Was it nice?
Oh wow! This was my first time trying a MacDuff's soap, and it's a delightful base! So easy to load a gooey protolather and hydrate it to a dense, creamy, drippy lather. I really slept on this one.
Today is the third meeting of our Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club, and we have picked @[email protected]'s submission of MacDuff's Old Strathcona. Thank you Sahenders for the generous smush! The scent is a pleasant Barbershop scent of the Barrbarr kind. Both Barrbarr and Old Strathcona have a prominent note that I perceive as anise, but neither have it listed. It's maybe some combination of Rosemary/Terragon and Basil playing a trick on me?
Ether way, the scent is really pleasant and combined well with Barrbarr, but the star of the show is the soap base. I've rarely had such a wonderful lather on the first try with a new base. Really dense and protective feeling lather. I need to kill a tub to make room for MacDuff's.
Great BVWSC meeting, great shave!
It is a nice combo. We'll also have to investigate Varac, Vabac, and Tavaren!
So it seems to be my duty to avoid a barren thread today!
Hell yeah!
I now have an interesting barbershop scent to compare tomorrow’s BVWSC
I'm really looking forward to this one!
Nope, I'm getting a face full of bright resin/sap. Like a freshly cut Christmas tree. But my nose isn't very refined
Stanky evening shave with Tabac and Varen. Good times.
I will investigate tonight!
Wonderful Armonía shave tonight. Great scent and slick base, what's not to love‽
How about a blind check? You have an assistant prepare the razors so you don't know which is which and repeat?
I stumbled upon this frag combination by luck. I wouldn't have thought of combining MOTI with Scrooge if I hadn't had MOTI fresh on my mind from yesterday's shave.
Scrooge is firmly in Christmas market scent territory for me with its boozy spicy blood orange combo, so adding Seaforth! Spiced to the mix was obvious, and would have been predictably good, but nothing great. The warm sweetness of MOTI rounds out the spicy scent combination like a missing puzzle piece, as a team player. All three fragrances smell different and better together in this combo than alone.
The liniment is good stuff. I just don't think of using it very often.
I had my mail held back during our vacation and I went to fetch it all this morning. My tub of No Scrub made it me 🎉.
I also got a pristine NOS Friodur 17 that I'm excited about, and finally a regular sized Tabac EdC and a comically large Tabac splash. If only it wasn't Austere August 😅
I see some honing and second luxury shaves in my near future.
So, there is some contradictory information about Friodur razors floating around the interwebs. For instance, according to the text of German Wikipedia (English Wikipedia, the ice-hardening process for hardening stainless steel was invented in 1939 and patented in 1951, but according to the time table in the same article, it was patented in 1939 but the name Friodur was only introduced with the first ice-hardened blades in 1951.
But then I saw a mysterious 7/8 Friodur 50 on eBay with a patent stamp D. R. PAT 41-DL4678.
Now I can't find that patent document, but it seems to be a patent stamp from the patent office of the German Reich (presumably of the third kind given that the Friodur name appeared in at the earliest 1939 and the Reich Patent Office was dissolved after the allied victory). So it seems that this is a 1941 Friodur model.
It's also the only Friodur I've ever seen to have etchings on both sides of the blade. Here's the usually blank back side with a big sweeping Friodur logo:
It seems like the early Friodurs made a really big deal of being Friodurs. Must have been expensive razors.
The front side has the typical shank markings of earlier carbon steel Henckels straights (Later Friodurs have the swirly Friodur logo in addition to the Zwilling (twin) logo):
But the really interesting part is the decoration etched into the front face of the blade. First, there's what looks like the double-headed eagle of the Scottish rite of Freemasonry.
A big Eye of Providence:
A Freemason's Star (apparently not really a star of David, but a geometric regularization of the square-and-compass symbol of the Freemasons
And finally this image I couldn't find information on that doesn't make me want to put on a tinfoil hat. Supposedly a scythe and a winged hourglass symbolising time as the destroyer of humankind's institutions. I will not link to my fishy sources.
Here's the whole thing! I'm not sure yet whether I think it's pretty, but it's sure interesting!
I'm going to hone this puppy to get it ready for Austere August, $FriodomRiders, and $Honemeisterschaft
Are you a straight shaver? Do you hate rust? Do you like great razors? This is for you!
This is about leveraging the only meaningful innovation in straight razor manufacture in the last 75 years for a relaxed Austere August without worrying about your precious razor rusting while you enjoy your summer.
This is about Friodom! (from rust)
A stainless steel razor (If you don't have one and are tempted by this challenge, I strongly suggest getting a Friodur 5/8 or larger, they are all very good, and typically in can be found in great condition on eBay).
