Shave of the day 30th November

Razor: Merkur 985CL
Blade: Lord Classic
Lather: Secret 🙂
Brush: Omega #50014
Aftershave: Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Aftershave
Additional Care: Travel Alum Stick, Wet Shaving Products Matterhorn Beard Oil

Shaving from the GoBag, with an experimental soap 🙂

Shave of the day 28th November

Razor: Merkur 985CL
Blade: Lord Classic
Lather: Secret 🙂
Brush: Omega #50014
Aftershave: Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Aftershave
Additional Care: Travel Alum Stick, Wet Shaving Products Matterhorn Beard Oil

Shaving from the GoBag, with an experimental soap 🙂

Review of a prototype Pereira Shavery scuttle

I have been lucky enough to receive a prototype scuttle from Pereira Shavery, and I must say I’m very happy with the design and functionality of it.

The design of the bowl takes keys from the ceramic shaving bowl and soap dish Pereira have been selling for a while now. White, with a black interior, and the pear tree Pereira Shavery logo in blue on either side. A very pleasing colour scheme to my eyes, and one I believe will look at home in every bathroom.

The bowl part of the scuttle is very close to the size of the ceramic shaving bowl at 10 cm (4″) across and 5 cm (2″) deep, while the scuttle as a whole is 14 cm (5Âœ”) wide, 20 cm long (8″) and 7 cm (2Ÿ”) tall. While large, it is still comfortable to hold due to the finger loop which I slip my left thumb through while my palm fits under the base of the scuttle.

The inside of the bowl have a raised pattern of ridges and bumps, aiding greatly in the rapid building of thick luxurious lather. The design  reminds me of water turbines and the intake of jet engines… while I realise not everyone will see the same thing in the pattern, it endears me to the bowl even further.

As with Pereira’s other bowls, this have a built in brush rest – a very nice and useful addition to any lathering bowl or scuttle. It means your brush have a place to stay while shaving, rather than having it sit on the counter-top or fall into the sink. It also gives a place to rest the brush handle against while soaking, rather than sliding around. This is a detail I find very handy, since both my largest and smallest brushes can rests comfortable and safely.

Water capacity is a generous 350 ml (0.35 litre, 1Âœ cups / 12 fl oz) if you fill it completely, or around 300 ml (0.30 litre, 1ÂŒ cups /  10 fl oz) if you leave an air gap on top. This is more than enough to keep your lather warm, even if you for some bizarre reason decide to shave outside in the middle of a Norwegian winter… not that I would ever want to try that myself.

As an added bonus that aids both display and storage, I’ve noticed that the ceramic soap dish from Pereira – the one you can buy with their fantastic soap – fits rather nicely in the scuttle.

I’m not sure what these will sell for or when they will be available, but if you’re in the marked for a scuttle that looks good and which will keep your lather warm in any temperature you should keep an eye out at Pereira Shavery – or even sign up for their newsletter.

Shave of the day 21st November

Razor: Phillips Philite
Blade: Persona Platinum
Brush: Vie-Long #14033
Lather: CRSW Glide Morning Ghost
Aftershave: BullDog Sensitive Aftershave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Balm, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb

“Bessegg blade” – a piece of Norwegian history

If you’re Norwegian you know what Besseggen is; a mountain ridge in VĂ„gĂ„ kommune in Oppland county that stands between the lakes of Gjende and Bessvatnet. Often described as “sharp as a scythe”, it’s very narrow – so narow two people can’t walk side by side along the edge in places – with long and steep drops on both sides. Made famous from a passage in Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, it’s a Norwegian national icon.

Nigh on four miles long it stretches
sharp before you like a scythe.
Down o’er glaciers, landslips, scaurs,
down the toppling grey moraines,
you can see, both right and left,
straight into the tarns that slumber,
black and sluggish, more than seven
hundred fathoms deep below you.
So it was perhaps not surprising that when a factory in Sarpsborg (which isn’t even close to VĂ„gĂ„, but is close to where I live) was started up in 1927 with the intention of making razor blades, they took on the name Bessegg. From the start until the factory closed in 1961, the Bessegg Blade was the most used razor blade in Norway.
As an aside, I do like the design of the packaging; it’s simple, clean and recognisable. And made in several colours too, apparently… which, as we’ll see later, was also printed on the blade.
This packaging on the other hand states that the blade is stainless – or rust free, as the literal translation would be.
The back of the sleeve have the factory name, and a banner across saying “The new quality” – to me it looks like they modified an existing design to add that banner, rather than designing a new sleeve.
On this one the banner states: “Thin blade with slit” – I’m assuming that would indicate that other blades was made with the three holes of the original Gillette blades.
The blades were, as mentioned above, also stamped / printed with the colour of the packaging. This one is “RØD” (red), and according to the websites I’ve been trawling to compile this information “BLAA” (blue) was also printed on some.. unsure if the yellow were marked too, but one must assume they were.
I’ve not seen any of these first hand myself, all of what I know – including the photos – I have found scattered around on several Norwegian websites.

Shave of the day 19th November

Razor: Phillips Philite
Blade: Persona Platinum
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Lather: Crabtree & Evelyn Sandalwood
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block, BullDog Original Beard Oil, & Pereira Shavery Boomerang Beard Comb