This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
https://gem.wetshaving.social - a nice modern interface
https://old.wetshaving.social - designed to look like old.reddit.com
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social.
Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
Do not solicit donations or share fundraisers without mod approval.
All NSFW/L content must request mod approval and be flaired appropriately.
Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
April 27, 2024
I think this is my last tub of Excelsior based soap. I love Excelsior.
Why do you think Will stopped making Excelsior?
I've heard some people don't like it and find it drying. My skin gets dried out pretty easily and I've never had that problem with Excelsior. It takes a large amount of water and I think most people don't have the patience to get Excelsior to its "sweet spot".
Omnibus also takes a huge amount of water, but it's more forgiving if you don't spend the time getting it wet. I'm still undecided on which base I prefer, as I love them both.
Soft Heart was in the middle of the two, and unlike @[email protected] I don't think Ominibus was a natural progression, although I'm not sure that's why he meant. I feel like it was a new direction towards a different type of lather.
I do prefer Excelsior and Omnibus to Soft Heart, as I find SH to be a tad bit on the poofy side.
I also have an opinion about the Reserve base, but nobody asked so I'll stop here before I write a book!
I have samples in both Excelsior and Reserve. I honestly have no issue with either. I haven't tried Soft Heart. And, Omnibus works just fine by me. No issues with the amount of water it takes. I just add water until it's done :)
unlike @[email protected] I don’t think Ominibus was a natural progression
Hear it from the horse's mouth: "I started with Modified Soft Heart and improved it"
I don't believe it! They are so much different.
Yeah, omnibus has this greasy lather (term coined by u/pppork) similar to Highland. I don't dislike these modern bases, but I'm not convinced it's a step forward either.
so I'll stop here before I write a book!
I'd be interested in the reserve book!
##The Book of Reserve
New tubs were easy to load and had a gooey "proto lather". After a year or two it gets really firm and loading enough soap can be an exercise.
The soap itself is good as long as you can load enough of it!
The End
I like the gooey proto lather. Like Shannon's and milk steak
It was weirdly controversial, bordering on unpopular. During the tests, one of the other candidates was more popular: Soft hearts. Will felt it was too soft and people would resent how quickly it gets used up, so we went with the firmer Excelsior. Omnibus was the result of Will researching ways to make Soft Hearts firmer. So it feels like Will was never fully happy with Excelsior.
This was before I became interested in wetshaving. Always happy to get some of the lore.
Yeah, Excelsior is fantastic!
Great shave this morning, and FttE got me an "Oooh, you smell really good" from the missus today, so this day started really nice.
4/27/24
It would seem the thrill of this Kanayama has me shaving again every day.
Are they still selling these strops ?; I thought they were out of production.
Yeah, they're out of production. Mr. Naomi Kanoyama retired in 2022. I stumbled on this NOS #80000 on ebay for a crazy good price, less than hour after being listed.
I'm wondering how much she'll cordovan strop contributes, and how much this specific Nakayama does
This specific Kanayama plays a huge part. An absolute Grail find.
Interesting. I find the draw of the cordovan to be wonderful but cannot detect any difference in edge-alignment performance between the Kanoyama and my Tony Miller strops. This doesn’t stop me using the Kanoyama, though :)
It's just the thrill of having one, much less such a nice one. It's been a nice change up from my Black Latigo. There will always be room for my Tony Miller!
I agree. I am thrilled to have one.
Kanayama being the shell cordovan strop?
That is correct
April 27, 2024
Brush: Wolfman WRB2 Bronze w/AP Shave Co MiG 26mm Premium Hybrid
Razor: Wade & Butcher 6/8 Hollow Ground
Lather: Wholly Kaw - PasteurVision - Soap
Toner: Thayers - Rose - Toner
Aftershave: Elysian Soap Shop - El Dorado - Aftershave
2 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.
PasteurVision is another soap that I purchased at the Maggard Meetup. Another winner for me. I think if you like Amber Bomba (I'm lookin' at you @whosgotthepudding ), you'll love this one. I don't have the splash. El Dorado complements it nicely, though.
This shave was a test shave and the results were just great. The razor belongs to u/VisceralWatch and it came back for honing because the edge has never been quite right. We thought that maybe, during restoration, someone overheated the edge and changed the temper there. I think this might have happened. Sometimes these problems will only reside at the very edge of a blade. With this sharpening, I think we have honed through the bad metal and are now into the good stuff. I made a video of the sharpening. Naturally, the final verdict remains with Mr. Watch.
You're on fire with the videos these days! I only just caught up with the Ern razor video 😅
Thanks for the great content!
Thank you! VisceralWatch tells me that he uses them to go to sleep :) Perhaps I should skip the voice-over audio and just do ASMR.
One day mister watch will also start honing razors, and then he'll go back watching all the ends he slept through😄
Oh! I think the Ern video is the one where I fumble through the importance of minimizing impact between abrasive particles and the razor’s edge without actually getting into any classical mechanics. In real time, I remember thinking you would be chuckling over this.