hot either. I've gotten many fantastic shaves with this scuttle and it's been zapped in the microwave repeatedly so if you are wondering or concerned about putting one of these or similar scuttles in the microwave, please don't be concerned or worry about it. It will not hurt it. I also have Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's Crown King Travel Scuttle which can be seen below.

^ This specific scuttle is made for bowl lathering which I am not very good at to be honest about it. You simply fill it up with water like you would with the other scuttle I mentioned earlier and remove the rubber stopper and microwave it for only 1 minutes this time around because the scuttle will get too hot to handle and build a lather in mainly due to the fact that it's a heavy duty plastic based scuttle which is a good thing. This travel scuttle has also been zapped repeatedly in the microwave on a frequent basis so no worries about it getting damaged. In fact this Crown King travel scuttle is almost indestructible. Their newer version is even stronger and tougher than this one is. Leonard over at Shaving in the Desert shot his with a shotgun which was hilarious and the scuttle still held up and was usable. So you can throw it and do who knows what else to it and it will still be usable.

Out of all of these ways to get hot lather, my personal favorite is the candle warmer because it continues to heat up until I shut it off. My Straight Razor Designs scuttle holds heat better than the Crown King scuttle does due to the material it's made out of but I don't start with hot lather either. I have to load up my brush and face lather like normal before I can enjoy hot lather shave. My Crown King scuttle is much faster and I do start with hot lather on the first pass but I have to bowl lather and I'm not very good at that. Plus the Crown King scuttle cools off quicker due to the material it's made out of. Please don't get me wrong because I will NOT turn any of these methods away especially now that it's extremely cold outside these days. It got down in the upper 20's last night. And now that I've lost some weight, it does not take much for me to get cold at all. So ANY method you use to get hot lather is indeed a welcomed sight and then some. I don't regret any of my purchases when it comes to getting a hot lather shave at all.