Rooney small style 1 brush
Penhaligon Blenheim Bouquet shaving soap
Illinois #127 strop
Pinaud Clubman aftershave

and this lovely thing ...

... a hand-forged Robert Williams razor.  I got him to leave the forging marks on the shank and spine just because it's so cool looking.  There's a thumb notch, jimping on the top and bottom of the shank, and jimping on the tail, and the spine is diamond-shaped.  The scales are buffalo horn, tapered near the pivot for extra comfort.  The swayback spine and blade are a feature found on some vintage razors that I find makes for a more comfortable shave.  The blade is foggy because it's cold outside (natural lighting cuts down on the glare problem), and I didn't bother letting the blade cool down to ambient temperature before I snapped the shot.

Posted by: mparker762 at 01:36 PM
Post contains 139 words, total size 1 kb.

Today's shave was a tribute to the Corps, on their birthday.

Rooney small style 1 brush
Truefitt & Hill Luxury Shaving Soap
Illinois #127 strop
Clauss USMC razor
Harris Face milk

The Corps seems to have made two major straight razor purchases, both from Clauss and both of the same type of razor.  One batch had the USMC etched on the blade, and used plain carbon steel.  The second batch had the USMC stamped on the reverse side of the shank, and seems to have used chrome-plated carbon steel.  I believe the unchromed batch probably dated to the Spanish-American war, and the chrome-plated batch to WW1 (the marines having learned the value of rustproofing in the extended Philippine campaigns).  I have two USMC razors, one from each production run.

This morning's razor is from the earlier Spanish-American war production run.  It's pitted and ugly, but still shaves great.


My other USMC razor is below the fold:
more...

Posted by: mparker762 at 09:15 PM | Comments (7)
Post contains 159 words, total size 1 kb.