Classics, but with a (nose) wrinkle
- Brush: Rubberset 400-3 with a 26 mm unbleached Zenith boar knot at 56 mm loft
- Razor: Wade & Butcher Celebrated Fine India Steel Razor -13/16 near wedge with barber’s notch
- Lather: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
- Aftershave: Pitralon Swiss version
- Fragrance: Echt Kölnisch Wasser N° 4711
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A particularly old-school shave today with only classics.
Mostly a great shave, but unfortunately, the unbleached Zenith is redeveloping his boar funk, in a massive, Texas Pig Stink Massacre-evoking, porta-pottyesque way. I had concluded a few days ago that something most be alive in it, and that I should attempt to kill it.
A little bit of googling and scrolling past the “hand lather a few times and it’ll be fine” comments showed that a typical approach is to… bleach it with oxiclean. Now supposedly it’s colour safe, but I still wasn’t about to bleach my unbleached knot before having exhausted other remedies. So I soaked it in alcohol-based hand disinfectant (i.e., 70% rubbing alcohol, 30% water) for two days, rinsed it, did a long and thorough hand lather yesterday and let it dry overnight. This morning, I was rather optimistic sniffing the result. However, the second water touched that brush was like opening a cesspool hatch.
So now I’m back to square one, considering bleaching that knot with oxiclean. I’m very much open to other suggestions.
Other than that, great shave as mentioned. This firm boar knot is perfect for making The Fat lather without excessive foam, the Fine India Steel W&B is one of my treasured possessions and never fails to feel great, and Pitralon and 4711 are always pleasant (albeit short lived).
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 8 months ago
I have very little patience with stinkiness. Bon chance!
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 8 months ago
merci!