Personal
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Fathers Day
sweet, for fathers day this year I got a motorcycle safety course. Three intensive days training and I’ll have my mc license.
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Monday, December 15, 2008
Things I had’t paid attention to before
I learnt something on the weekend, something I had not bothered to really think about.
My Wapienica straight razor is a 4/8
My Carl Rader Solingen straight razor is 5/8
and my Thomas Turner Royal Navy straight razor is 6/8
Hmm, also consequently the wapi is the most delicate, and the Thomas Turner is positively wedge-like, its probably 1/4 or less hollow ground I think.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Mandolin
I got a new mandolin on the weekend (thanks Nan-nan!), to replace the one I had that didnt quite work. The previous one had some frets inlaid really deeply to the point you couldnt hit some notes without the strings hitting other frets, no matter how high the bridge was set, it was a cheap mando, unfortunately this time, was not even suitable for learning on.
The new one is a Ibanez M511SBS, all solid woods, no ply or such, and yes, I checked all the frets, this one is good to go. Now I just have to get back up to speed and start learning again. You can see Joy’s Alvarez MD90 in the background.
I do need to tighten the nut on the armrest but apart from that…
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Friday, February 01, 2008
Gillette Tech Square vs Triangular
In a post on shavemyace.com I was very adamant that the geometry of the heads in the Tech series didnt change, but its well know the base plate had two variations, so I decided to take some pics.
(Largs pics after the jump)
The baseplate on the right with the square guard slots is from a British Tech, no date code, the triangular slots is from a 1939 USA Tech
You can see the triangular slots are smaller and come close to the safety bar,
Top of my hand, British Tech, bottom USA 1939 Tech.
A blade installed in the USA tech mostly covers any gap that you can see.
I dont know if you could count one as more aggressive than the other, shave wise.
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Ebay Score 1955 Gillette Diplomat
I dropped a bid on what was supposed to be a 1955 Gillette Aristocrat DE razor, I only bid $1 over the current bid and managed to win the auction, so I was a bit surprised. Turns out it was not an Executive but the more rare version called a Diplomat. Its not truly collectable since it didnt come in its original case.
I will probably give it a whirl tonight, rumour via the SMF forum has it that its a more aggresive shaver than a red-tip super speed!! So its going to be very interesting to see what its like since my go-to razor is a 1939 Gillette Tech fat-handle which is supposed to be the mildest of the Gillette razors.
The photo of the head closed shows it needs a bit of polishing but all its gold plating is intact.
Pictures after the jump of the ‘diplomat’
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Thursday, November 15, 2007
Shaving an overripe peach
AKA Adventures in good of fashioned cut throat razor shaving. Also known as Wet Shaving… or Shaving the old fashioned way. This is part of my effort to add some refinement to my hectic life! Turn shaving into a hobby.
Multi-blade cartridges are expensive and the foamy/gel cans do nothing but dehydrate and create a really poor lather… So I now own a 1940 gillette three piece razor called a Tech. Some artisan soap from Mama Bear and a swath of different brand of blades. (Walmart sell some high-quality blades in a 10pack for $1.54… Yeah thats 15 cents a blade. A blade should last about 10 shaves. Thats 0.015 cents a shave. Mach3 blades charge $10 for a 4 pack. Thats 2.50 per cartridge vs 0.15 for a safety blade. I dont know how many ‘good’ shaves you can get out of a mach3 cartridge but I’m doubting you could get the equivalent of 10 good shaves.
OK, so I didn’t use a peach, and it wasn’t invisible peach fuzz. Earlier this evening I had, caveman like, an inch long beard and 4 inch goatee.
No, no goats were sacrificed at the sink.
I did however sacrifice my inch long beard. My shiny semi-new 1940 gillette tech showed up, so I gave it a sanitize, unwrapped an Israeli crystal and broke out the mama bear Tuscan soap…
First was the hair clippers run all over head + face to remove extraneous beard and get down to it, with a hot shower to open up the pores like windows in summer.
My nicer brush hasnt shown up yet, and it was hard work with the good old burma shave brush from walmart (I couldn’t wait any longer…). I seemed to get a better lather doing it on my face than trying to make it in the bowl. I really think it was down to the brush more so than anything elses fault. Also feel I needed to make it ‘thicker’ but it did the trick.
Well I never!
I didn’t think anything was happening but I looked at the razor and there was all dirty particles on the soap. Something was coming off. Granted it wasnt baby butt smooth and I did go over the same space a couple of times.
My problem area is going to be my jaw line / jaw curve from cheek to underside jaw…
Defiantly pressed too hard in spots but the tech was nice and forgiving thankfully. No burn. One ‘bump’ showed up on my neck but no bleeding or irritation (maybe thats due to the nice nivea balm I put on. imo Nivea make great balm).
So, lessons learned (but maybe not heeded)
- Don’t go over same spot without any lather, this aint no joe sixpack triple blade cartridge with lubricating strip and child proof lock
- Don’t be impatient and think the burma shave brush ‘will do’ (maybe I am being a bit harsh on it).
- When you think nothing is coming off, something really is coming off so don’t press any harder!
- Gillette made really good products long before I was born. They don’t seem to any more.
- I’m tempted to keep touching my face like a kid in the candy store (Apparently this is called facerbating… 
)
- Will stick with Israeli Crystal blades for the next month until I can get my lathering + basic technique down pat so I know what to expect when I change blades.
- When you take the razor compartment out of its cardboard sale package, they tend not to tell you what they are on the outside! (well for crystal blades anyway).
- I actually remembered to take a before and after shot for posterity (but I wont bother you guys with them here) since removing beard is not a common occurance Cool
- I violated the no-shave-November rule at work! 
- Holding to the angle on the top of the handle is not as easy as it seems and trying to overcome holding it near vertical is hard
- Will have to see how it is in the morning (since I am a night shaver)...
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