Share your Austere August shave of the day for Tuesday!
The Twenty-Ninth Day Of Weckoning is upon us
- Brush: Rubberset 400-3 with a 26 mm unbleached Zenith boar knot at 56 mm loft
- Razor: Weck Sextoblade Med Prep
- Blade: Kismet Rostfrei, Polymer beschichtet (35)
- Lather: Barrister and Mann – Oceana
- Post Shave: Ralon – Original
- Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man
The end of AA is near and I felt premature nostalgia for this setup during today’s shave again. This is silly since I’m really looking forward to Sample September and rummaging through Mount Smushmore.
A surprise observation: Ralon felt really good for my skin this month. I had half expected that using a 100 years old recipe for an wound antiseptic (Wiki has this only in German, Croatian, Czech, and Hungarian, unfortunately.) without the emphasis on “skin food” of modern post shave splashes for a month straight would feel drying or irritating, but this did not happen.
#Monthofweckoning
August 29, 2023
- Brush: Muninn Woodworks w/AP Shave Co 24mm Titanium Synthetic
- Razor: Weck Sextoblade (Straight Shave 310)
- Blade: Kismet (29)
- Lather: Saponificio Varesino - 70th Anniversary - Soap
- Post Shave: Saponificio Varesino - 70th Anniversary - Aftershave
- Post Shave: Thayers - Cucumber - Toner
- Fragrance: Saponificio Varesino - 70th Anniversary - Eau de Parfum
3 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.
Kismet Blade - Losing My Edge
#Monthofweckoning
August Photos
Very nice shave today. A bit more tinkering with my patterns. I plan to continue this into Settantesimo Straightember.
I will be traveling for the next couple of days and will return on September 2. The conclusion of the exciting story of the Kismet blade (that doesn’t change) will be written then.
Settantesimo Straightember++;
August 29, 2023
- Preshave: Proraso Green Preshave
- Brush: Zenith 506U XS Horse 🐎
- Razor: Greencult GC 2.0 II
- Blade: Astra Superior Platinum (28)
- Lather: Abbate y La Mantia Marduk
- Post Shave: Mennen Le Grand Large
- Post Shave: Nivea After Shave Balm
I’m slowly getting a little tired of this setup, and looking forward to using my straight razors. Yay for the future!
Have a good night!
So… a while back you were kinda regretting the purchase of that XS horse. Now that you’ve had so many uses, has that opinion changed?
Well - I still wish I had bought the non XS version, but it has its uses. I find that with extremely soft soaps (such as Marduk by AYLM), it’s easier to have a very soft brush, and the XS horse works very well with that. Also, I kinda got used to it being soft and floppy - we’ll see on the 1st of September how I’m dealing with a more normal brush.
But the brush itself has held up well: no tangling of the bristles, and for now no visible splitting of the hair either (even though with the fanning out of the knot, something somewhere must have changed).
thanks for the info
BTW, your Zenith horse is also an XS?
Yes.
Since you have all the brushes: is this the softest and least backbone one can get, or is anything else even softer?
I have tons of boars and all manner of badgers, but my horse collection is tiny, since so many of them are reportedly harsh.
But of all the research I did, the XS Zenith was by far said to be the softest horse option.
Whichever of the hairs is softer (maybe the mane), if it is increased too much, the brush is truly floppy.
looking forward to using my straight razors
Straightember straight ahead!
I’ll do the greatest hits equine Straightember!
Equine Straightember was my plan, too, but unfortunately my horsy is stuck in the mail in the Netherlands for some reason
Where did you order it? I got mine from yourshaving.
@PorkButtsNTaters666
Same. Turns out there was some hiccup with the postal service and it went back to them. Doesn’t seem to be anything they did wrong, just bad luck 🙄I’ve made good experiences with them so far (I have two other Zeniths from them).
@[email protected]It’s an understandable error though: Switzerland and the Netherlands both have cows, and cheese, and mountains 🤔
- Prep: Splash of Cool Water
- Razor: Timeless - Stainless Steel .68 - Open Comb
- Blade: Gillette - Nacet (Marathon) (527)
- Lather: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag (White Label)
- Brush: Zenith - r/wetshaving MOAR BOAR B35/508A XL (52 uses)
- Post Shave: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag (White Label)
- Fragrance: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag
Austere August: Day: 29
MRTNG’s Ultra Nightmare Mode
Midnight Stag Challenge䷀ General Notes
Confirming easy pickup of lather from a ring-of-death/dying soap tub with the Slurry Lather method. Yep, worked fine.
䷀ Razor and Blade Notes
(Timeless - Stainless Steel .68 - Open Comb ::: Gillette - Nacet - M ‹527 uses›)
Same: First pass has some tugginess to it. But no irritation that lasts longer than a little tuggy stroke. Latter passes feel fine and give a reasonably close shave. 3 quick passes.
Razor and Blade Performance/Comfort Rating: 2 out of 5 (Okay)
䷀ Soap Notes
(Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag - White Label)
I just love all the aspects of this scent!
Scent Strength: 6/10, nicely present during shaving.
Lather… Wonderful slurry lather today, from 8 sec of loading.
Again, it seems that if you have a slim ring of soap left in your tub, a wet-load technique like the Slurry lather will make it easy to load up in short time.
Hydration: Perfect (for me)
- 3 sec load with a Very Wet brush
- = 5 passes of lather
Bowl: No Bowl
䷀ Brush Notes
(Zenith - r/wetshaving MOAR BOAR B35/508A XL ‹52 uses›)
Same: Comfortable soft tips that do flex some, but that are supported by a base with strong backbone. As with all young boars, I look forward to the tips splitting with more uses and getting softer with use. I am generally using a hair dryer to gently treat the tips and age them just a bit faster than normal.
During the Shave Feel:
Cheeks: Felt blade but comfortable
Neck: Felt blade but comfortable
After the Shave Closeness:
Cheeks: Close Shave
Neck: Several hairs are showing some tip length (still a pretty good shave)
Ending of Blades Ledger - entry form and the data spreadsheet
