ClubGuy:

Today's shave was great and it felt really good until I dug into my cheek a little bit on the second pass which is no big deal. So I finished up the shave which was also a true BBS shave and used both my styptic pencil and alum block and the cut was sealed up almost immediately. The reason I got cut was because my razor was just starting to tug and pull a bit which I noticed on the first pass. So I went ahead and performed my weekly stropping routine on both razors which I alternate between each shave. Since I got cut, I'll be going back to a DE safety razor to give my face extra time to heal. So don't be surprised to see me using a DE over the next few days:

It's also getting close to empty on a lot of my PAA soaps. So it's almost time to stock up on a few of my soaps and for sure, it's past time to add a few aftershaves to my collection as well.

Why P&G Hates Straights:

Here lately I noticed that it has been a really long time since I've bought ANY disposable DE blades and it's been well over 1 year since I bought any cartridges which is bad for Proctor & Gamble because that's where they make their money from, cartridge sales. They hate straight razors because you only have to buy them once and if you learn how to hone and maintain your straight razor(s), you don't have to buy anything else other than soaps which costs almost nothing after you buy so many. Once you get around 7 or more creams and soaps and you learn how to hone your straight razors, your shaving costs gets cancelled out which means free shaves for life if you don't buy anymore soaps which is the tough part:

I don't intend to stop buying shaving soaps, in fact quite the opposite will occur.

A Change was Made:

Due to the fact that I no longer need to buy ANY blades, and the fact that I've been buying all of my soap directly from the artisan themselves, I've decided to drop a few suppliers and to keep buying my soaps directly from the artisan soap makers. There's a few personal reasons behind this decision but other than that, I no longer need to buy blades and I'm very pleased with both of my strops which gets used on a daily basis. So with that being said, I really can't wait to see what seasonal stuff comes out and I've already seen an old classic return that I liked as well:

50's Dive Bar:

Today's shave was great. This soap was awesome. It has a gummy bear and slightly sweet cola scent to it which is fabulous. Today's was also another true BBS shave. I've been on a roll here lately with my post shave quality:

Go West:

Today's shave was great and it's also Tiki Bar Tuesday. Today I felt like using leather scented products, so I went with "Go West" which is a freshly tanned leather scent. Think of going into a Harley Davidson shop and grabbing a brand new leather jacket and taking a huge whiff. That's what this soap smells like and to give it a little extra class, the English Leather is perfect for it:

Nailed it on the stones Again:

Well I nailed it on the stones yet again. In fact I may have gotten both of my straight razors too sharp this time around compared to the last time. This time I went back and watched a favorite honing video again more closely and took some notes. Basically what I was doing was 40 seconds on each side, then 20 followed by clean up strokes which is 10 round trips. This time around I did 40, 20, 10, 5 and then 10 round trips before switching to the other side of my Norton 4/8K combo stone. I also use to repeat the same process after I finished on the 8K side but this time around, I just did 10 round trips on both sides of the stone instead of repeating the same process. Now they're sharper than Feather DE blades are which is past evil:

That's pretty much going to be my routine once I get all of my stones together. I really can't wait to get my hands on some of these natural stones that are available as well. They said that once you learned how to hone your own straight razors you become addicted to it. I now am a firm believer in that statement because I love it and I'm having a blast doing it.

Synthetic VS. Natural Stones:

As far as I'm concerned both natural and synthetic stones are great and you really can't go wrong with either one so let me be clear on that. The advantages of the synthetic stones is that they cost a lot less than the natural stones do and are often much easier to obtain and use compared to the natural stones available. You also know exactly what grit synthetic stones are and you get a lot more stone for your money as well. Now that's where the advantages stop. In terms of comfort, good luck beating a natural stone. I really can't speak too much about this because I've never shaved with an edge that was honed on a natural stone before, but I am seeing a pattern though. More and more people prefer using a straight razor that was honed off of a natural compared to the synthetic stones. But the natural stones also cost at least double that of what a synthetic costs and it will be 100% smaller than that synthetic stone is:

I really can't wait to find out. Now a natural stone also takes a lot longer to learn, but there's an old saying that I used a lot when I was distilling that would apply here. The slower you go the better off you will be with the final results.