It’s been a while since I’ve bought myself anything shaving related, but I came across this on eBay the other evening and just couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

I already own a ‘60 Fatboy, but it’s nowhere near as good a condition as this one. Here in Australia, finding one of these as a complete, original set is pretty difficult, so I’m pretty stoked to have come across this one.

The date code on this beauty is a G1. The razor itself has a fair bit of verdigris on the handle, so I’m hoping that once I’ve finished cleaning and polishing it up, the plating will turn out to be in good shape with minimal damage. I’m going to take it nice and easy with the polishing on this one.

From what I can see, everything lines up nicely, and it looks like this razor hasn’t been dropped. The adjustment mechanism also feels nice and crisp as it clicks through settings 1 - 9, including that final half lock.

Funny enough, sitting here now, I’ve realised that I’ve spent the past couple of years looking for a complete original set at the right price, with the Executive being my first acquisition. Who would’ve thought this one would be the harder of the two to track down!

Anyway, enough rambling from me. I’m off to give this beauty a soak in some hot, soapy water. I’ll be sure to post some before and after photos once the cleaning is done.

Cheers fellas 🍻

This was fascinating!

Shaving cream: Fitjar Islands Folgefonn
After shave: Captain’s Choice Cat o’ Nine Tails
Razor: Fatboy

I’d come across the Fitjar Islands brand and was very curious to give it a try. The side of the container says, “Made in Fitjar, on the remote west coast of Norway.”

It also says, “the tingling feel of the icy cold wind from a glacier in a still morning.”

And what a description. Nailed it. An amazing clean fragrance and a fascinating coolness. The cooling effect hit me through the first pass, but as I did 2 more passes, it kept going and I loved it.

The lather was excellent and glide absolutely top tier. Very slick and resulted in an absolutely perfect shave.

The Cat o’ Nine Tails was the perfect follow up. Was like jumping in a hot tub after having experienced a cold bath.

Oct. 28, 2026
Brush: Simpson Chubby 2 Super Badger
Razor: GEM 1912 Damaskeene Safety Razor
Blade: Personna GEM (2)
Lather: Mike’s Natural Soaps Hungarian Lavender
Post Shave: Pitralon Classic After-Shave
Bowl: Captain’s Choice Old Ironsides

A quick shave with the GEM 1912 Damaskeene this morning. I was short on time, so I went with one pass and a little cleanup here and there. Maybe a pass and a half, but it was an enjoyable shave.

This was only my second shave with this razor, and it’s a pleasure to use despite its age. The unusual design makes for an interesting shave, and I’m enjoying getting to know it.

It was a little dirtier when it arrived, but I cleaned it up with a brush and some soap. There was also an old-looking GEM blade still inside, badly rusted. I tossed it, of course, but I couldn’t help wondering if it had once belonged to some guy shaving with this razor a hundred years ago. 😂

A nice bit of history, perhaps, but I’ll pass on the blade. 😂

Today's shave was a bit different. I loaded up the Star 1912 safety with an antique Star single edge blade. Arko soap (melted into a Waverley SHAVEMUG), Omega brush, Pinaud Virgin Islands Bay Rum as the chaser (decanted into a vintage Avon Bay Rum jug).

Quite stupidly, I was on ebay a couple nights ago when I spotted an old box of Star single edge blades, and made an offer (and got it). Last night, unable to sleep, I was bothered by a thought: Didn't I already have a bunch of Star single edge blades? I went digging through boxes in the closet, and of course I found a box of antique blades. A box filled with dozens of boxes antique Star blades, that I had completely forgotten about. I got it as a part of a lot of old razor stuff years ago, tried one of the double edged Star blades in the bunch, which sucked, then packed it away and never thought about it again.

I opened one of the tiny boxes of single edged blades, pulled out a wrapped blade, carefully pulled back the wrapper... it looked like new. It was still covered in wax, or cosmoline, or whatever they used back then, and perfectly clean and rust free. I cleaned this off, stropped the blade with an Ever Ready stropping handle (previous experience with antique Valet blades taught me that stropping before the first use is the way to go with antique steel, no matter how shiny it looks), wiped it down with rubbing alcohol, loaded it up, and went to town.

