Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Peppermint Soap
Lather: Proraso Eucalyptus & Menthol croap
Brush: Turkish No6
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, both with a “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
The last day of the Flying Eagles, they have given me two weeks worth of Damn Fine Shaves.
The idea of using a 3D printer to make shave gear have taken firmly root in my head, to the point where I find myself messing around with free 3D-CAD software just to try to visualize how razors and brushes could be created… someone beat me to it though:
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Peppermint Soap
Lather: Dalen d’Men Energic cream and GzD shave stick
Brush: Vie-Long 14033 mixed horse-badger
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, both with a “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Prototype Menthol
The Flying Eagles is still giving me a DFS – today’s lather was dense without being overly thirsty.
At times I do things for reasons that can be described as ‘less sane’ – like picking up a sleeve of razor blades I’ve never heard about before just because I like the name. Sometimes it even works out…
I was over at Shave A Buck, ordering one of the new Cadet Razors (the Twist To Open TTO-13, which is a damn fine razor by the way) when I spotted a couple of blades I knew I had to pick up just because of their names; Lord Cool and Flying Eagle. While I haven’t tried the former yet, the later is actually surprisingly good blades.
More about that later, first we got to have pictures:
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Lavender Soap
Lather: Derby Lavender cream and Lea shave stick
Brush: Semogue TSN 2012 LE boar-badger
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, both with a “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
The blade that keeps on giving – a DFS in it’s second week.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Teatree Soap
Lather: Derby Lavender cream and GzD shave stick
Brush: Turkish No6
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, but with a “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Another combo that gave a very thirsty lather, but also a DFS.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Orange Soap
Lather: Derby Lavender cream and Derby shave stick
Brush: Semogue TSN 2012 LE mixed boar-badger
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, but with a “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Another DFS, with copious quantities of dense lather.
If you’ll excuse the aeronautical term, the angle of the blade have been somewhat on my mind lately – not the angle it has in regards to the razor (which differs between various razors), but the angle it has in regards to the skin when it cuts.
It is – like many other things – the fault of the cartridge shaving systems… the so called modern razor tends to have a flexible head, which is supposed to make shaving easier. A cartridge razor teaches us a lot of bad habits – use of excessive pressure is the one mentioned most often, but just as bad is the lack of proper angle… and when shaving DE (or SE) the angle of attack is alpha and omega in my opinion for getting that great shave.
The head of a traditional safety razor does NOT pivot. Therefore the pivoting action have to come from the wrist – making shaving a little more labour intensive, but more importantly giving the shaver near perfect control… unlike a wibbly-wobbly plastic hinge.
Maintain proper AoA at all times – and check your six for bogeys.
/ for a more complete discussion on the how and why of the shaving angle, please see this article over at the Badger & Blade wiki
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Liquid Lavender Soap
Lather: Derby Lavender cream and Arko shave stick
Brush: Vie Long 14033 mixed horse-badger
Razors: Merkur 25C and Gillette ’58 TV Special, but with a fresh “Flying Eagle” blade
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Still plodding along with mixing creams and sticks, as well as trying out a new blade.DFS all around, more so from a ‘weird’ blade.