Rooney Brush
D. R. Harris Almond soap
Hand American strop
5/8 Waterville

Although this grand old razor can't hold quite the edge of his more recent brethren he still handles like a dream and delivers a fine shave anyway.  A really great razor.

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Posted by: mparker762 at 03:42 PM
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Waterville Cutlery of Waterville Connecticut was one of the top-of-the-line American razor manufacturers in the 19th century.  From what I can find, they began production in 1843 and ceased production in 1898.  Their earlier razors especially exhibit some truly nice lines, these are some of the most elegant-looking razors you will ever see.  I currently own four Watervilles - two early ones, one from the last few years of production, and one from the 1870s.




This was my first Waterville razor, and I believe it to be the oldest of the bunch as well.  This razor is unusual in that it has "Made in England" etched into the back side of the tang - this is the only such Waterville that I and several straight razor experts have ever seen.  Because this razor has some similarities with the older style of Watervilles it is quite possible that Waterville started out importing razors from Sheffield before they ramped up their own production facilities.  The scales are not original - when I acquired it it was wearing some cheesy bamboo-looking faux-ivory scales, though those were also not original as the pins were 20th century Solingen-style nail-pins.  Also it appears that a previous owner had chipped the tip of the razor and "repaired" the damage by grinding out the chip into a vee-notch.

It holds a special place for me as this was the razor that convinced me to switch from the big Sheffield wedges to the smaller lighter 5/8 size full hollows.  Unfortunately that vee-notch in the tip kept gouging my strops, so if I was going to continue to use it I would need to do something about the tip.  I put this razor away for many months while I pondered my options.  Eventually I decided to go ahead and modify the tip of the razor.   I reground it into the modified oblique shape shown above, which meshes well with the existing lines of the razor and immeasurably improves the razors behavior on the strop.

Posted by: mparker762 at 03:39 PM
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So I'm minding my own bidness, idly running Moetan Ep 3 in the background, when my eyes spot this scene:




Which is a very surprised Sumi-chan waking up in the limo, still wearing her cat pyjamas.  Complete with fake testicles, for reasons which I'm sure make perfect sense if you're Japanese.

Posted by: mparker762 at 12:52 PM
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So going into the school festival we had a simple three-way romance going.  Sekai loves Makoto, Kotonoha loves Makoto.  Makoto loves them both, but is getting solid action from Sekia and tentative hand-holding from Kotonoha.  But then Otome and Kiyoura have to go and mix things up a bit.  And after Makoto finally! breaks up with Kotonoha in a way she can't misunderstand, she's showing signs of going nuts and eyeing the kitchen knives, which will no doubt lead us to our first "bad ending" of the series.

It was obvious from the first episode that there was no good way for this to end well, but maybe they'll try to do the Kanon thing and give us all the famous endings?

Oh, and I gave in and watched another episode of Umisho.  I gotta say, the brown-haired rich chick is umm, "interesting".

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:03 PM
Post contains 145 words, total size 1 kb.

Rooney small style 1 brush
Trumper's Rose shaving soap
Hand American strop
Wade & Butcher 8/8 razor "The Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor for Barber's Use"
Pinaud Clubman aftershave



Continuing yesterday's Rule Brittania theme is the justly famous W&B "Celebrated".  Wade & Butcher was by far the most prolific of the Sheffield razor manufacturers, and were exported throughout the British empire and the U.S.A.  Their razors marked "Celebrated" are fairly collectible today, as they were W&B's finest razors made at the peak of that company's existence.  There were at least four different W&B "Celebrated" razors that I am aware of:  The "Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor for Barber's Use" (pictured), the "Celebrated Hollow Ground Razor for Gentleman's Use" which is similar-loooking but much more hollow ground, the "Celebrated Razor for Barber's Use" which was a wedge-style razor, and the "Celebrated India Steel Razor".  These razors were made in a variety of sizes; I've seen them as small as 5/8ths of an inch and as large as 10/8ths of an inch.  This particular example is 1" even, and was probably the most common size in the "Barber's Use" model lines.  It shows the grinding ribs of a double hollow ground razor, but these are very shallow - in profile it's nearly a wedge, and this makes the razor very heavy.  This style of large, heavy wedgy razor is commonly nicknamed "meatchopper" or simply "chopper", due to its similarity to a meat cleaver.

The original razor would have had wooden or vulcanized rubber scales, but this razor has been fitted with some very attractive Giraffe Bone scales by Robert Williams.  Although the giraffe bone scales are heavy, they actually help improve the balance of the razor when shaving, making it feel lighter and more maneuverable than the original trim.




