What's in a name?

Every razor has it's own unique shave characteristic and what I might consider a wonderful whisker whacker might tear your face to pieces..  load up one of the many available blades, each with it's own set of dominant traits and the matrix goes hyper on your..  Aside from the visual appeal of different razors, it's their temperament that differentiates them from a daily shaver, dust collector or worse...offered for sale or trade.

I recently added a vintage 1961 Gillette Fat Boy Adjustable to my inventory.  Its prior owner had named it George.  Learning this got me thinking about each of the razors I have.. not so much from a technical, forensic perspective, but in consideration to the way they treat my face and hands and what images they bring to mind before, during and after a shave.  While I don't know exactly how George got his name, I find it appealing that he actually has a name and I working on naming George's stable mates.

Today's Shave...

~ Today's Shave, October 11th, 2010 ~

Cream/Soap: Tom's of Maine, Natural Mint
Brush: iKon Silvertip Badger
Razor: iKon Prototype, Long handle
Blade: Feather
Balm: Kiehl's

My week long obsession with the iKon razors continues.

The Prototype is just awesome.  Yesterday's shave was dead perfect and lasted near ten hours!  This morning was equally enjoyable.  The Feather needs to be respected, but it can achieve BBS in a stroke less than all other blades.  The long handle creates exception balance and it's longer lever action reduces the amount of pressure I apply.. a welcome thing with the Feather blade...

Image is from the Nikon D300, 70-200VR with an extension tube to allow for closer focus.  Sad to report the D3 suffered sudden death syndrome while photographing birds of prey over the weekend.. It sits in the queue at Nikon Melville awaiting a new shutter mechanism.  The D3 has less than 30k actuations on it.. and is generally babied.. odd that it would bite the dust.

Today's Shave...

~ Today's Shave, September 17th, 2010 ~

Cream/Soap: Tom's of Maine, Natural Mint
Brush: Penworks, Silvertip Badger
Razor: Frankenrazor...Hoffritz Slant head on Bob's Razor Works Ultra Lite, anodized Black
Blade: Feather
Balm: Kiehl's

The slant bar razor has a safety bar that is curved rather than straight which, in tandem with a matching curved cap plate bends the blade in an strong curve.  This presents the blade to the beard in an angle which results in a shearing action as the blade passes the hair.  The result...a very close shave, though one needs to be extra careful when new to it.

The Slant is one of my favorite razors and I look forward to using it.

Tom's of Maine just discontinued this fabulous all natural, domestic shave cream.  It gets a bad rap because it lacks some of the glitz of the imported stuff, but I love it and have a few tubes in inventory.

 

Nikon D3, 70-200 f/2.8 VR, mounted on a Berlebach Mini Tabletop tripod with RRS BH55L ballhead.  Nikon Speedlights fired remotely via Radio Popper triggers.