Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Mama Bear’s Awakening
Brush: Turkish No6 ‘horse hair’
Razor: German Bakelite Slant with a fresh Lord Cool blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest 80 below
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
Pre-shave: N/A
Lather: N/A
Brush: N/A
Razor: Phillips AT890 wet and dry (electric)
Post-shave: Krampert’s Finest 80 below
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
Note: Bad allergies made me less inclined to shave, so I figured I could revisit the world of electrics for one day.
… so I’ve given a bit of though as to what makes a man into a gentleman. There is many rules, guidelines and opinions to this, as well as at least one tumblr-blog devoted to the subject.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Proraso Eucalyptus & Menthol Cream
Brush: Vie-Long #12705B natural white pure horse
Razor: Merkur 45C Bakelite with a Green Astra blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest 80 below
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Oil and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
Grooming and skin care isn’t a thing that only us guys do – in fact, I suspect some of the ladies spends at least as much time and care on their skin as we do on our beard and faces… maybe even more!
Joking aside, my Better Half found a recipe for home made body butter online a while back, and wanted to give it a go. The original recipe called for a half cup each of shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and a light oil like olive or jojoba – essential oils are optional. Now, neither of us are any good at following recipes… we like to tweak them to suit us. So the recipe we ended making was closer to this:
A bit more complicated than the original… but the end result was worth it.
We measured out the solids and oils in a glass bowl and put the bowl in a pot of water on the stove to melt it while stirring. Once melted, we took it of the heat and let it cool a bit before we added the essential oils and put it in the fridge to cool for an hour. Taking it out of the fridge, we whipped the half solid goo with an electric hand mixer for about ten minutes, before putting it back in the fridge for another hour or so. Then it was just a matter of scooping it into a suitable jar, and apply to dry skin.
The verdict? So far, much better than the stuff you can buy in the stores or online. A bit on the goopey side, but soaks into the skin in five minutes or so.
Pre-shave: BEA shaving stick
Lather: BEA shaving stick
Brush: Semogue “The Shave Nook 2012 Limited Edition” mixed boar-badger
Razor: Merkur 45C Bakelite with a fresh Green Astra blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Thayers Original Witch Hazel
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Oil and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Citrus
Lather: Prairie Creations Walter shave soap
Brush: Vie-Long #14033 mixed horse-badger
Razor: Phillips Philite with a Feather blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Proraso Liquid Cream After Shave
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
From what I can tell, it’s hard to find a Gillette Old Type without a cracked handle these days. Drawing on my education and experience, it is in part due to the way they are made – two end pieces press fitted into a hollow tube. As anyone who have worked with machinery can attest to, this kind of construction gives raise to lots of stress on the hollow piece (hoop stresses – not by itself a bad thing). Stress will, over time, give raise to cracking unless the surface is near perfect.
The Old Type handles were probably anything but perfect when they were made – there would be no point in broaching and polishing the barrels, since razors was and are considered semi-disposable items. At the time the Old Type was manufactured machining the barrel the needed close tolerances would also been much more costly than the equivalent operation would be today, both in money and time.
The end result is – with more than a hundred years of hindsight – obvious; the handle cracks. My Old Type (part of my Khaki Kit) isn’t bad, just a short crack on either end, but some handles have cracks going straight from one end to the other.
The cracking is repairable, either by filling it with epoxy or – for the adventurous shaver – by silver soldering or welding. In my opinion it’s not needful to repair it unless the crack hampers the enjoyment of the razor. An easier option may be to replace either just the tube or the whole handle – which has the added benefit of being easily reversible later.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Peppermint
Lather: Wet Shaving Products pre-production soap
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M unbleached pure horse
Razor: Phillips Philite with a Feather blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Beard care: Big Red Beard Factory Oil and Big Red No7 Beard Comb
Prepwork looks okay and the razor is plenty sharp, but he really needs to work on the angle…
Terry Gilliam’s animations are priceless…