Mail Call:

Today's mail call is from Amazon and I now have a brand new water stone:

It's a small 5.5 by 1.5 inch Suehiro 1/3K combo stone which cost me $20.95 shipped :

here's a closer look and no it's NOT coming apart either:

And of course it came with a rubber mat:

This stone is okay but it's awful small though so I will be looking to see what else I can find because this is a touch too small for me.

Amarda & The DE 89:

This morning's shave was simply phenomenal. One of my all time favorite scent profiles is Old Spice based scents especially the vintage versions. Armada made by Maria Arman of Through The Fire Fine Craft is a vintage version of Old Spice and it's one of the best I've used to date in terms of Vintage Old Spice scents and I paired it with my 2003 version of Old Spice aftershave that came in a ceramic bottle. I don't know if the aftershave is the same today as it was in 2003 or not. Nor do I know if they still package it in the ceramic bottle or not:

The DE 89 did great as always and even though I got an excellent 3 pass shave, I switched the blade out to a Perma-Sharp DE blade. I've got one of those blades left and I've just gotten started on my last pack of Feather DE blades. So it won't be long before I'll be ordering some Astra Green blades which are my favorite and they're dirt cheap. The meet up is still looking good so far. Even though it's such a long drive down there, I still want to go.

Power Hammer & The 209:

This morning's shave was okay and it would have been better if the razor's edge was up to snuff more than it is more on that later. This morning I used Power Hammer which was made by Maria Arman over at Through The Fire Fine Craft soaps and it has a deep and rich scent of root beer, espresso, and chocolate notes. And I paired it with PAA's chocolate bourbon scented aftershave which seems like it was made for this soap. Now I am craving some chocolate:

The 209 did good but it started to pull and tug on the 2nd pass and it pulled the hair out of my moustache area and drew some blood as a result. So after I do some yard work, I will more than likely be hitting the stones today or tomorrow one. Usually that's when I know it's time to hit the stones on a razor. When it starts to pull and tug, it's time to either hit the stones or use a pasted strop to freshen up the edge a bit to get a good shave.

Mail Call:

That was fast. Today's mail call is from Maria Arman and her company Through The Fire Fine Craft soaps and everyone of them are amazing. I ordered Power Hammer which has a phenomenal Root beer and Espresso scent with some chocolate notes. The rest are a surprise and everyone of them are excellent. Armada = Vintage Old Spice. Walloon Lake is the For Flint MI scent which is a fresh aquatic type scent and the Bluegrass has a sweet grass and vetiver scent. And the "Play it again Sam" scent has a ginger, lime and tobacco scent which kindly reminds me of a margarita with fresh cut limes in a lot of ways. I can't wait to use these soaps:

And I would love to choke USPS right about now because this is how they treated my package and ugly didn't do it justice either:

Luckily they were not damaged and arrived intact which is a good thing:

Thank you very much Maria Arman. They're simply amazing and I will definitely be ordering some more soaps from you soon. I already know the performance will be excellent.

Pumpkin 3.14 & The Doc:

Fall is basically around the corner and it's one of my favorite seasons especially when it comes to food and beverages. Pretty soon the apple butter kettles will be fired up over an open fire which smells phenomenal and along with that comes pumpkin pies and various other delightful treats. So for my shave this morning, I went with Phoenix Artisan Accoutrement's pumpkin pie scented soap, Pumpkin 3.14 which has an incredible hearty pumpkin pie scent. I also went the their Autumn Factory aftershave splash which has not only a sweet pumpkin custard pie scent but it also has the other elements of fall in there as well as it dries down. You have pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, bright orange leaves. It's like you just finished baking a pumpkin pie and left by an open window to cool on a nice crisp fall day. I'm also looking at getting their Cider House 5 matching set:

The doc did great but it's time to switch the blade out and go back to Feather blades for it. I only performed 2 passes and I did get an excellent shave, but I can tell that I could have gotten away with 2 more passes easy and with my sensitive skin, that would not be a good idea at all. So I will be looking at some other razors and getting a bulk pack of Astra green DE blades. This might become my moustache area only DE razor because it cleans up that area extremely well and unlike other razors including my straight razor, I don't get any tiny little weepers or nicks in that area. Even my Edwin Jagger DE 89 gets me in my moustache area at times. This is the only one that doesn't.

Go West, Tombstone & The 209:

This morning's shave was great. And since it's been a while since I've used it, I went with Tiki Bar's "Go West" which has a fresh tanned leather jacket scent. It's as if you walked into a Harley Davidson shop and took a whiff of a brand new jacket. And you can't go wrong with PAA's Tombstone aftershave which has a gun powder, leather, geranium, tobacco and rose water scent. I need to get the matching set of Tombstone man, wow:

The 209 has been awesome. This is the second shave in a row where I've gotten a 3 pass squeaky clean post shave with it. In terms of post shave feel, I literally have an ice rink. No joke because when I put on the Tombstone aftershave, I got zero burn from the aftershave. I didn't get any burn from my alum block either which is awesome.

RazoRock Classic & The DE 89:

What an incredible shave I got this morning. RazoRock has delivered another top shelf shave once again. I only have their Classic scent at the moment which I am just about out of. And for those whom are wondering about the scent, it has an incredible cherry almond scent. And paired with Aqua Velva classic ice blue aftershave, I don't have to tell you what kind of post shave I have:

The Edwin Jagger DE 89 was phenomenal. I did 2 passes and just performed a touch up on my usual trouble spots. So far the meet up is looking good. Nothing seems to be going on with my dad except the usual deal. His hip replacement surgery is on September 16th, 2016 which is the day before the meet up. I'm confident that things will be okay. But they've done put it off once due to his lungs being in bad shape from smoking for nearly 50 years. He simply refuses to quit despite what the tobacco has done to him and not to mention the chemicals they put in them.