SOTD: Saturday 12th January 2019 - Friday 18th January 2019

Date: 16 January 2019

Pre-shave:- Cold Water straight from the tap
Brush:- Platypus P&C LE 2017 26mm Manchurian White
Soap/Cream:- Stirling ~ Nag Champa
Bowl/Scuttle:- Captain's Choice
Razor/Blade:- Rockwell 6C 'R6' / Vintage NOS Wizamet Polsilver Brown #6
Post-shave:- Thayers Witch Hazel & Tea Tree Oil / Lucky Tiger Aftershave & Face Tonic
Fragrance:- Davidoff Cool Water
 
SOTD Saturday 12 January 2019

Pre-shave: Hot shower, cold water splash and Wright's Cold Tar Soap.
Cream: OSP Eucalyptus and Menthol Shaving Soap.
Brush: Muhle Purist, Black Silvertip Fibre Shaving Brush.
Bowl: Little Wren Pottery.
Razor: Feather ASD2.
Blade: Gilette Silver Blue (Day 1).
Post: Ibiza Aloe Aloe Vera Gel.

I am an Aberdeen FC fan, life-long; a friend invited me to watch the Dundee United game, in the Club's boardroom. I was delighted to accept, and wanted a special shave. Having had such good shaves with the Feather recently, that was my go to razor on this occassion. 3 passes later, BBS finish, no issues - skin felt and looked good.

PS A few pints after the game; Dundee brewing company, Mandarin IPA 5%

Sunday 13 January - Tuesday 15 January

Pre-shave: Hot shower, cold water splash and Wright's Cold Tar Soap, followed by Castle Forbes Pre-shave.
Cream: Kiehl's Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream - White Eagle .
Brush: N/A: hands.
Bowl: N/A.
Razor: Muhle Rocca Jet (version 3).
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue (2).
Post: D R Harris Skin tonic, followed by Ibiza Aloe - Aftershave Aloe Vera and a decent splash of Floid Vigoroso.

Sunday, needed to be up early to go hill walking in Glen Doll; after Saturday evening, a unscheduled sleep in resulted :) Decided to shave with Kiehl's brushless shave cream (Christmas gift); very good lubrication and glide. 2 passes later BBS+/DFS- finish, no issues to report.

I enjoyed shave and set-up so much with the brushless cream - vey good stuff, that was my set-up through Tuesday.

Just seen the Gillette advert; thinking about binning my Silver Blues out of protest :)

Have a good day,

Chris
 
View attachment 40688

Tablet XI from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh.' The British Museum.


Sotd - Sunday 13th of January -

Razor - ATT Calypso SE 'Maria'
blade - Proline (3)
brush - Wee Scot best badger
soap - Haslinger Sheep tallow
post - witch hazel
a/s - Artic Kinesia - Spanish
balm - Almond oil moisturiser
scent - Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte edt.

Result - great.

Relaxed Sunday shave. The razor handled a full seven day growth with ease - I knew she would - I have yet to have any poor shaves with the Calypso - it is effortlessly good for me. If there was some horribly dystopian parallel universe - he shudders - where you were only allowed one razor - this one would be a good candidate - but thankfully that isn't the case. I can have more razors than I need with impunity. Nice to revisit the Haslinger soap with the Wee Scot - given their diminutive size - natural companions. Everything well and good - bbs in two passes - smelling nice. I had intended shaving tonight - but given a momentary lapse of concentration last night cooking - I took the top off my thumb chopping coriander with a surgically sharp Japanese Santoku knife - I'll pass on that for the next few days. Ho hum. Find following something to read - if you are interested - part the first in an occasional series - 'Quiet Revolutionaries' - people that changed their world - but posterity has largely forgotten. Enjoy your shaves one and all - yours - I.

George Smith - Assyriologist - b. Chelsea 26/3/1840 - d. Aleppo 19/8/1876.

Born into a working class family - apprenticed as an engraver of bank notes at the age of 14 - fascinated with ancient Mesopotamian culture - to the extent he spend his spare time in the British Museum reading everything he could find on the subject - teaching himself to transliterate cuneiform script into English. His talent was eventually recognised by the museum and he was appointed a senior research assistant. His greatest work was the discovery and translation of the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh' - revolutionary in his day. Why so? If you already know about the text - you can skip to the next bit - if not - here is a very condensed overview.

‘Gilgamesh' is important because - in the Western tradition - it is the oldest example of literature that has survived to us - first committed to clay - in fragmented poetic form - using Sumerian cuneiform - around 2100 - 2000 bce - but the version Smith studied - known as the 'Standard Akkadian' text - dates to about 1300 - 1000 bce - it is recognisably prose in the modern sense. Remarkably - we know the name of the scribe who recorded it - he signed the individual tablets - Sin Liqe Unninni. It is about two thirds complete - and on the face of it - is about the heroic doings of Gilgamesh - the king of the city state of Uruk - modern day Iraq - and his various interactions with the gods of the day - your standard sort of pantheon - named deities for the sun, moon, crops, weather - that sort of thing. The ‘Epic' is much more though - it deals with ideas concerning the futility of man seeking immortality - hubris and vanity. The unified version is preserved on twelve damaged clay tablets. There is good evidence that Gilgamesh was a historic figure - ruling Uruk around 2700 bce.

