SOTD : Saturday 20th June - Friday 26th June 2020

The Centwin SP,are very like the (Indian) Gillette 7'o clock blacks and pair up wonderfully with my vintage gillette techs...I've recently been shaving with DE blades that i've infrequently used or yet to try out. I'll have re-aquaint and add the Centwin Super Platinum to my blade rotation for future shaves.
 
Pleased to hear the bandages are off and plastic surgery was not needed! P.
 
This afternoon I decided to try out a few things for my Dopp bag, just in case staying over somewhere is ever allowed again...
  • Blue's soap is one of my favourites and the tin is perfect for travel...it's showing some wear and tear
  • Muhle synthetic travel brush that I will be using at home as well...only used a few times so far but it's superb
  • Mach 3 with pewter handle...I usually use cartridge blades (Mach 3 or the old Sensors) for travel
  • Tabac Original AS splash...travel size
  • Mont Blanc Explorer EDP...wanted to try this after using Tabac...left it a while before applying and it seems pretty good
For overnighters I mostly take a brushless cream, but the Muhle is so good I might just rethink that...and I do have 4 or 5 tins of Blue's still. Happy shaving all

 
For the next couple of days, I'll be enjoying ...



Pre-shave wash with Ach Brito Glyce soap
Lather up with Wickham's 1912 & AP Shave Co 'Winter' Silksmoke 28mm
Shave with ROCNEL SE-P & Derby Professioal (Green) Saloon blade
Wash off, probably some Prep Cream and cold water just to cool down ...
Witch Hazel as a face toner and astringent splash < I'm not much for aftershaves at the moment

I'm still working my way through my week of Wickham's with tonight being Club Cola (pictured, an early release with original issue artwork perhaps pre-release artwork), tomorrow Buddha Wood and Citrus Musk on Sunday.

For the next couple of days, it's a Derby in the ROCNEL SE-P and it will be my third shave with that razor having enjoyed a PermaSharp for the first and second go. You know, if you're going to leave a razor blade sticking out of a piece of metal and try to shave with it, it might as well be exciting!

I'm oddly excited to try the Derby. I don't think I have shaved with one before and being a really polarising blade, I'm interested to see which side I fall on. I hope I like it as I have a box of 100 of these saloon half blades.

Happy shaving, fellows! Enjoy your weekends ...​
 
Thank you, glad you liked it. Take care and stay safe. Regards Brian
 

That was okay ...

My first go with a Derby went well and I can absolutely understand why this is a blade that polarises opinions. While not the smoothest and certainly not the sharpest, you'd wonder why folks persist when there are so many other blades that (on paper) pip that. I enjoyed it and I don't quite know why.

That said, I don't think the Derby is quite the right match for the ROCNEL SE-P. The razor is a raw, naked lump of metal with a blade sticking out and that needs some respect. Seriously sharp blades (like the PermaSharp Super that I tried in it first) make for a really exciting shave and I think that's kinda the point of this razor; almost recapturing that very first shave with a vintage single edge razor and GEM blade.

The Derby is a significantly milder blade and ...

... I made a second pass with just Prep Cream (which can be used as a brushless shaving cream) so I could see exactly what was going on and I found the Derby to be VERYsensitive to angle. I think that is probably the crux of why it is such a polarising blade when there are so many safety razors with so many differing shaving angles in the hands of shavers that have so many different angles, yet placed into a shavette and folks have a much clearer and much more positive view of these blades. Get the angle in its very narrow sweet spot and it is indeed really nice to use!

I had hoped to try a second run with it in the ROCNEL SE-P but to be absolutely honest, running my usual test patch of thumb against the edge afterwards and I was not confident that it would be good for a second run. I think that's how these saloon blades are designed to be used and I'm going to leave it at one. The full size double edge blade may well be different.

So, I'll be switching to a half blade Treet Platinum this evening and I hope that will be just right ... PermaSharp, too exciting; Derby, too angle sensitive.
 
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