Tag Archives: Gear

Artisania Romera Manchurian Badger

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A couple of months ago I received the best care package ever from Phil of BullGoose – known on my favorite shave forum as “The Enabler” – and one of the items in the package was a Artisania Romera Manchurian Badger brush with a faux horn handle.

The 28mm Romera is the first high end badger I’ve owned – my only other experience with badger is two mixed brushes (horse-badger and boar-badger) and a cheap badger I picked up in a Spanish super marked. With that in mind, perhaps I’m somewhat biased… although looking at what other people say about Romera brushes I don’t think my experience differs all that much

Short version? The Artisania Romera Manchurian Badger is an awesome brush. Soft tips, enough backbone to whip up copious lather – but not a lather hog, it gives it right back – comfortable handle. It simply feels right to pick this one up in the morning and enjoy my moment of Zen.

For various reasons I’ve always gravitated towards the smaller knots when I buy brushes – cost is but one side of that equation – but unlike my Omega 48 the Romera is small enough to easily load in most soap tins.

In short, I can recommend getting a Artisania Romera Manchurian Badger. The artisan can – allegedly – be hard to communicate with, but the end result is worth it.

Brushes to pasture

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Quite a long time ago – well, before mid May 2012 at least – I picked up a couple of cheap and cheerful “horse hair” brushes from a Turkish online shave shop. About one year later I PIFed the No6 to a new wetshaver and got myself the “new and improved No6“. Since then both the new No6 and the No7 have been in my rotation, and given great service despite costing about the same as a small cup of coffee each.

I have however decided to retire both… the No7 is starting to develop a bit of a gape in the middle (I’ve been accused of abusing my brushes; I twist and swirl in the soaps), and even if the No6 haven’t I feel that it has served well and deserves a rest – in part since I got plenty of other brushes I can use, and want to use.

So like my Yuma which I retired earlier this year, these will go on the shelf for now… perhaps to be taken down at some point for old times sake.

Like the YUMA these brushes prove that when it comes to traditional wetshaving, inexpensive don’t mean it’s not good enough. And for a beginner – as I was when I bought these – inexpensive can be a lot more gentle on both the wallet and the mindset of the shaver.

Musical accompaniment

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Some people like to shave in silence, some like letting the tap run, some likes putting on some music to complement the shave. Myself, I belong in the later camp – anything from classic via pop, rock and dance to heavy metal. My play list can be surreal at times…

There is a whole thread devoted to the issue on my favourite shave forum, but it don’t really address HOW to play it. Until recently I have just used my phone (a waterproof and shock resistant Android), but I’ve never been really happy with the tinny sound it makes. So when I found this on sale at a local gadget store I knew I just had to have it:

A screaming pink waterproof Bluetooth speaker. I can leave my phone in the charger and still get to enjoy the musical accompaniment.

Complicated razor

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Vintage Scandinavian razorblades

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Updated 7th September 2017

Just a few pictures I found online:

Observations:
  • All wrappers are marked in Danish , or possible Norwegian.
  • The orange wrapper is 50% more expensive than the blue, possible because it’s guarantied Swedish steel and have a hollow ground. Chef is the Danish (and old Norwegian) way to spell Chief, as in department head or leader.
  • The blue and green wrappers held blades of “control grounded electro-steel”.
  • The green wrapper is marked as a new model with a slot.
Late 30’s I would think, based on the spelling and graphical design… not the early 40’s, considering the War. Possible late 40’s if they are Danish… written Danish and Norwegian are fairly close, and was closer back in the day. Å became an official letter in Norwegian in 1917 (replacing AA in most instances), but not before 1948 in Denmark… so that would indicate a Danish blade. But nothing is ever easy when it comes to Norwegian orthography; the use of AA continued in ‘Riksmål’…
I think it’s possible that the air-plane is supposed to evoke a DC-6 (in production from 1946) or a DC-4 (in production from 1942) – both were in use as passenger aircraft in Scandinavia after the war – which would place these blade wrappers in the time period between 46 and 48.

Myatt Minor razor

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I found a picture online of a razor I’ve not heard about before.

From what I can tell Myatt was/is a British company based in Birmingham, who patented their first safety razor in 1929. The Minor allegedly was manufactured in 1930, and uses diamond shaped studs to locate the blade.
What I find interesting is that the Myatt Minor is a composite razor – the top cap and handle is made from steel according to the sources I found online, but the base plate is bakelite.

Cool brush

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A photo of a brush I found online and liked:

Head shaving for n00bs

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I’m sure I’m doing pretty much every single thing wrong when it comes to this, but I’ve shaved my head twice now without neither slicing my noggin to ribbons nor leaving tufts of hairs… so I can’t be that far off the mark.

Usually I get help buzzing my head with some decent clippers. Since I’m on the go for right now, I had to take matters in my own hands – I had a hair colour, and that means my hair was longer than I like.

What you’ll need:

  • Some form of clippers, if you wait as long between shaving your head as I have been.
  • A razor, and based on other peoples comments on my favorite shave forum, I decided against a DE.
  • A brush, and I picked my cheap synth since it was next to my BiC in the bag.
  • Shaving soap, and stick seemed sensible to me.
  • A handheld mirror, as well as wall mounted mirror
  • Aftershave or moisturizer.

Start by buzzing of as much as possible of the hair, using the mirror to make sure you haven’t missed any spots. Rinse well. Apply soap and lather. Shave carefully, using the mirror and avoid any pressure. Rinse and repeat. Wash any remaining soap off, inspect and apply aftershave and/or moisturizer. And that is that.

The good stuff

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Razor and blade as “pocket litter”

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Been without WiFi for a couple of days, so this post is backdated
The term “pocket litter” it a technical term in military intelligence; it is quite literary the stuff you find in captured soldiers pockets. And one of the things you can find is shave gear…
I was reading a very interesting article on German WW2 pocket litter, and realized a couple of thing when I saw this photo:
In the bottom row there is a pack of razor blades, a razor and a loose razor blade. There is a possible shaving brush in the top row, and a mirror more or less in the middle of the table. Even soldiers in the field wants a shave I guess.