It opens with Gilgamesh being an oppressive ruler over his subjects - the gods decide he needs put back in line - and send his nemesis in the form of Enkidu - a huge wild hairy man - who lives as an animal until he is civilised by a temple prostitute - he challenges Gilgamesh to single combat. The king wins but instead of killing Enkidu - they become firm friends. They decide to go on an epic journey - to enhance their renown as warriors. Monsters are slain - but they cross the line when they kill the ‘bull of heaven.' The deities decide Enkidu has to die - and they deliver disease upon him. Gilgamesh - in one of the more touching sections - can't accept the death of his friend and holds him close - until a maggot falls out his nose. This prompts the king to consider his own mortality - and he resolves on another journey to meet the only two humans that are immortal - Upnapishtim and his wife.

The meeting of the pair is on tablet XI - Gilgamesh asks why Upnapishtim - who looks very ordinary to him - is immortal - and he explains that it was granted to them by the gods as the only survivors of the ‘Great Flood' millennia before. ‘Great Flood?' The senior deity - Enlil - for various reasons decided to wipe out humanity and start again. This is supposed to be secret but Ea forewarns Upnapishtim - giving him very specific instructions on the construction of a boat - that he was to put his family in and ‘all the animals of the field.' The deluge duly arrives - after some time the boat becomes lodged on a mountain top - three birds are released - the first two return - the last - a raven - doesn't. The waters were receding - Upnapishtim releases the animals and sets up camp with his wife and family - the only human survivors of the flood. They make sacrifice to the gods in gratitude and get on with the business of repopulating the world. Immortality was a unique gift - it is explained to Gilgamesh - one which you will never know - go back home - be a better ruler and build - the city will be your legacy - "Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands."

Sound familiar? - so it ought to - the parallels with the flood story in Genesis are unmistakable - except it was being written down at least 1500 years before the completion of the Old Testament. Smith's first reading of his translation - to the Society for Biblical Archaeology in December 1872 - was wildly controversial - the prime minister Gladstone attended - it rolled a hand grenade into the cozy suppositions of late Victorian theology. Abuse was heaped on Smith - how dare a working class person - who hadn't even been to university - challenge orthodoxy - social and religious. The museum backed him - continuing his studies - he died during a second expedition to Mesopotamia - looking for the missing fragments of ‘Gilgamesh.' Ultimately his work was vastly influential - a quiet revolutionary in my opinion.
A marvellous read Iain. Erudite and entertaining. Thanks mate.
 
Wed 16th Jan

RazoRock Plissoft 22mm
P & B Spitfire
Supply SE- V1 & V2-3 dot plate
Schick-Chick [ 4 ]
P & B Spitfire A/S Splash

Am a lot happier with the Supply these days , smooth and comfortable to Shave with. I still find it quite mild and though i get good results on the face, I struggle a bit with the troublesome areas of my neck. I think I may have rushed the Shave a bit.

IMG_0332.jpg
 
SOTD 20190116.

Hs0c6yK.jpg


J&T® wengé / Maggard synth.
Mammoth "v14" shaving soap (sample). *)
Seygus "Extrem" SB.
Kai Stainless (8).
Rebul "Green Tea" EdC.

*) This shaving soap is, according to its creator, one of the test batches - it is a version of his "Iced Tea" scent.
It smells like tea indeed and something fresh. Nice soap with a pleasant scent.
 
View attachment 40688

Tablet XI from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh.' The British Museum.


Sotd - Sunday 13th of January -

Razor - ATT Calypso SE 'Maria'
blade - Proline (3)
brush - Wee Scot best badger
soap - Haslinger Sheep tallow
post - witch hazel
a/s - Artic Kinesia - Spanish
balm - Almond oil moisturiser
scent - Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte edt.

Result - great.

Relaxed Sunday shave. The razor handled a full seven day growth with ease - I knew she would - I have yet to have any poor shaves with the Calypso - it is effortlessly good for me. If there was some horribly dystopian parallel universe - he shudders - where you were only allowed one razor - this one would be a good candidate - but thankfully that isn't the case. I can have more razors than I need with impunity. Nice to revisit the Haslinger soap with the Wee Scot - given their diminutive size - natural companions. Everything well and good - bbs in two passes - smelling nice. I had intended shaving tonight - but given a momentary lapse of concentration last night cooking - I took the top off my thumb chopping coriander with a surgically sharp Japanese Santoku knife - I'll pass on that for the next few days. Ho hum. Find following something to read - if you are interested - part the first in an occasional series - 'Quiet Revolutionaries' - people that changed their world - but posterity has largely forgotten. Enjoy your shaves one and all - yours - I.

