Submitted 2 months ago by AutoBot@sub.wetshaving.social [bot] to wetshaving@sub.wetshaving.social
Share your shave of the day!
October 3, 2024
Back to DE shaving after a week with GEMs. Apparently not the best combo here, or maybe I’m just spoiled by GEM shaves :-)
Oct 3, 2024 - Theme Thursday: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung
Rating: 4.5/5
October 3, 2024
Brush: Wald Nimbus Chryselephantine 29mm A1 Fan
Razor: J.A. Henckels Friodur 14 Full Hollow Square Point
Lather: Mäurer and Wirtz - Tabac - Soap
Toner: Thayers - Rose - Toner
Aftershave: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac - Balm
Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac - Eau de Toilette
2 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.
Ah yes, German Reunification Day. Well, any chance to celebrate works for me. I’m honoriing it with an all German setup. After 31 days without a single strop, the Frio 14 sports a brand new sharp, feather-like edge. And, of course, The Stank® needs no introduction.
03.10.2024 - Transition
-> 2-pass head shave. Originally I wanted to do a neck lineup as well, but didn’t have enough soap left in my brush.
Transition is a WK soap I hadn’t tried yet. It has a beautiful autumn landscape for its tub art, so it fits seasonally. The scent is on the lighter side of the spectrum but goes rather well with my Phytorelax balm. I’d say it’s good for everyday wear based upon my first impression. Unfortunately I don’t even own a single german soap - the only active german artisan I know of is Meißner Tremonia from Dortmund, but a lot of their products that’d interest me are currently unavailable. Mühle is from the former GDR and their stuff is solid. Of course there’s still Tabac, but I am not sure if their soap is even made here anymore. Most german razor blade manufacturers were bought either by Gillette or Harry’s, so they only produce cartridge BS these days.
So today is German Reunification Day, but as @djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social has already mentioned, we’re still not fully united. I live in East Germany, and while not everything sucks over here (e.g. our part of the Autobahn is better than most of it near Hamburg or Bochum) we are still at a economical and cultural disadvantage. From big corporations to little start-ups, most will settle in a big metropolis in West Germany. Bands rarely play in the East either, and so forth. Our last regional elections were all huge successes for the far right-wing party I despise deeply & refuse to name here, but one factor contributing to this is the sheer incompetence of our government. Many people here fear for their economic safety due to high unemployment and rising bankruptcies, so my hope is that a lot of voters are in fact not right-wing arseholes but generally unsatisfied with everything. Despite different opinions in the public, I’m still a firm believer in continuous dialogue and searching for compromises. It’ll never do us any good to prohibit certain parties and dictate opinions - as we saw, this only strengthens right-wing extremists and their propaganda.
Now this turned out to be much more of a tirade than I anticipated, sorry for this wall of text… I’m currently in a bit of a transition period as well, as my RN retraining draws to a close and the exams are next year. Let’s hope the best for the future.
Let’s hope the best for the future.
This is the general tenor when commenting on the reunification and the current political situation. Who would have thought that in the early nineties? 😞
It’s unfortunate, but like always: something really positive also comes with a few negatives. As far as the political situation is considered, East Germany always had a problem with being right-leaning and in the last few years, some assholes really capitalized on that. At least we’re still better off than the US with its two-party system.
Unfortunately I don’t even own a single german soap - the only active german artisan I know of is Meißner Tremonia from Dortmund, but a lot of their products that’d interest me are currently unavailable.
If you are willing to consider the former Holy Roman Empire, there is Haslinger.
At least politically, there seem to be quite some communalities between Eastern and Alpine Germany 😰
I know of Haslinger, but Austria is it’s own little cosmos - they mostly dislike us germans, except for Bavaria. I also don’t really would call them an artisan, at least not in the traditional sense. There’s also Klar Seifen and Mäurer & Wirtz in Germany, but like Haslinger they’re traditional brands with a very old hard soap formula. Out of the Haslinger soaps I had so far, Honig was my favourite due to the nice honey scent, but in terms of slickness and skincare their formula is… lacking.
Once upon a time, there used to be a german woman who made soft shaving soap akin to american and italian soaps, but unfortunately she had to close up shop before I truly got into wetshaving as a hobby.
And yeah, the growing power of far-right/alt-right and normalised racism is quite worrying. 😕
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 2 months ago
The Thu Oct 03 2024
Image
So this slightly ridiculous, but pretty 14er arrived yesterday, and I’m quite impressed with the overall build quality. There’s a little write-up of what I found noteworthy with some detail pictures here.
I decided to try the factory edge, so I didn’t expect the smoothest of shaves, and sure enough, this edge sucks 😅. It’s easy to understand why Brad Maggard hones all his Bökers before they go out to the customers. So on the to-hone pile it goes.
I appreciate the great jimping on the shank. This razor really feels natural in the hand. I do need to be careful, though, because this razor has the overall geometry of a 14, which I’m very familiar with, but with a wicked sharp point, unlike all my other 14s. I managed to get a decent shave and didn’t poke any holes, and I’m looking forward to enjoying this razor after it’s been properly honed.
For today’s theme, there’s an imbalance between eastern and western German products, and this is kind of a parallel to how the German reunification went. The west dominates united Germany and the east struggles catching up and is economically disadvantaged. With the political implications we’ve just seen in the latest state elections.
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 2 months ago
The color on those scales contrasts with the gold nicely. I just test the edge on a razor when I get it. If it makes it past the packing peanut, I’ll give it a try. Otherwise, straight to the “to-hone” pile. Another nice photo!
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 2 months ago
That’s what I do with eBay razors, too. But I like to try factory edges. So far I’m at Koaraat ++, Ralf Aust++, Friodur++, Thiers Issard–, Böker–.