Tag Archives: Gear

Shaving with a semi-disposable DE

Posted on by
Reply

The sharp eyed observer probably saw yesterday that I shaved with the interesting injection moulded DE I mentioned last week. And the verdict is… not bad at all, all things considering.

Yes, it feels flimsy and the balance is off with most of the weight in the head.
Yes, it’s really sensitive about getting the angle just right.
Yes, it’s plenty aggressive and with an unknown blade that’s not the sharpest.

But once I got the angle dialed in, it chomped through several days worth of stubble with ease and left me with a DFS in two passes.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t get our high end (or even mid-range) razors and enjoy them to their full potential. But I am saying that we shouldn’t stick our noses up at the low end razors, because some of them can be surprisingly nice to shave with. By the end of the week I’ll put this razor – along with a good blade – in my locker at work, for those emergency shaves that sometimes crop up.

A semi-disposable DE of interesting design

Posted on by
Reply

A little while back my Better Half bought a IPL – Intense Pulsed Light – hair remover. In the package was a razor to shave hair of, so the light pulses can more easily reach the hair roots and burn them out.

The razor imidiatly caught my attention, seeing as how it is a DE! And upon unpacking, I found that the design and construction is interesting, even for something meant to be a semi-disposable item. Let me show you;

The biggest surprises  -apart from the fact that they included a DE and not a disposable cartridge razor – is how sturdy the plastic is and the fact that blades are changeable. I might use this for my shaves next week, just to try it out.

The Ubiquitous and Omnipresent Blade!

Posted on by
Reply

Razor blades – be it DE or SE – are ubiquitous and omnipresent, they are everywhere and can be adopted for almost anything; from laboratory equipment, DIY project, surgery, cutting hair, and even shaving! If you’re building a tool or device that requires a very sharp and replaceable cutting surface, it’s often easier to make something that incorporates a razor blade than to come up with your own blade. Part of the reason is off course that you can tap into an existing logistic supply line and not having to set up your own.

Just a few examples of what this tiny sliver of honed steel can be used for:

Cutting specimens into slivers when preparing slides for your microscope!
Make a REALLY SCARY immersion water heater!
Make a foxhole radio!
Scrape paint!
Plane wood!
Makes flies for fly fishing!
Make an improvised scalpel for those pesky DIY surgeries!
Trim your hair!
Shave your face!
uhm… lets try that one again:
Shave your face!
And much, much more!

Old Gillette advertisments

Posted on by
Reply

A razor lost for a hundred years

Posted on by
Reply

Recently I found – and I’ve forgotten how I ended up there – a piece on restoring an old straight. Not just any old straight either; a straight lost at the Somme front during the Great War.

It is well worth a read by the way.

The restorer have some good points about the relative longevity of plastic razor cartridges versus old fashioned straights (and by extension safety razors); to paraphrase a cart lasts for a few shaves and lingers in nature forever, while an old fashion razor will shave forever yet will rust and decompose if lost or thrown away…

…and even a rusty, dinged up, buried for a century razor can still sometimes shave again!

How much for a blade?

Posted on by
Reply

Five cents in 1924?

Twenty-five cents in 1967?

Or just under five cents per blade (bottom left corner) in 1948?

For the record, for my preferred all-round blade I’ll happily pay about 13 cents each when buying in bulk… which is dirt cheap compared to what blades used to cost when adjusted for inflation.

OQMG No. 100-A – also known as US WW2 military issue soap

Posted on by
Reply

I have no idea how good or a bad a soap this might have been back in the day, but I am skeptical of a soap that claims to be useful for general toilet use, shaving, clothes laundering, and cleaning of mess kits and other equipment – as well as working in hard, soaps and salt water.
What I can tell, from the images I’ve found online, is that it came in two sizes; type 1 was 2 oz (57 grams) while type 2 was 4 oz (113 gram).

Ever-Ready Army Razor

Posted on by
Reply

“Everyone” knows about the Gillette Khaki kits from the Great War, but I hadn’t heard about the Ever-Ready in khaki before now… so here is some pictures I found online.

Further thoughts on Cold River Soap Works’ GLIDE shaving Cream Soap “Morning Ghost”

Posted on by
Reply

I was PIFed this tub of CRSW from a friend and fellow shaver over at the ‘Nook – my favourite shave forum – and I’m grateful both for the gift and the opportunity to try it out after hearing so many good things about it

The presentation is, how to put, classy without being pretentious. Black lid with withe print stands out in the soap drawer, and while plastic tubs are usually considered to be less environmentally friendly I can see the utility of neither being easily dented like a metal tin, or heavy like a ceramic one. It’s also sturdy enough to see a lot of reuse, so there is that.

Scent wise the Morning Ghost is hard to describe for me. CRSW describes it as green, earthy and spicy vetiver, with a woodsy scent and a  balanced lemony citrus running throughout… I guess they are right? I pick up the wood and earthy tones way better than any hint of lemon though, but that might be my nose.

The GLIDE soap got a lot of praise for being creamy, and it sure is. When I got the ratio of soap to water dialed in it yields a thick, almost yogurt-like lather that stays where you put it – no chance of soap running down your neck. Postshave feel is great too, leaving my face neither dry nor greasy.

There is just one minor niggle though… and one I can’t gloss over.

Being a soft cream a shaver will go through a tub of this quickly. I’m less than a dozen shaves in, and I can already see the bottom of the tub.

So… great soap, but wont last long. Something to keep in mind.

More Pereira Shavery goodies

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to the nice people down at Pereira Shavery I have gotten a few more goodies I look forward to using in the near future;

 A towel, 30x50cm at approximately 400gsm.
A wooden V-shaped beard comb that should also, according to the instructions that came with it, aid in shaping my goatee.

A metal beard comb and multitool.
And a spare tub of their wonderful soap with activated charcoal, so I wont have to worry about running out.

A big thank you to Pereira Shavery for not just sending these things, but also packaging it so that even the Norwegian Postal system didn’t manage to break anything…

And as for the metal comb…

…I’ll be taking that to work with me, for an every day tangle free beard!

If you order from Pereira before the 31th May this year and use the code WW10% you should receive a discount on towels, beard combs and their other items, more details on that in another post.