George Smith - Assyriologist - b. Chelsea 26/3/1840 - d. Aleppo 19/8/1876.

Born into a working class family - apprenticed as an engraver of bank notes at the age of 14 - fascinated with ancient Mesopotamian culture - to the extent he spend his spare time in the British Museum reading everything he could find on the subject - teaching himself to transliterate cuneiform script into English. His talent was eventually recognised by the museum and he was appointed a senior research assistant. His greatest work was the discovery and translation of the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh' - revolutionary in his day. Why so? If you already know about the text - you can skip to the next bit - if not - here is a very condensed overview.

‘Gilgamesh' is important because - in the Western tradition - it is the oldest example of literature that has survived to us - first committed to clay - in fragmented poetic form - using Sumerian cuneiform - around 2100 - 2000 bce - but the version Smith studied - known as the 'Standard Akkadian' text - dates to about 1300 - 1000 bce - it is recognisably prose in the modern sense. Remarkably - we know the name of the scribe who recorded it - he signed the individual tablets - Sin Liqe Unninni. It is about two thirds complete - and on the face of it - is about the heroic doings of Gilgamesh - the king of the city state of Uruk - modern day Iraq - and his various interactions with the gods of the day - your standard sort of pantheon - named deities for the sun, moon, crops, weather - that sort of thing. The ‘Epic' is much more though - it deals with ideas concerning the futility of man seeking immortality - hubris and vanity. The unified version is preserved on twelve damaged clay tablets. There is good evidence that Gilgamesh was a historic figure - ruling Uruk around 2700 bce.

It opens with Gilgamesh being an oppressive ruler over his subjects - the gods decide he needs put back in line - and send his nemesis in the form of Enkidu - a huge wild hairy man - who lives as an animal until he is civilised by a temple prostitute - he challenges Gilgamesh to single combat. The king wins but instead of killing Enkidu - they become firm friends. They decide to go on an epic journey - to enhance their renown as warriors. Monsters are slain - but they cross the line when they kill the ‘bull of heaven.' The deities decide Enkidu has to die - and they deliver disease upon him. Gilgamesh - in one of the more touching sections - can't accept the death of his friend and holds him close - until a maggot falls out his nose. This prompts the king to consider his own mortality - and he resolves on another journey to meet the only two humans that are immortal - Upnapishtim and his wife.

The meeting of the pair is on tablet XI - Gilgamesh asks why Upnapishtim - who looks very ordinary to him - is immortal - and he explains that it was granted to them by the gods as the only survivors of the ‘Great Flood' millennia before. ‘Great Flood?' The senior deity - Enlil - for various reasons decided to wipe out humanity and start again. This is supposed to be secret but Ea forewarns Upnapishtim - giving him very specific instructions on the construction of a boat - that he was to put his family in and ‘all the animals of the field.' The deluge duly arrives - after some time the boat becomes lodged on a mountain top - three birds are released - the first two return - the last - a raven - doesn't. The waters were receding - Upnapishtim releases the animals and sets up camp with his wife and family - the only human survivors of the flood. They make sacrifice to the gods in gratitude and get on with the business of repopulating the world. Immortality was a unique gift - it is explained to Gilgamesh - one which you will never know - go back home - be a better ruler and build - the city will be your legacy - "Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands."

Sound familiar? - so it ought to - the parallels with the flood story in Genesis are unmistakable - except it was being written down at least 1500 years before the completion of the Old Testament. Smith's first reading of his translation - to the Society for Biblical Archaeology in December 1872 - was wildly controversial - the prime minister Gladstone attended - it rolled a hand grenade into the cozy suppositions of late Victorian theology. Abuse was heaped on Smith - how dare a working class person - who hadn't even been to university - challenge orthodoxy - social and religious. The museum backed him - continuing his studies - he died during a second expedition to Mesopotamia - looking for the missing fragments of ‘Gilgamesh.' Ultimately his work was vastly influential - a quiet revolutionary in my opinion.
Terrific stuff, Iain. I found that really interesting.
Hope the thumb heals quickly, by the way.
 
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TOBS Eton College ~ Simpsons D1 ~ Gillette Parat ~ Personna Lab Blue ~ SV Opuntia

First use of Eton College, wanted to try it since I first began using traditional shaving methods but somehow never managed it... Until now. It absolutely burnt my face off something terrible, very unpleasant! However the actual performance was to up TOBS usual standard (which is to say very good for the price.) The scent I cannot get my nose around, from the reviews I expected traditional Cologne, something akin to 4711 or Atkinsons Gold Medal but this is nothing like that... Far too modern and synthetic, it smells like my old nemesis Terre d'Hermes AKA D.R. Harris Windsor or T&H Apsley :eek: Don't know if that's just me or the way it really is? Had to use Opuntia again today as the sample sachets contain enough for 3 uses and it'll only end up getting spilt or thrown away if I don't use it quickly... Combined with the Eton College it smells like balsamic Pineapple, revolting!
 
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