August 8, 2022
- Brush: Zenith B15 (506 U/L) 27.5mm Boar
- Razor: GEM MMOC Gold Gen2
- Blade: Personna Gem PTFE (8)
- Lather: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag - Soap
- Post Shave: Thayers - Lemon - Toner
- Post Shave: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag - Aftershave
- Fragrance: Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag - Eau de Parfum
2 passes. Face lather. Good shave.
So, another great shave. I almost rated this an excellent shave but there are areas that aren't as close as they could be. Nonetheless, again, comfortable, close, no issues.
If you're occasionally looking at the edge photos I'm making, compare today's edge photo to this one of my $20 Gold Dollar straight razor. Which would you prefer to use?
OK, the Gold Dollar edge is not the shave ready, factory edge. I've wailed on this. It's an edge that went through a series of water stones, and then a series of loaded strops. Definitely not a Jnat edge. The Jnats that I have are really too soft for razor sharpening. You could achieve the same pristine result with a series of inexpensive lapping films as u/djundjila does (I believe). Razors are quite easy to sharpen because the spine acts as your guide. What's not so easy, and what takes a bit of experience, is fixing geometry problems. This Gold Dollar was completely out of wack when I got it. The reason you see such a large bevel in the photo has to do with me thinning the spine (on both sides) to take the razor's sharpening angle down from the 18+° range to the 15+° degree range. That's a serious amount of metal removed, but the shaving performance improvement was dramatic (for me).
The actual GEM blade edge does not show significant change from yesterday. Again, I've examined the both sides and have taken a photo that is representative of what I see.
I'm not noticing much change in the brush at this point. I'm sure change will be subtle and that there will be a day when I take note of how good this brush has become.
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