September 23, 2007

Lovely Complex #22

Sigh.  Riza decided to be stupid.  What else did she think Otani would do when he found out?  So they've got maybe two or three more episodes to patch things up, but this is a pretty big thing to be fixed that quickly.  Doesn't look good for our comedic couple.

Posted by: mparker762 at 07:57 PM
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Lovely Complex #21

Sucky episode.  I really can't bring myself to care much about Nobu and Nakao.  Yes this is foreshadowing about what is in store for Otani and Risa, but what's the point of foreshadowing something that's only an episode or two away anyway (assuming this is a standard 23-25 episode show).

Posted by: mparker762 at 06:21 PM
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September 17, 2007

DePew Day

Rooney small style 1 brush
Penhaligon Blenheim Bouquet shaving soap
Hand American strop
5/8 DePew's "Perfect Razor"
Pinaud Clubman aftershave

This razor is a real oddity among straight razors, and is thus fairly collectible.  Mr. DePew was clearly proud of his design - he went to the trouble of both patenting it and stamping this on the razor ("DePew's Patent June 6 1882").  Unfortunately this doesn't really explain why there were never any other razors like it in an era where patents were routinely ignored.  The overall length of the razor is similar to other razors of the day, but this razor has a very short blade (about 1" shorter than other razors), a very short shank, and a very long tail (commonly called a "monkey tail").  The short shank only affords room for your thumb and forefinger to grasp the shank, so the other three fingers must rest on the extended tail.  The extended tail thoughtfully provides room for them to fit, but since the razor is controlled from the shank and not the tail they don't do any good back there.  The "Perfect Razor" winds up being a fairly precarious razor to use in practice.

Strangely enough, it shares the short blade and monkey tail design with the ultra-modern Japanese straight razor, the Feather "Artist Club" - though that razor uses a normal-length shank that allows a more natural hold.

DePews_Perfect_Razor.jpg


Compare with the modern Feather:
Feather_Burmashave_Williams.jpg

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:59 AM
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September 15, 2007

Dovo Day

Rooney small style 1 brush
Penhaligon Blenheim Bouquet soap
Sears Craftsman horsehide strop
Dovo Bergischer Lowe razor
D. R. Harris Face Millk

This is one of my favorite razors:

Bergischer_Lowe.jpg

This razor is still being made by Dovo in Solingen Germany, and it can easily hold its own against the best of the vintage razors.  The steel is actually Swedish carbon steel, and has been hardened and tempered very well so this razor will take and hold an extremely fine edge.  It shaves better than my Dubl Duck Wonderedge, and about as well as my Puma Gold or my Sta-Sharp razors, and has always been easy to sharpen.

The diamond-shaped spine is machined into an attractive scalloped pattern then gold plated. The scales are buffalo horn, and are mostly black with some grey figure that unfortunately doesn't show up in the photo.  The strange tip shape is a concave or spanish-style point, and it makes it a bit easier to shave underneath the nose.  Like many vintage Pumas - some of which were subcontracted to Dovo - this razor has a rubber grip on the shank; unfortunately it is a bit of a maintenance hassle to keep rust from forming under the grip.

Posted by: mparker762 at 09:55 PM
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September 13, 2007

Waterville Day

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.

more...

Posted by: mparker762 at 03:42 PM
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English Waterville

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.

English_Waterville.jpg


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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Moetan WTF

So I'm minding my own bidness, idly running Moetan Ep 3 in the background, when my eyes spot this scene:

moetan_3_1.jpg


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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September 06, 2007

School Days

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.

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