Hey, actually it worked pretty good! About the same as the old uncoated carbon steel single edge blades CVS used to sell 15+ years ago. No tugging, no irritation, but it does require slow going. To keep things as smooth as possible, I did not rinse the razor even once during the shave. This is one of the things I figured out about the 1912 razors, they work better if you don't rinse them. The 1912 head loves to trap water when you rinse it, and sabotage your lather. If it catches too much lather, just shake it out, but don't run water over it.

How many shaves will I get out of it? I don't know. The CVS blades were probably good for two or three shaves, but back then I had neither a strop or a stropper. In my experience stainless blades are a lot more durable, and the carbon steel blades wore out extremely quickly. It'll be interesting to see if stropping the Star blade will accomplish any meaningful extension of its usefulness.

Vintage shave today

Razor: 1956 Gillette Red Tip Super Speed

Brush: Old Spice Boar

Soap: Old Spice

Aftershave and Cologne: Old Spice

Balm: Nivea for Men

The 1956 Superspeed is my favourite vintage Gillette, I put it over the adjustables simply because I don't need to worry about settings and I just shave.

The soap is dated to 1985, I got it from eBay as a gift set that included the brush and mug. There is no scent to the soap but still lathers nicely.

The aftershave and Cologne is from 1970-1980 I couldn't get a specific date. Am I crazy from putting it on my face? I've never broken out in hives so it should be ok for occasional use.

Shaving Soap: BBS Portofino
Brush: Yaqi Starry Night Synthetic
Razor: Rockwell 6C
Blade: Super Iridium
Aftershave Splash: BBS Portofino

​

* **Face Wash:** Warm Water.

* **Brush:** DS Cosmetic - Boti 25mm synthetic badger .

* **Razor:** Gem - MMOC 2nd generation.

* **Blade:** Personna- Gem PTFE (3)

* **Lather:** Stirling Soap Co.- Coniferous.

* **Post Shave:** CeraVe- Moisturising lotion.

* **Post Shave:** Pitralon - Classic ASL.

* **Tags:** $Discord $ROTY

Theme: The haunted woods , shave with some woody scents, well I think Stirling Coniferous wraps up the theme nicely this is a soap I have wanted to try for a long time & have tried to buy but without success, well it was worth the wait a wonderful walk through the woods it has a very fine woody scent I am well impressed . Thanks to u/OutlawDan86 for the wee sample .

Daily challenge: Moar Overload, I dropped some of my favourite Pitralon classic onto my brush before starting to lather up it seemed to work well an

extra injection of pine and woody goodness oh yep this shave has some great smells .

This finishes it out for the week!

I needed to grab a couple of bottles of Cuban Highball since it has been discontinued, and I thought I'd try the L'orange Verte because it sounded nice. Also grabbed a travel pouch, which is the first item from Maggard with which I'm not entirely satisfied: it's thinner than expected and the snaps don't seem like they're of the best quality. I doubt it's an issue for simply storing an extra razor in my drawer, but worth noting, and I don't say this to imply that it's poorly made, it just isn't quite what I expected. Time will tell if that's an issue. Last: a few new blades to try.

Stay tuned for the night's shave later on!

Razor; Merkur 23C

Blade; Tiger Platinum (1)

Brush; Muhle Classic

Lather/ASB/ASL; Proraso Red

Signs of rust on the blade and not 100% sure but shouldn’t the single blade have been wrapped in paper? Really wanted to try it, but for $125 it should be new.

Gillette Super Speed silver tip.

Not sure if this is the same company?

Hello everyone, for someone who is interested in buying a high end, efficient razor, which one of the above would you suggest?

27/10/2026

- APShave Co 24mm Tuxedo
- Barrister & Mann Night Music
- Atelier Durdan La Faulx +
- Kai Captain Original (8)
- HAGS Baby Blue Cooling Aftershave

✰ Razor: Lambda Athena Copper
✰ Blade: Wilkinson Sword Classic (1)
✰ Bowl: Captain’s Choice Obsidian
✰ Brush: Oumo Lattice-Labyrinth ST-1
✰ Soap: Montana Natural Unscented
✰ Balm: Nivea Sensitive
✰ Splash: Brut Classic

Oh, the CuThena - what a great razor. Probably the most attractive razor I’ve used, but it is much more than a pretty face.

