~ Today's Shave, November 21st, 2010 ~

Cream/Soap: P.160 Tipo Morbido
Brush: Made Rite, Finest Badger
Razor: Gem 1912
Blade: Gem
Balm: Kiehl's

The Single Edge razor is a sweet close shave, but seems to demand some special attention.  Though it is smooth and ultra close, you can get too much of a good thing and shaving with this on two consecutive days is a challenge.  This is the Gem 1912 manufactured in Brooklyn, New York.  It is loaded with a standard single edge blade, such as what you would use to scrape your vehicle registration sticker from the windshield of your car.  Scary sharp.

The Made Rite brush, refitted with a Finest Badger Fan shaped knot, is absolutely superb.  Not a single complaint!

P.160 carries a wonderful almond scent that lasts through out the shave.  It lathers thick and slick and although I was initially challenged with getting a good lather from it, we have come to an agreement..  This soft soap is no longer available, but I have plenty left and also have two more tubs in my inventory.

Sweet shave today!!

Image from the Nikon D3, 70-200 f/2.8 VR,.  Oddly, this superb lens doesn't allow for focusing on subjects closer than about five feet.  When fitted with a 12mm extension tube you can focus on subjects as close as inches away.  Extension tubes are hollow tubes that simply move the lens further away from the camera's sensor.  They don't have optics and most don't have electrical contacts, but the set used here, made by Kenko, do communicate electronically with the camera body and as such, auto focus and all aspects of metering are retained.  Light is provided by one Nikon SB800 speed light camera right, with a Lumiquest soft box and one SB-800 camera left and slightly behind the setup with a Wescott Apollo soft box.  Lights were triggered by Nikon SU-800 controller.  

Working with small speed lights is a joy.  This setup was shot in the brightly lit home studio, but by properly controlling the exposure settings for the ambient light, the background can be rendered black while the two flash units bring the light back to an appealing composition.  This allows for control of two distinct zones of light...Zone one, the area behind the subject ,can be fully balanced from a brightly lit scene to dark shadows without impacting the light in zone two, that which is falling on the subject.

Today's Shave...

~ Today's Shave, September 27th, 2010 ~

Cream/Soap: Speick Shave Stick
Brush: Penworks Silvertip Badger
Razor: 1961 Gillette Fat Boy Adjustable
Blade: Derby
Balm: Kiehl's

I believe the Gillette Fat Boy got it's name because the handle has a massive girth.  The razor is heavy in the hand but it is well balanced.  Being an adjustable razor, the user can set the quality of the shave from super mild to ultra aggressive in nine steps of the click stop collar under the head.  One nice feature is that the adjustment setting is retained when you load the blade into the upper silo doors.  This specimen is in superb condition.  Research tells me that Gillette originally called this razor the 195 because the price of ownership was $1.95.  Today, $30 to $45 is not uncommon for one in this condition.  It's super high quality construction and is tough as woodpecker lips.

The Speick Shave Stick was included in the purchase of the Feather Artist Club straight razor.  The technique with a shave stick is to rub the stick on your face which deposits product on your whiskers.  You then use a moistened shave brush and some muscle to whisk the soap into a glorious lather.  This is a tallow based soap which absolutely explodes into a thick foam and I need to be aware to not over apply it as it responds like a clothes washer over filled with detergent.. and much of the lather ends up down the drain.  It's moisturiaing properties seem to last all day.  I opted to transfer the stick to a twist up stick deodorant container emptied and cleaned of it's contents.  This dramatically improves the usability of the stick which is a seriously slipper affair when wet.

The image was created with the Nikon D3 handheld, 28-70 f/2.8 lens which is just exquisite, and a single Nikon Speedlight fill-bounced off a white wall camera right.  I am still learning the proper technique for displaying low resolution images for the web.  This particular image is absolutely razor sharp when viewed at full resolution on my high quality LCD display, but when down sized it seems to lose some of it's snap. 

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.