The End of Jumbled July ~ Shave of the Days ~ Boots , Maggard Razors and GFT/ Stainless VS Carbon

It has been a super hectic week these past 7 or 8 days. I hit my head twice and bled some so I wont be doing any head shaves anytime soon. I helped my wife at her work putting up decorations, we refinanced our house and I closed on it earlier, I took my son to school to meet his teacher and of course cooked and cleaned as I normally do. Despite not posting everyday like I was, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my shaves!

This month I basically went through my entire den of soaps. Some soaps, like Soap Commander and Stirling ,where I have multiple scents of each, I picked one or two and shelved the others as they only differ in scent. It has been nice to go through them all and now I have a few to PIF away. These are the few soaps that just don’t please me like the others and hardly see any use. Instead of them continuing to take shelf space I rather just give them away. I’m going to melt down the two Shaving Yeti soaps (Magic Elixir and Yeti Snot) and pour them into a Ziploc bag. I figured that once harden they can be peeled out and re-melted into a container of a persons choosing. I don’t really want to give away my two bowls. The third soap is Green Mountain Soaps Lime/Vetiver. I have tried it many times and I just don’t care for the scent and I have the hardest time getting the lather right. I’ll find someone CONUS and ship it to them. All the other soaps I’m keeping because I like them so much. 🙂

Looking forward, there are soaps that I will continually re-stock. They are:

Tabac (and it’s matching aftershave)
Speick (and it’s matching aftershave, possibly the cologne too. I might go for the cream next time)
Van Der Hagen Deluxe
Bigelow or Omega, whichever is cheapest
Williams Mug Soap (it’s cheap, smells nice and I can get it easily)
PAA – Cavendish
Soap Commander – Respect
Ginger’s Garden – Suede (tallow)
Tiki Bar Soap – Iced Mint (tallow)
Maggard Razors – Limes and Bergamot (tallow)
Stirling Soaps – Texas on Fire (my wife loves this on me) and Ozark Mountain (tallow)
Reef Point Soap – Sublime (tallow)

Frankly, I am not surprised to see the small artisan companies outnumber the traditional large companies in the above list. These ladies and gentlemen really know what they are doing. They are also frequently coming out with new scents too. PAA seems to introduce a new scent once a week, but that could just be my imagination. If I had the space and the money, I’d be buying some more Ginger’s Garden, Stirling Soaps, Soap Commander Endurance and I would love to try the Espresso from Reef Point Soaps one day. Of course, by the time I get my den reduced there might be a whole new ball park of scents to drool over. Also, there is a handful of other artisans whose soap I have not had the pleasure of using because of price or the lack of funds who I might like to try.

So I better get on with my last three Jumbled July shaves.

Someone had asked if I could tell the difference between the GEM coated stainless steel and the Treet Super, which are carbon steel. I had recently purchased 200 GEM coated blades because of some news I read concerning Personna looking at ceasing production of their single edge blades. I already had over 200 Treets so I wanted my next purchase to be those that aren’t going to rust. Using Boots as my soap and my Gem Micromatic (open-comb), I used the stainless on my right side of face and carbon on the left. I did 3 passes, skipping the Against the Grain pass for that day. After two passes with each I found that the Carbon steel blade felt smoother than the coated stainless. I did my third pass entirely with the Treet Super. Now, I have always fancied that my right cheek stubble was thicker than my left so I knew another test was in order, which I had planned for Friday (today). I’ll save the results on that for the end of this post.

Boots shave stick isn’t easy to find around here. I got mine from a friend (hi Bruce!). It has a scent that I can’t really describe and is a good performer. The Gem Micromatic (open-comb) is an efficient razor but for my face it is aggressive.

Boots shave stick
Semogue 740 badger
Gem Micromatic (open-comb)
Gem coated stainless steel
Treet Super (carbon)
hot shower
Brut Attitude

Tom More had asked about opinions on injector razors and that was my inspiration to use my Schick M-type Adjustable injector for Thursday shave. I’m not sure how many uses the existing blade has seen but it still felt very efficient. I dial it to 5 or 6 and do all my passes and then down to 2 or 1 for an Against the Grain pass. I like how it feels on my skin and the grip is fairly easy to hold on too. This is also a great razor for shaving the head on a daily or weekly basis.

This might have been the 2nd or 3rd time I have used the Maggard Razors Limes and Bergamot. This soap is made for Maggards by Through the Fire Fine Craft/Maria Arman. It is tallow based and lathers great! It is also a good buy at $2.60 an ounce!

Maggard Razors – Limes and Bergamot
Semogue 740 badger
Schick Adjustable injector m-type
Schick blade
hot shower
Aqua Velva Musk

Test number 2 of the single edge blade comparison. I had saved the Trumpers for the final Jumbled July shave and to test with. It is a wonderful soap and I feel the same way about it as I do Art of Shaving. For this test I used the same two blades but switched sides and added a 4th pass (against the grain). I also washed my face before shaving this time. On the With the Grain I felt the Treet (carbon) was a smoother, sharper ride. On the two Across the Grain passes it was a pretty even match, but on the Against the grain pass I felt the Gem coated stainless was smoother. As for sharpness, I felt both sides once the aftershave had dried, and both sides feel exactly the same. Neither blade seemed to outperform the other. I am pretty sure that if we look at longevity, we would find the coated stainless to be superior as the carbons can rust fairly quick.