December 3, 2023
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Brush: AP Shave Co Summer 28mm G5C
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Lather: Declaration Grooming - Opulence - Soap
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Toner: Thayers - Rose - Toner
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Aftershave: Declaration Grooming - Opulence - Aftershave
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Talc: Yardley Classic
2 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.
This shave was superbe (FR spelling and pronounciation). That is mostly due to the stainless steel Frio 14 I think. Stainless steel has been around since the early early 20th century. I guess that a combination of cost and heritage have kept straight razor steels as carbon steels (which rust) until the '60s. But, really, when tempered properly, stainless has no drawbacks as a straight razor steel. Note that most DE blades from the mid-20th century onwards are stainless and I wonder why more modern straight razors aren't stainless? [ And, yes, I'm not an authority. I've had formal training in materials science but that was around the time humans were learning the advantages of the wheel. ]
Today was a revisit of Opulence. During BBS November I used my tub and had the worst lather of the month. I was pretty sure it was user error, but both @[email protected] and @[email protected] informed me that there were Opulence tubs out there with a reputation for being very difficult to lather.
My strategy was to give the soap every chance possible to produce a good lather. I bloomed it with hot water for about 15 minutes prior to use, then loaded my dense G5C synthetic knot very heavily from the tub. The soap produced no suds just a paste. I spread this on the face and proceeded to add water to the brush and agitate the lather (i.e. face lather). I added a lot of water, did a lot of brush scrubbing, and finally built a moist dense and slick lather. This worked just fine for the shave and rinsed cleanly from the razor. There was enough lather in the brush to easily build for a second pass, but almost the same amount of water and agitation effort were needed. The lather did lose slickness during each pass but did so slow enough that my shaving was unaffected. Real residual slickness only came when the face was wet post-pass.
So, I know that I don't have to work this hard to lather any of my other DG soaps. I like the scent of Opulence, and can deal with the tub I have, but it is not a candidate for a quick shave.
