arup’s blog

Having taken up the fine art of DE shaving or traditional wet shaving only recently I wondered what to do when travelling by air where only minimal amounts of liquids are allowed. I opted to try a shaving stick instead of cream. I manage to get a fairly good lather from shaving cream but felt like I was back at square one when it came to sticks.

I read through the guides on badgerandblade.com and they did help. But I’ve only just discovered a method that really works for me.

Having prepared the beard by applying warm water for a few minutes apply the stick to the face but first dipping it in warm water. Use the facial bristles to get plenty of the product onto the face. Then using a pre-soaked badger hair brush build the lather directly on the face. Then take that lather to the bowl and continue to build it.

What I had tried before was to apply the stick to the brush and then build the lather in the bowl. But it didn’t seem to work too well. I also found that I had made the brush a little bit too dry by shaking and squeezing it. This works well with cream but not so with the stick. The other thing that I didn’t do before was to dip the stick in water before applying it to the face.

The resulting lather is actually a lot better than the cream and gives a much closer shave with less burn. The stick in question is La Toja from Spain and the cream is Palmolive. Both fairly inexpensive products but I’m converted to the stick now.

Share This

I’ve been DE or double edged shaving for about three months now and getting the hang of the technique. The preparation of the skin, decent lather and short light strokes with the razor. I’ve been studying the direction of hair growth on my face and just generally taking my time pampering myself. I’ve tried a couple of blades namely the Merkur Platinum and Derby Extra. I find the Derby blades much smoother and sharper than the Merkur but I’m now wondering what else is out there.

From what I’ve read on the DE shaving forums such as badgerandblade you need to find blade that works best with your skin. A very personal choice that requires experimentation and research. So I’ve bought myself a blade sampler pack from connaught shaving comprising of 8 packs of blades. I chose some of them according to reviews and some at random. Obviously it’s not good to go by reviews because I’m doing my own but just to get a rough idea of what most people seem to like. But it was good to read that some people didn’t get on with the ones that most people seemed to like.

My testing method

As I don’t have a huge amount of experience with DE shaving what I’m going to do is to have 2 or 3 shaves with each blade and give it some sort of a rating. I’m aware that each blade in the pack is not equal as I discovered with the Derby Extra blades. I also can’t give it ratings under the many criteria as people seem to do on the forums as I don’t really appreciate some of those subtleties. What I’ll do then is to rate the blade on being sharp and smooth. So this process is going to take me roughly 8 weeks.

I’m not really fussed about the longevity of the blade as I’m interested in the quality of the shave first and foremost. Compared to multi blade replacements these are cheap and I don’t even shave every day. I’m also going to leave the Feather blades till last as they are supposed to be really good. In terms of an intuitive assessment they will be compared to the Derby Extra. If none of these blades can’t top them then I’ll stick with those until I find ones that are better on my face.

I have a scoring system in mind where the baseline is the Derby level which is also zero. And then plus or minus the Derby level in terms of smoothness and sharpness. My perceived ideas of what is sharp and what is smooth and not objective levels.

Not the same in every razor

Just as electric guitars need to be matched with a suitable amplifier so razor blades need to be matched with the right razor. From what I’ve read blades behave differently in different razors. I’ve only got one razor the Merkur HD so it will be the blade that behaves best in that razor. So I guess ultimately it will be a combination of blade, razor and skin.

Even though I have only the one razor I can see myself acquiring a few more in the not too distant future but not before the end of these tests. I’ve been looking at them on ebay but they seem to jump in price rather quickly. I’ve been looking at vintage Gillettes thinking that they will go for a song but collectors seem to have their eye on them.

What of other factors such as lather?

To keep these tests accurate I would need to keep all the other factors constant such as the lather, the amount of preparation, the temperature of the water and time of day of the shave. I guess I should do that in order to maintain a sense of accuracy and scientific precision but I probably won’t. Sometimes I’ll have a shower before the shave and sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I’ll use the shaving cream and sometimes the stick. But won’t that invalidate my results? It will reduce the accuracy but won’t invalidate the final results. I will still have a feel of which ones performed best. And they will also be tested under various conditions. This is a hobby after all and not an article for Which? magazine. But hey, perhaps I could sell it to them.

Share This

Before I know it the the next millennium has rolled on and I’m happy to announce 14,000 miles on fixed gear. The last thousand miles was a bit of a slow one as I didn’t manage my hundred miles a week. I’ve already had the millennium meal at Wagamama in High Street Kensington. I’m also treating myself to some new bike parts. Ah, I do like my cycling.

Share This

Condor UNO hubs laced 3-cross to Mavic Open Sport rims in 32 hole drilling using DT Swiss Champion plain gauge spokes. Length for front and rear was 295mm. Plain brass nipples and all in silver. An excellent budget wheelset and a good choice for anyone starting out on the fixed gear route.

I used a slight modification to my usual 3-cross pre-cross technique in this build which made the final wheel a bit stronger and more even. When it came to the point of developing what I call initial tension, I used the Park TM-1 spoke tensiometer to check that they were all even. I got them all to be just under the 10 mark on the scale. Even though this process was a little bit laborious checking each spoke individually, it proved to set me up pretty well and meant that later stages of the process much easier. Why go by feel when you have a measuring device?

Share This

Goldtec hubs in 36 hole drilling laced onto Mavic Open Pro CD rims all in black. ACI Alpina double butted black spokes with DT Prolock nipples. Spoke length was 288mm for both front and rear wheels. No oil of course on the threads and my usual 3-cross pre-cross method of lacing.

Share This