The Shave of the day

Sapwn · Jul 4, 2013

Straight Razor: SPARTACUS, Thiers-Issard. 5/8, full hollow

Brush: Custom made with Horse mane hair and Deer horn

Scuttle: Schwarzweisskeramik

Shaving soap: Cream/soap made by me

with stearic acid, coconut oil, shea butter, lanolin. Cherry and Almond scent

Aftershave balm: made by me

with mango butter, cocoa butter, almond oil, grape seed oil, and chamomile infusion. Neroli scent

CaliChan · Jul 4, 2013

So cool!!! I love it!

Sapwn · Jul 4, 2013

Thank you CaliChan

Ruthie · Jul 4, 2013

Wow! I am at a loss for words. Great job!

Barbara AL · Jul 4, 2013

Wow! Great looking cream soap.

Bama · Jul 4, 2013

Looks good. I want to try some shave soap but haven't done it yet

Crazy8 · Jul 11, 2013

I am a huge wet shaving guy now also. I started maybe a year and a half ago. I use a Merkur 38C with various blades (Merkur, Lord, Wilkinson, etc.) I have a Edwin Jagger bowl and a Simpson Colonel shaving brush. Anyway rather than going through all my goodies, I say all that to ask, how do you make homemade shaving soap or cream? I would love to try this and compare it to some of my more expensive creams, like my Edwin Jagger. Do you have a recipe you can share or Know of any sites I could find some? I have done some searching through Google and it was a lot of dead ends and one lead to this post.

Thank you very much and that cream looks amazing.

heartsong · Jul 11, 2013

good for you! it looks terrific!

Sapwn · Aug 18, 2013

Kamisori Ichihara, Japanese Straight Razor
Custom made brush with Horsetail hair and femoral bone handle
Homemade Shaving Soap with Almond and Cherry scent
Homemade Aftershave Balsam with Neroli scent
Fine Cycladic art replica, 2800BC

Trinity · Aug 18, 2013

Wow

I love the way you stage your pics

DeeAnna · Aug 18, 2013

The horse mane hair brushes are attractive, Sapwn. Do the blunt ends of the horsehair feel harsher on your skin than the tapered ends of badger hair?

I make tassels from my horses' mane hair. They have two-color manes, white and black, so I can make white, black, or mixed-color tassels. It would be a small step to putting these tassels into a bone or wood handle.

Sapwn · Aug 18, 2013

The one with the black hair in the first picture is horse mane hair.
The one with the white hair in the second photo is horse tail hair.

In the wet shaving forums most members seem to agree that horsehair feel something between boar hair shaving brush and badger hair shaving brush.
They mean that the softest brushes are the badger brushes and the boar brushes are harsher, while the horse brushes are something in between.

Some very experienced senior members are also saying that horse hair is not suitable for shaving brushes and almost everyone seem to agree that the best hair for shaving brushes is badger hair.

However, I totally disagree with all of them. I am not trying to be unique here but I really find boar brushes to be superior to all.
There is a big difference thaw. Boar brushes must break down to offer their best while badger brushes give their best from the first shave.
This means that you have to use for at least two to three months a boar brush in order to break it down and get the best from it. After some months of usage boar brushes become very soft to the tips and feel much softer than the best silvertip badger brushes. And all this softness to the tips is combined with a strong backbone power that badger hair can only dream about.

They will tell you that boar brush cannot hold as much water as a badger one and you need to add water often. But since we shave in the bathroom I really don’t see the problem. They will also say that boar brushes stink. This is true for the first 10 days of curing. But I said at the beginning that they must break down for a couple of months at least.

Anyway, trying to answer to your question horsehair brushes behave something between badger hair and boar hair.
They stink a little at the beginning, but after some days the smell goes away.
They feel hasher than the badgers and much more like boar brushes at the beginning. However, compared to my best boar brushes, horsehair brushes feel harsher.
But this is not a problem according to my opinion. A shaving brush should have some kind feeling on the face. Horsehair and boar hair brushes massage my face in a very pleasant way, while badger brushes feel more like the brushes my girlfriend uses for her make-up.

DeeAnna · Aug 18, 2013

So it is a subjective thing ... some will like horse or boar and others will prefer badger.

In my experience, mane hair will always be softer than tail hair. Mane hair cut from a foal (baby horse) is finer and softer than mane hair from an older horse.

Horse smell on a horse is wonderful, but I don't think I would care for the smell on a shaving brush! After I wash the hair collected from my horses, it does not have any odor, wet or dry, in my opinion. Horse hair sold commercially might have more odor, however. I do not know how that hair is processed, but I would guess commercial sellers handle the hair much differently than I do.

Thank you for the information, Sapwn. Very good to know. Did you make the brushes?

Sapwn · Aug 18, 2013

DeeAnna said:
So it is a subjective thing ... some will like horse or boar and others will prefer badger.

DeeAnna said:
　
In my experience, mane hair will always be softer than tail hair.

I agree with both.
　

　

DeeAnna said:
Horse hair sold commercially might have more odor,

Some have an odor, and others not at all.
For example the Vie Long Horsehair brushes that are made in Spain have usually no odor at all, while others like the knots that I bought from China had an odor at the begining.

　
　

DeeAnna said:
Did you make the brushes?

These two brushes were made by two Italian artists members of the Italian wet shaving forum “Il rasoio”

　

Sapwn · Aug 26, 2013

Straight Razor: BISMARCK, Dovo. 6/8, full hollow

Brush: Custom made with Boar bristle and Olive wood

Scuttle: Schwarzweisskeramik

Shaving soap: Homemade cream/soap with stearic acid, coconut oil, shea butter, lanolin. Cherry and Almond scent

Aftershave balsam: Homemade with mango butter, cocoa butter, almond oil, grape seed oil, and chamomile infusion. Neroli scent

Have a nice week, everyone.

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