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- Almere, Netherlands
Hi,
My name is Henk Verhaar, and I hail from the Netherlands. I live in a small town called Ankeveen, close to Amsterdam and Hilversum. I've been wet shaving for most of my adult life, but until about a year ago mainly with cans and Gilette multi-blade razors, although I always had a cheap boar brush and a puck (cake) of old Vergulde Hand zeep. I DID always use only an alum block for aftershave...
Anyhow, I turn wood as one of my hobbies, including pens, and knew that some pen turning parts suppliers also supply shaving brush knots, so last March I ordered a couple knots and made myself some nice brushes. Also made a few to give away. I then went out and bought a Merkur Futur DE razor, at Paul Kox's shop in Breukelen. When I told him that I make my own brushes, he asked to see them, so a couple of weeks later I showed him a few brushed I made. He ordered twelve, and also asked if I could make shaving soap. Being a chemist by training, I thought "how hard can that be" and said yes. Well, turns out that it isn't as easy as just making soap (which is trivial BTW). After some trial and error, and some digging through mainly old literature, and some help from other soap-information inclined wet shavers (alas, not from home soap makers -- most of those don't know what makes a good shaving soap, and the few that do are, understandably, not particularly forthcoming with recipe info), I think I have what qualifies as bona fide shaving soap...
So now you know something about me...
Cheers
Henk
My name is Henk Verhaar, and I hail from the Netherlands. I live in a small town called Ankeveen, close to Amsterdam and Hilversum. I've been wet shaving for most of my adult life, but until about a year ago mainly with cans and Gilette multi-blade razors, although I always had a cheap boar brush and a puck (cake) of old Vergulde Hand zeep. I DID always use only an alum block for aftershave...
Anyhow, I turn wood as one of my hobbies, including pens, and knew that some pen turning parts suppliers also supply shaving brush knots, so last March I ordered a couple knots and made myself some nice brushes. Also made a few to give away. I then went out and bought a Merkur Futur DE razor, at Paul Kox's shop in Breukelen. When I told him that I make my own brushes, he asked to see them, so a couple of weeks later I showed him a few brushed I made. He ordered twelve, and also asked if I could make shaving soap. Being a chemist by training, I thought "how hard can that be" and said yes. Well, turns out that it isn't as easy as just making soap (which is trivial BTW). After some trial and error, and some digging through mainly old literature, and some help from other soap-information inclined wet shavers (alas, not from home soap makers -- most of those don't know what makes a good shaving soap, and the few that do are, understandably, not particularly forthcoming with recipe info), I think I have what qualifies as bona fide shaving soap...
So now you know something about me...
Cheers
Henk