Despite a small blade gap and neutral blade exposure, the Athena shaves better and closer than many razors with more promising specs. I’m sure this is due to the excellent blade clamping, minimal reveal and a touch of Theo magic.

I'm 55 and finally trying out my first ever old school shave. I have used cartridge razors for 40 years.

First try and I bled a fair bit. Pushed too hard I think. Gave myself pretty good razor burn too. I'm watching videos and learning. Will try new techniques learned, not pushing too hard. I do love the look, feel and weight of my safety razor. Next aquired products will be a badger brush and some good foaming soap/creme. I am enjoying this new journey.

I just came across these but have no idea if they are any good since I am relatively new to wet shaving. Does anyone have a clue?

First shave with this late model pat.1912 was great, a little tuggy but then I've lost count on the blade usage, I confusingly have 8 marks plus another 2 on a piece of paper in my draw, I'm sure its 2 on this blade but it felt a little bit like 8 😄 so who knows!

Overall the handle was very grippy and the balance was great, the iconic noise was there of course and 3 passes later (WTG/XTGx2) a DFS

Glad to put another old razor back into action after decades of neglect

Good shaves everyone 🍻

I put this together a few years back with some input from a few other artisans. It’s a guide to choosing safe soap and aftershaves, with the consumer in mind: Guide to Choosing Safe Soap and Aftershaves from US Artisans

At the time I thought it might get me in trouble with other makers, despite not naming any brands specifically. I’ve been wondering why that is.

I think there’s a particular disease in many online wet shaving hobby communities, and that is the desire to keep the peace aka “be gentlemanly”. Unfortunately placing this value above accountability has silenced many including myself, and created dark spaces for bad makers to continue to operate and hurt customers.

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that this has directly contributed to the slow decline of the artisan wet shaving hobby.

When a customer has a bad experience with sloppily made products that were rushed to market, it leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

When a customer knows they can’t share their experiences truthfully without being dogpiled by the community crying “be gentlemanly”, there is no incentive to continue to participate.

When irresponsible artisans are friends and business partners with moderators and admins of online communities, there is no accountability and thus no incentive to improve their craft.

Many good brands have suffered simply by being in the same hobby, by association with these slop makers.

And yes, most of them use AI artwork for their branding, because like every aspect of their businesses, fast and cheap wins over taking the time to do it right.

There are still some fantastic brands run by talented hardworking people with integrity, who have continued to produce wonderful high-quality products to high standards.

Hopefully this guide will help you the consumer identify them. And maybe we’ll be able to rebuild the damage done and return the wet shaving community to something vibrant and fun again. It starts with being safe and responsible.

not an ad!

i've been playing around with fragrance ingredients and i just noticed this on fraterworks, one of the more reputable sites for perfumery materials.

apparently they've put together the OG-very-poison! banned brut formula, which can be easily made into whatever type of brut product you'd like.

i'm going to order some myself but though i'd post because i'm sure there are fougere aficionados around.

Octopus

Are you using an app or website for SOTD? I see several apps in the appstore and some web apps to track your den and daily shave. What’s the best one? Most popular?

Razor: 1956 Gillette Ball End Tech

Blade: PermaSharp (6th use)

Brush: Pure Badger

Soap: Tabac

Cologne: Tabac

A lovely Tuesday shave with the Tech/Tabac gear. The Tech and PermaSharp blade are a solid combination, delivering another smooth, comfortable shave.

The Tabac soap produced a lovely lather, and finishing off with the matching Tabac cologne was the perfect way to round things out.

Kicking myself for not trying this soap years ago, especially the old tallow based formulation. I was initially on the fence about the scent, having only ever smelled the cologne, but after using the soap several times now, I’m happy to say I like it very much. Better late than never!

Good shaves 🍻