Lovely shave
Totally wonderful shave today. The Vie-Long Gonzalo 04102 brush—a combination of boar and white horsehair—has bloomed somewhat after my first practice use of the brush. In person, it’s lighter in color: sort of a cream color. The boar/horsehair combination is just perfect: it works better than boar, and has more body and resilience than horsehair alone. (Readers across the pond can find the brush at Gifts and Care, for example.)
I used the Klar Kabinette soap, a chunk of which I cut and crammed into the bottom of the apothecary bowl. This is a very good shape for making Creamy Lather: deep, the handle offers a firm grip, and the shape of the bowl lets you force the soap puck in so that it doesn’t move under the kind of vigorous brushing needed for Creamy Lather—unlike, say, the sort of hemispherical bowl (like a cereal bowl) that works well when used purely as a lathering bowl (without a soap puck in it: load the brush with soap, then work up the lather in the bowl—and I’ll certainly be trying that technique as I continue my experiments).
I did get a Creamy Lather, and this brush is going to break in quickly. It has excellent capacity—no need for a return trip to the soap bowl—and it feels good already. I think this may become a favorite brush as it breaks in.
Fine lather, and this morning I used the OSS (with the Shark blade from yesterday’s shave, which worked fine today as well) just like a regular razor, flipping to the other side when the first filled with lather. It worked great, and I, as a person who like variety, really enjoyed the slight differences between the two sides. Both are extremely comfortable—an iKon secret of some sort—and both have (for me) just the right amount of assertiveness: neither scary nor wimpy, just an excellent workmanlike approach to stubble removal.
No sign of nick or burn, but an extremely smooth result after three passes. Now that I’m simply using it as a regular razor, without trying to pay attention to which side I’m using, I like it even more. But now I want to try comparing the open-comb to my other iKon open-comb and the straight-bar to the other straight-bar.
Greg mentioned that it is extremely difficult to fine-tune the head to get the right shaving feel and performance, but I think he’s done it again with this one. This is a terrific razor, IMO. And this is just the prototype. I can’t wait to see the final product…
It sounds like you really like the new iKon OSS razor. Any hint when this and the long rumored other new iKon razors will be available for purchase?
Did you use the same Shark SC blade from yesterday’s shave with the same razor? You evaluated today’s shave as totally wonderful. In your opinion, how much of that result is attibutable to the blade, razor, soap, brush, prep,etc.? Is any one variable more important than the others?
Gerald Kovach
11 June 2011 at 10:51 am
Yes, it’s the same blade. I’ll continue to use the blade until it goes, and I should have noted the blade in the post. I just now fixed that—thanks for asking.
I don’t know Greg’s schedule of releases, and it may depend on lining up production and the like. I’m not in the loop on that.
The prep certainly is essential: I don’t think a shave can be enjoyed if the prep is inadequate. I shave after showering, and I always then begin by washing my beard again at the sink, using MR GLO.
In this shave, some of the enjoyment came from the Creamy Lather success, and the fact that this brush is really quite good—and at an amazingly low price point. Combining boar with white horsehair was a stroke of genius. I also like apothecary bowl, as it turns out, though black or cream would be a better color than white. I’ve in fact just ordered another of these bowls, a Col. Conk model from West Coast Shaving.
But all factors really must come together for a lovely shave. For example, I failed to mention it, but the Acca Kappa has for me quite a nice fragrance, and that, too, helps the success of the shave.
So: the prep is essential. Don’t skimp there. Take your time. Then the razor work becomes enjoyable as well, producing the finish one likes. It all has to come together…
LeisureGuy
11 June 2011 at 11:01 am