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View attachment 65620
Prep: Shower, Palmolive Olive Oil Soap
Pre: Proraso Green
Soap: Stirling Hipster
Brush: Yaqi 24mm Mysterious Space Tuxedo
Razor: 1912 Deluxe
Blade: Personna Gem (1)
Post: Alum, 4711 ASL, Nivea Balm
After a lovely little package of blades from @Satanfriendly arrived yesterday (thank you, sir!) this evening was set to give the 1912 its first run out. And I'm so glad I didn't try it on a work day morning. Talk about having to re-learn technique! The face was fine, and the quality of the finish was amazing once I worked out the steeper angle required. But my God did it bite me on the neck. The alum made me wince and I've not had that many blood spots since I started with a razor in my teens! I will persevere though, as it's a lovely bit of kit.
The juice is absolutely worth the squeeze, my friend.
You're right about the angle. It's so easy to have that blade rasping almost perpendicular to the face, but when you figure out that the very unnatural feeling angle of top cap almost to face with the handle sticking straight out (absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong for a double edge razor) then you catch the sweet spot. For reference, if the guard comes into play the angle is not steep enough. If you can imagine it, you sorta need to follow that little bevel at the front of the top cap.
I think necks are troublesome because you have quite a curve from the chin to the neck and following it down with an unfamiliar razor that you just clicked with the angle to them move to an area where the angle has to be slightly altered every centimetre is a challenge.
... but it will come!
Understand also that the GEM Stainless/PTFE blades are indeed seethingly sharp with first use and probably a lot more so than many are used to. The second shave will mellow, third, more so.