Shaving notes of the MaineYooper

Bottom line, the old adage is true: proper planning prevents poor performance!

My DI , SSgt. Hiles used to say “fail to plan. Plan to fail.”

Another new to me razor! This one is on loan from my buddy Bob Ohio Bob.



This is Occam's Razor SE-noch. It is shown here with my Yaqi stainless steel handle (named 316?). 
Blade: Kai Captain Titan Mild (2)
Soap: Murphy & McNeil Nil
Brush: SOC Cherry wood boar

I had a great first shave with this razor. I liked it enough to mention to Bob that I wanted to get one but should probably make myself shave a few more times to see if I liked it as much as I think I do. He told me this:

To which I replied


So now one is heading my way.

Neither of us care for the original handle. Here is a view of it:


To me, it is too beefy for the razor's head. The knurling is very prominent, and borders on uncomfortable to my delicate fingers    

Hope you all have a good day and week!

This is for Ken Fluffy! 



Hope it tickles yor innards!

This is for Ken Fluffy! 



Hope it tickles yor innards!

Ken prefers goats when he can see their eyes

Never trust a goat. I don’t care if it bathes in a tub or not.

Here is a picture of some new items that came within the last month.



The Occam's Razor SE-noch shown here is the one I bought. I am not a fan of the handle it ships with, so 2 polished handles are en route and I'll post about them once they are here. The brush handle is one I got a while back, a Trotter Handcrafts handle called Messier. What is new to me is the knot. This is a PAA Roswell Grey, gifted to me by that gentleman from upstate NY, mrdoug. The handle has had an APSCo 2BED since early 2022, and I re-knotted it yesterday. This hybrid bulb/fan (PAA loves the hybrid knot, based on customer response) feels great on my face and did an outstanding job this morning. Thank you, Paul, I now have a "spacey" knot for my space-themed handles!

Here is a picture of some new items that came within the last month.



The Occam's Razor SE-noch shown here is the one I bought. I am not a fan of the handle it ships with, so 2 polished handles are en route and I'll post about them once they are here. The brush handle is one I got a while back, a Trotter Handcrafts handle called Messier. What is new to me is the knot. This is a PAA Roswell Grey, gifted to me by that gentleman from upstate NY, mrdoug. The handle has had an APSCo 2BED since early 2022, and I re-knotted it yesterday. This hybrid bulb/fan (PAA loves the hybrid knot, based on customer response) feels great on my face and did an outstanding job this morning. Thank you, Paul, I now have a "spacey" knot for my space-themed handles!

Wow that knot fits quite well, aesthetically, in that handle. Perfect pairing. Glad it's working well for you Eric. Enjoy!

Some new stuff arrived over the last couple of days, namely a replacement soap tub (PAA Scentsless, a new favorite!), a replacement splash, and a bunch of brushes, along with two polished stainless steel handles. I will most likely write about the brushes when I have a photo of the day's shave, but for now I am just writing about the handles.

A while back, I bought a Yaqi Romulus AC-style razor. I like it very much, but found the provided handle not to my liking. So I searched and found a cool looking stainless steel handle that was not polished. I really like that handle, but I get an occasional dissonance when looking at the assembled razor. [first world problem, I know. And given all the yuck happening to so many people, it does feel stupid to whine about my razor's handle. So maybe this is all distraction from the horrors of what the news outlets share.] The Occam's Razor SE-noch had a burly, knurly handle sort of like a Bull Dog, and it felt too heavy and looked too big for the thin head. 

#1 is the handle that comes with the Romulus. I found it slippery and looked for others.
#2 is the cool looking handle. As shown in the picture, it is matte but looks more matte in real life! 
#3 is the Yaqi Bullet, a polished stainless steel 
#4 is the Yaqi Saturn, another polished steel handle

#3 has the Romulus head, and #4 has the SE-noch head. 



Here are the two new handles with the matte in between them.



I have not shaved with either new handle but seeing them alongside the original Romulus handle makes me wonder if they too will be slippery. Time will tell.

Regarding handles, I like the Saturn on the Romulus but prefer the 316 to the Bullet on the SE-noch. The Bullet is heavier than the 316, weighing in at 71g compared to the 57g of the 316. For completeness, the Saturn is 65g. They all fit the length preference I have; 316 is 85mm, Saturn is 86mm, and the Bullet is 91mm.

Regarding brushes, I am disappointed with the SOC Taj Sylver synthetic. I face lather and like splay in my knots. I enjoy squashing the knot onto my face as I whip up the lather! The Sylver, while feeling very soft at the tips, has a lot more backbone than I prefer. I read in another neighborhood that it is better for bowl lathering and then painting your face with the lather. I used the brush for 4 consecutive days, hoping for the impossible, that it would break in. I soaked it beforehand, too. Why? It's a synthetic, why?? Well, some brush wags wrote that some of the new synthetics, like the G5A knots, actually can bloom a bit with a soak and splay better the more you use them. But I am inpatient, and doubtful that a synthetic fiber can get softer. I don't want to "waste" a shave with any products I don't enjoy! Yup, greedy I am, wanting great shaves with enjoyment over just getting the job done! A motto I have like is "life is too short to drink bad coffee" applies to my shaving philosophy, too.

Have a good day, folks!