~ 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.

First straight razor shave is a smashing success!

Well.. it is a high level success.  The details can use some improvement.

Like others I don't have the inclination to go with traditional straights, though I can see them in my future. I have a collection of well over 300 straights that my dad left me, some of which I know I will eventually want to use, but I started with a Feather Artist Club RG.

As I mentioned in my first post about straights, this is, on all counts a regular straight razor in feel and execution, but it has removable blades.  This eliminates the need for the maintenance that traditional straights require.

The head of the razor opens to allow a disposable blade in your chosen flavor to be inserted.  The spring action locks securely and the blade exposure is perfectly even.  Removing the blade for disposal is as easy as inverting the head and squeezing.  This allows the blade to fall freely.  The head comes apart for cleaning.

Yesterday's shave was a BBS with a DE (Baby Butt Smooth with a Double Edge) so I wasn't working with a thick beard this morning.

I showered and whipped a big bowl of The Body Shops Macca Root shave cream because it is the slickest stuff I have and for me, it is 100% reliable. For some reason I chose my Hoffritz Pure Badger brush which is a flopper by comparison to the rest of my brushes, but something had it calling out to be a party to the experience.  I underestimate this brush...it needs to be in the brush rotation more often.

The blade I chose is the Feather Pro-Guard.  Per Feather's advertising, "By wrapping the blade in a protective cage a comfort margin is maintained between the blade edge and the skin.  The wire guard also virtually eliminates nicks and cuts."  It works as advertised.. reminds me of the Flicker razor my mom used to use. 
 
Kiehl's Men's Ultimate AS Balm was ready for post shave.

My plan was one pass and I was ready to bail out if it got dicey.  Other than this, I had no real plan.h I have read Dr. Chris Moss's book, The Art of the Straight Razor Shave,  but I felt I needed to hold this experience very loosely since I had no idea where it was going.. expectations are premeditated disappointment.

Top level report... The str8 shave is awkward for a newbie. Hold the razor this way or that? Can I see the angle of the blade?  Can I see my face?  Is that blood?  The left side of my face is impossible to reach or see. Getting around my chin and upper lip is quite challenging.

The shave lasted only marginally longer than a BBS DE shave. Still, I think I would be hard pressed to attempt this on a work day, at least not yet.

I pulled off three passes.. WTG, XTG & XTG. Zero cuts, nicks or errors, but it's far, very far, from a BBS shave. In fact, though I rate it a smashing success due to the lack of personal injury, if this were a DE shave I would consider it an epic fail given the lack of closeness. It's even, so I feel I did a decent job with coverage, but there is a nice even stubble that I would expect late in the day after a morning DFS DE shave (DFS = Damn Fine Shave; a notch below a BBS).

As I sit here, forty minutes post shave, I have zero irritation and have time to review the shave frankly, I don't know what I might do different next time.. The Pro-Guard blades are suspect. But only slightly. If they are designed to prevent cuts, there must be some compromise in closeness.  I didn't attempt an ATG pass.  Though the Macca Root is perfect for DE, it's quite thick and made it tough to tell if the blade or spine of the razor was actually on my skin.

Gotta wonder if I should push to shave two handed... now would be the time do it, before any kind of muscle memory sets in.

To the more experienced...tell me your thoughts..suggestions and comments.

To the less traveled..don't let the straight scare you. Respect it. But don't fear it.

Image is from the Nikon D3.  28-70 f/2.8 Nikkor lens.  Hand-held.  SB-800 fired into a Wescott 43" double fold umbrella via Radio Popper JRx Wireless units.