Yes! $FriodomRiders is compatible with $headless, $RawHoggin, $Honemeisterschaft and all the software challenges.
Include the character string "$FriodomRiders" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)
The honour of displaying the 🗽FriodomRider🏇 flair.
The heyday of straight razors is the late 19th century, and a 130 year old full hollow ground Böker looks exactly like one made this year. Even modern razors who try new design languages are typically made exactly like a century ago: A blank of carbon steel is forged, tempered, ground, and scaled.
After an initial learning curve, a good straight razor delivers fantastic shaves for a lifetime if properly cared for, and here lies the rub. Most straight razors rust. You need to keep them dry and oiled between uses, or they will turn into expensive red powder.
We're not really used to things rusting any more in our lives. Our cutlery, pots, pans, and most kitchen knives are made from stainless steel, so why aren't razors?
The first stainless steel knives appeared in 1914, and they weren't a success, but known as "the knife that would not cut". The ice-hardening process for quality blades in stainless steel was only invented in 1939 and patented by Zwilling in 1951 under the name Friodur (pseudo latin for cold-hard). This means that good stainless steel came about only after the straight razors fell out of fashion.
Zwilling (Friodur), Weltmeister (eisgehärtet), Thiers Issard and Dovo (Inox), Ralf Aust (Edelstahl) all produced or still produce stainless steel razors.
I'm convinced that good stainless steal razors are on par with good carbon steel razors, and they have an undeservedly bad reputation. Join me in shining light on the best straight razors ever made.
Are you a honemeister? A casual honer? A honeapprentice? Interested in learning to hone? This is for you!
This is not your typical tough guy AA challenge. No Ultra Nightmare Mode, no tuggy blades, just 31 good shaves.
Straight razor maintenance is a very accessible and satisfying skill to learn, but it can feel daunting at the beginning. The goal is to create small welcoming AA community for those curious about getting into straight razor maintenance, perfecting their technique, or talking shop with fellow straight razor maintainers.
This challenge is about straight razor appreciation and lowering the entry hurdle to straight razor maintenance.
A shave ready straight, a finishing stone, a strop, a brush, a soap, styrofoam packing peanuts.
If you need a finishing stone, Naniwa 10k or Naniwa 12k water stones are widely recognised a as good value. You can get one here for instance.
Mostly yes. $Honemeisterschaft is compatible with $FriodomRiders, $RawHoggin, and all the software challenges, but it is incompatible with the no-honing rule of $headless.
No, this is about having a good experience with your favourite straight. If the shave-ready edge turned out to be less than, or you have a stropping mishap, or you have the world's toughest beard and softest razor, whatever, refresh your edge, that's what the hone is for.
It is recommended to start with a good edge and wait for the 17th, so as to make the effect of the refresh noticeable. If you keep refreshing your edge, the effect of maintenance is hidden.
Include the character string "$Honemeisterschaft" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)
The honour of displaying the 🗡Honemeister🔨 flair.
This Moar Boar of a sub member was loosing a lot of bristles. They were done with it and let me have it.
I was surprised how hard it is to cut off all the bristles of a boar knot!
It was so hard that I was convinced I was cutting into the glue bump and had finally figured out its shape:
But the actual glue came a few mm deeper.
I was worried at first that the tiny hand mill wouldn't be up to the task and that I'd need to find a 32 mm Forstner bit and figure out a way to grip the handle strong enough to withstand the torque of the Forstner bit on a drill press without ruining it, but as it turns out, it was quite easy and quick to get the hole deep enough:
I've set the handle with a 30 mm Maggard Silvertip knot, and I'm looking forward to trying the most exclusive of all subbrooshes, the Moar Badger soon.
Share your shave of the day!
Like @[email protected] the other day, I also have taken advantage of Yourshaving's anniversary sale and got myself three new brushies to break in:
I've been meaning to try a Semogue Owner's club for a while now, mainly because of @[email protected] singing its praises and this is going to be perfect for this year's AA Raw Hoggin'. The pretty Butterscotch brush is a Zenith 506B Manchurian. It's my first Zenith badger, and my first silver tip badger. I'm curious to break this one in, but will probably wait for after LG. Finally, the black one is a Zenith 506N XS (you can see, I like the 506 form factor), an extra soft horse hair brush, which was recommended by @[email protected] among others. This one will wait for LG.
The Thu 19 Sep 2024
Today is Theme Thursday over on the other place, and we giving a nod to NZ Suffragette Day (Shave with a a product considered to have a more feminine scent, e.g. florals. BONUS if you shave with a product made in New Zealand.)
I don't have anything made in New Zealand. Koké could totally be a feminine scent though, and it has a Polynesian theme going, and I believe New Zealand is a part of Polynesia.
Delightful shave with great šmells.