Kilted Tiki & The DE 89:

Today's shave was just great. After a nice hot relaxing shower, I went with good old Tiki Bar and their Kilted Tiki scented soap. The scent of this soap is peat moss and scotch whiskey and they use real scotch whiskey to make this soap. They take the scotch and boil it down to remove the alcohol and use what's left over in place of lye water to make the soap. And to add a little more freshness to this shave, I paired it with good old Aqua Velva ice blue aftershave:

The DE 89 was exceptional this morning. Between the smooth comfortable nature of it and the fact tat the Polsilvers are one of the most comfortable blades you can use, I got a squeaky clean post shave that resembles an "ice rink" in only 2.5 passes. It will be a little while before I get paid again but I have 2 straight razors coming. My Steampunk wedge that I bought off EBay and I just heard from my friend Craig that a razor he ordered for me has arrived and that he's in the process of cleaning it up and honing it for me on an Arkansas surgical black oil stone. He sneaked and ordered a JR. Torrey near wedge with a barber's notch for me.

Last 209 Honing Session:

Well today I decided re hone the 209 and after spending some more time this is indeed it. I can't keep wasting time on this razor. Today's honing session was indeed an "eye opener". So let me inform you of what I did and why I feel that this specific razor was a waste of time:

Today I went with my Soft Arkansas oil stone and I stuck with my old routine that I use to use all of the time. As you can see, I worked up a really good slurry but it wasn't enough. After I did several sessions on it, the razor failed my thumbnail test. Normally after that kind of honing session on my other stones, the razor would somewhat bite into my thumbnail and struggle to go across it. But not the 209. So I must retire the razor:

After spending all that time and getting disappointed, I went back to my Professional 600 grit. I did my old routine and it still wouldn't dig into my thumbnail like I would want or need it to:

I went ahead and stropped in on the smooth leather:

This razor was a disappointment to me and even harder to hone than my Gold Monkey was. There won't be another shave with this razor and I'm deadly serious about it this time around because there's no way I will shave off of just a 600 grit edge. Out of all the straight razors I've owned this specific one wouldn't take an edge or hold one hardly at all. Even my old Gold Monkey Triple 6 took and held an edge better than the 209 did and it took a really long time to hone it. My 208 and both of the 66's I owned had no issues of taking or holding an edge either.

A Little Polishing Session:

Earlier today, I bought some Mother's Metal Polish, some red shop rags and a bottle of Witch hazel at Walmart. And I decided to go ahead and polish the 209 up to at least make it look better. So lets get started. I felt like I was wasting some of my time:

This is before I polished it:

First I killed the edge. It wasn't any count anyway and I would have to re hone the razor. More on that in another blog post here in a little bit:

I took a tiny bit of polish and rubbed it onto the razor until it turned black and then I wiped it off and I repeated this 3 times:

After the 3rd time, I grabbed my microfiber towel and wiped it down to give it some shine to it. Out of all the Gold Dollar razors I've owned, this one has been the toughest to hone and maintain:

Thank goodness I have a Vintage coming because this one specific razor simply won't hold an edge. It also won't hardly take an edge either. So here after I post my honing session on it, I'll have to toss it. I hate to do that but hey if won't take an edge or hold one, what choice do I have.

Purpose, Old Spice & The 209:

Today's shave ended up being great. More on that in a couple of moments. I decided to "Take Charge" today with Soap Commander and their bay rum scented soap which is called "purpose". Sadly this soap has long since been discontinued but that's okay because there's several other bay rum soaps out there. To finish off the shave I paired it with both the matching aftershave balm and Old Spice aftershave splash which kindly turns this into a spiced bay rum scented shave:

The 209 didn't do good at all on the first pass and it definitely needs to be re honed yet again. It was like I was shaving with a butter and just upsetting my beard. So after the 1st pass I wiped the blade off and put it away and finished the shave with a Bic twin blade disposable. Surprisingly I got a squeaky clean post shave feel after just 2 passes. In terms of hair being removed it was an ice rink, but I had some serious razor burn as a result. Soap Commander's matching aftershave balm quickly took care of the razor burn and the splash really burned as well.

209 Gets The Stones:

Earlier tonight, I was debating on whether or not to re hone my 209 and I'm glad that I did because it was worse than I expected. Unlike the last honing session, I didn't count unless I was doing Japanese style honing which is a back and forth motion or half circles. First I started with my Naniwa Professional 600 and I built a slurry using my 600 grit diamond plate. And unlike the last honing session I kept going until I had zero resistance going across the stone. It took a really long time and I also used both sides of my Suehiro 1/3K combo stone as a slurry stone. I think it took around maybe 30+ minutes on the 600 grit stone before it broke free and had zero trouble gliding across the stone and I diluted the slurry often as I went along and wiped the razor off:

Up next was my little Suehiro 1/3K combo stone and I used my diamond plate to create a slurry on both sides. I pretty much did the same with it as I did with the 600 grit stone earlier. I also did the same thing I did with 600 grit on my Norton 8K stone using both the diamond plate and both sides of my Suehiro 1/3K combo stone to create a slurry numerous times:

Last but certainly not least, my Shapton 12K was up next. But unlike the previous stones, my Shapton 12k acts like a Japanese natural stone and gets extremely sticky when the razor is done and you have gotten all you are going to get out of it. I did the same thing with it as I did with the 600 grit stone earlier using both the diamond plate and the Suehiro water stone:

Next up I did 60 round trips on the .5 pasted strop:

Then I followed that up with 60 round trips on the clean fabric side and the rough leather side of my strop. And just before going to the smooth leather side of my strop, I rubbed it down until it felt really warm to the touch and then I did 60 round trips on the smooth leather:

If I keep getting cuts in my towels like this, I will be buying more microfiber towels before I know it. I've already cut this one up quite a bit and they tend to not last after getting cut:

Tomorrow's shave will be very interesting after this honing session. I'm still looking at various razors and stones specifically Japanese natural stones, and some more low to mid range synthetic stones specifically Shapton and Naniwa specialty and traditional stones.

WTF Barbershop & The 209:

Today's shave was great. Sorry for the delay ladies and gentlemen. I had some technical issues with my router which are now fixed. Today I tore into my Wet The Face sample kit and I went with their barbershop scented soap which is amazing. To my nose, I get a semi sweet tobacco and powder type of scent and for some reason, Aqua Velva classic ice blue aftershave goes with this sample perfectly. It's a definite must have scent for my shave cave:

Here's a little lather porn for you ladies and gentlemen:

The 209 did great but it needs more time on the stones to get it where I want and need it to be. The good thing is that I finally got the geometry towards heel on the spine of the razor. I had to crisp lines on my Shapton M5 12,000 grit stone during my last honing session. Pretty soon I'll have a really nice piece of history to get started on. It scheduled to arrive this Saturday. I already got a tracking number for it when I bought it off EBay.

Genco Steampunk Wedge Ordered:

Well I finally bought a Vintage straight razor off EBay that's in somewhat decent shape. Earlier tonight, I was outbid by someone at the last possible second on a Vintage Boker 131 and decided to quit trying to win auctions and go with the "Buy Now" feature only and I got a Genco Steampunk Wedge for almost nothing:

That includes shipping so I'm pleased with the ultra low cost of it:

I've got a Dremel so if it needs some work, I have no problem cleaning it up. All in all, I'll probably have about $20 to $25 dollars into it when I'm finished with it:

Saturday is the expected delivery date and I've already gotten a tracking number which was really fast. I'll have to see what else I can find when I have a much better budget. I'll also be picking up some Mother's Metal Polish later on.