Weber Stainless Steel Razor Review

By Bengkia369

Loaded up with Feather Hi-Stainless (Jap version) blade and use moi regular Semogue LE2011 and Dovo shave soap (Gold Dachs Germany made for them).
I would say its more like the Merkur kind of aggressiveness but somehow smoother than the Chrome-plated Merkur to glide along the skin (might be due to the DLC coating). Look wise its very tool-like and its a no nonsense serious tool meant for shaving. Just only one shave, I can already tell that this ish one very good razor!

Looks : 7/10 (confirm not as pretty as the more expensive Stainless Steel Feather AS-D1 or Pils razors)

Function : 9/10 (highly rated as it shave the regular angle as the Merkur at 30deg and its a “upgrade” version of the Merkur due to its DLC coating)

Price : 10/10 (look! you are paying only USD$55 to get a full stainless steel razor that last u a lifetime! just look at how much ish other Stainless Steel razor tat easily cost 3-4 times as much!!!)

Weber SS / Semogue LE2011 / Dovo shave soap / Tabac ASL

Side by side with Japanese Feather AS-D1

Men’s Health : Traditional ( Double Edge – DE ) vs Modern ( Electric ) Shaving

 

Some of my personal opinions, based on DE, which I use

1) A professional shave can take up to 30 minutes, one at home takes at least 10 minutes.
—it’s 10mins of quality time and self grooming. Rush and work till can’t even afford 10 mins of quality time and taking care of ourselves? Sounds sad to me.

2)Blades deteriorate over time, and our skin’s uneven nature ensures a rough ride. And if you have the shakes…
—We keep our blades fresh. Dull blades drastically affect the quality of the shave so we tend to change it often and I prefer that than to shave with months/years old electric shaver’s blade. Ok….ppl with shakes and certain skin problem may not have an option.

3) Wet-shaving causes “microabrasions” which lead to irritation, while some pre-shave gels dry out skin.
—Pre shave gel?? What’s that? Think most of us prefer to use quality brushes,soaps and aftershaves. Ah…yes…there are so many options out there too to choose from. And a good prep before shaving not only soften the beard for shaving but also helps to keep our facial skin clean too.

For electric shaver….
4)Easy to clean and store, but you face a hairy situation if you lose the adapter.
—how about…I don’t see a single bit of stubble on my DE razor after every, single shave.

Ok…to be fair….having sharp blades around, esp at home, does have some risk, esp if you have kids at home. But electricity also has it’s own set of risk right?

— Patcheon

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Thoughts on the best lathering bowl

Contributed by Buckbrick .

Thought l post a review and thoughts on the best lathering bowl. Firstly there are 2 ways of creating lather for shaving: bowl lather and face lather. I won’t comment on face lather as I don’t do that 

So for bowls, there are 2 main kinds:

1. A simple bowl or soup mug, in any material.
2. Scuttles. These are simply bowls joint to a water reservoir. Hot water is poured into the reservoir to keep the lather warm. These are not cheap and available only online. A cheaper way to employ this technique is to put the lather bowl into a larger bowl of hot water.

Pic:

Lather bowls
Material: I prefer ceramic for fuction and aesthetic. You can use any material.

Size: 
My first bowl was a Jap ceramic bowl with a lid, 3″ across. I used a small brush at that time but still it knocked the sides of the bowl. So out it went.

My next bowl was 4″. I bought this bowl as it has a vey useful feature I was hunting high and low for: a pedestal at the bottom for holding. I bought a larger brush, so a larger bowl in required. Pic:

Never satisfied, I’m always on a lookout for the perfect bowl. So I found this stunner. Pic:

This one measures 5″ – more real estate. The brush in the pic is fairly big, so there is enough space to create lather without it hitting the walls. It’s the normal bowl shape, and steeper walls so the lather will not spill over, like it does for the one above. The outside wall is rough textured, so there’s very good wet grip.

Plus the look is mesmerizing.

So, make the effort to look for your perfect bowl and it will improve your lathers and enhance your shaving experience! My recommendations:

Size: no smaller than 4″, no larger than 5″ in diameter.
Material: ceramic retains heat well and you can find some very nice glazing and patterns.
Shape: The general bowl shape is the best. If you get those Jap rice bowls, the lather will spill over the edge due to the shallow walls.
Features: I love the pedestal. It allows you to hold on to the bowl securely when creating the lather. But these are hard – but not impossible – to find.

If you can find bowls that are textured – like swirls – on the inside, the better! But avoid rough unglazed ones as it wears your brushes.

How to shave like your grandpa?

Here is also another article on how our grandpa shaves.

“Proper shaving has become a lost art. Today’s average male has no clue about the fine art of the traditional wet shave that their grandfathers and some of their fathers used to take part in. Instead, they’re only accustomed to the cheap and disposable shaving products that companies market. I’m not sure when or why it happened, but the tradition of passing down the secrets of a clean shave abruptly stopped. Thankfully, this glorious male ritual is making a comeback.”

More…

 

First shave of the year 2012

To welcome the year 2012, I pulled out my GEM 1912 Single Edge Razor from my drawer. Yes it’s a hundred year old razor.

 

Instructions on how to use this razor.

Setup as follows :
Razor : Gem SE 1912
Blade : Ted Pella GEM PTFE blade
Soap : L’occitane  Cade
Simpsons Duke 3 ( Face Lather )
Alum block
Crabtree Nomad AB
Hermes d’terres EdT

This is my third shave on this razor and blade.  This razor has DTS surround sound meaning it has very good feedback when it’s reducing the whiskers and extreme BBS are achieved with 3 passes Angle is steeper than the slim, have to get a bit of getting used to.

I might consider this as my goto but for now I have to polish my skills and techniques. So I guess SE will be used during the weekends and special occasions together with my Duke 3.

Those that have not tried SE can try this before venturing into Merkur Slants or Muhle R41.

2 classic barber creams ( Omega & Musgo Real ) head-on

By Buckbrick.

Just lathered up the SOC ( Semogue Owner’s Club ) Boar Brush with Musgo Real and 2 things I discovered. The SOC brisles still clumped and the lather still mysteriously disappeared after a few minutes of swishing  This never happened with Omega. Break in continues, but seems not through normal usage.

Anyway, the second thing is Musgo. Firstly, this cream is strangely underrated in this club. It’s practically one of the most recommended first cream for wetshavers at the international scene but in SG it’s Omega ( similar to Prorosa as well ), it’s Italian counterpart. Musgo is from Portugal and contains all the magical ingredients: glycerin, coconut oil, lanolin and menthol. The smell is magical at first sniff and diff from everything else.

Now, this cream sadly fell out of favour for me a while back. It stung when I used it and was not slick. Then I bought Omega and became a game changer for me. You can mix Omega a little wetter than Musgo, as Omega is way thicker than Musgo. So during the SOC lathering, I mixed Musgo a little dry and was rewarded with a thick slick and creamy lather. And gosh I missed the smell! It lingers as long as omega, but the scents of these 2 compliments each other for a trip back to the sg barbers of old – very nostalgic!

Going to rotate it back into my shaves.  Musgo can be purchased cheaply from Connaught.