This razor would have probably been made in the 1860's - earlier razors were the wedge type grind, and later razors were much more hollow ground.  In the detail photo to the right you can just see the Victoria Cross on the blade underneath the word "use".




The brown rectangle below the soap bowl in the top photo is a barber's hone.  This one is a Dubl Duck combination hone; the brown side is the fine-grit side, and the other side is a light-gray coarse-grit side.  This razor needed a bit of a touch-up before shaving so I gave it about 20 laps on the brown side before shaving, and that seemed to do the trick.

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:34 AM
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Rooney small style 1 brush
Trumper's Violet soap
Hand American strop
8/8 Wade & Butcher frameback razor
Pinaud Clubman aftershave



This particular razor is an extremely old fellow.  Wade & Butcher made razors from 1818 - 1890, so it's well over 100 yrs old.  Instead of being hollow-ground, this razor has flat-ground sides with the spine left thick, so it looks sort of like a sharpened "T" in cross section.  The frameback style largely went out of production in the late 1830's as improved grinding methods were developed.  Another detail that helps date this razor is the way the blade tapers from the far end  (the toe) back towards the shank end (the heel).  This tapered style of blade was common before the 1830's when blades were ground out of triangular pieces of steel.   This particular razor also lacks the characteristic "VR" mark of razors manufactured during the reign of Queen Victoria.  Though precise dating is difficult, the combination of tapered blade, frameback grind, and lack of Victorian markings would seem to indicate that it dates back to the reign of William IV or possibly the first few years of Victoria's reign.

Whatever its age, it is an incredible razor - far and away my favorite Sheffield razor.  Later Sheffield razors seem to be made of softer steel, and take a different-feeling edge that may be due to the use of cast instead of forged steel; this is the only Sheffield razor I own that compares favorably with Solingen or American razors in terms of sharpness and edge retention.  When I got it off of ebay it show very few signs of having ever been used.  There are a few spots of corrosion on the blade that look like alkaline etching from shaving lather, but the bevel is as narrow as my razors that were purchased new.

The brush and soap are also British, though thankfully of much more recent vintage.  The respective firms are both old respected establishments.  George Trumper opened his barber shop in 1875, and R. A. Rooney started making brushes in the 1700's.  All in all this morning's shave is a nice homage to British shaving from the days when the sun never set on the British Empire.

Posted by: mparker762 at 09:21 AM
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Word gets out to the gang...



Off for a little romantic studying...


But Mimi interrupts.  She's a giraffe too (and a model!), and has had the hots for Otani for years.  When Otani is around she's cute and charming in that jailbait-schoolgirl kind of way, but when Otani isn't around she's pretty disturbing...


Did I say disturbing?  I meant psychotic...


That girl's gonna kill somebody someday...


Eventually the mask slips off in front of Otani...


Otani sends her packing, but trouble awaits...


Or at least it would if Otani weren't so dumb that he's had to take summer remedial courses all through high school.  I'm not sure why the teachers weren't rolling on the floor laughing when they read this.

Not a bad little episode.  Kind of light on the comedy, but the lack of weepiness on Koizumi's part was a nice change. And Mimi's confession helped trigger Otani to seriously think about the things he loves about Koizumi.

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:00 PM
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What do you get when you cross a demon-possessed feral cat and a beagle?



snorf?


Potemayo-chan!

Posted by: mparker762 at 09:44 PM
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Great episode.  The comical couple is still feeling their way after the upending events of the previous episode.  Otani wants to keep things secret so he won't get ribbed by their friends.  Koizumi is on cloud 9, here seen skipping amidst floaty hearts...


First day-to.  World Games.  It ain't going well, and Koizumi's needing some TLC...


And gets it...


WTF?


Turns out the camera crew snagged some human interest to spice up the games.   So much for keeping it a secret...


But he gets over it.  Here seen (re)introducing Koizumi to his ex-girlfriend.  Yeah that's gonna make Koizumi's day.


But trouble is on the horizon...


Mimi's a young-un too.  2nd year middle school, which I think makes her 3 yrs Otani's junior.  Otani doesn't seem to be terribly interested, but with that battle aura she's unlikely to be deterred by minor quibbles like that.

Good episode.  I was hoping Koizumi would stop the incessant crying now that Otani's finally come around, but I guess the hormones are still cranking.  Still, there was plenty of comedy to keep the mood light.  And unlike High School Days the series is unlikely to end in major bloodshed.

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:20 PM
Post contains 197 words, total size 2 kb.

... is on it's way down now.  Updates coming soon, but right now I'm in the middle of a happy dance.

Oh, and I got some pop rocks for the beagle.  Hilarity ensues tomorrow.

Posted by: mparker762 at 06:24 PM
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