Travel Tubac Tubesday

Tubes of Tabac creme and aftershave balm standing next to an E-bar leaning on the handle of an ESC Medium Jock handle in front of a decorated bathroom wall.

• Razor: Ever-Ready Natural Angle (E-Bar)
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Brush: Executive Shaving Medium Jock
• Lather: Mäurer & Wirtz Tabac Original Cream
• Post shave: Mäurer & Wirtz Tabac Original aftershave balm

First of a few travel shaves in merry old England, and I brought my made in England E-bar for the occasion. I'm not sure the brush is made here, but at least its branding is from Scotland.

Happy Tabac Tuesday, everyone!

Rosy Shave

• Prep: Klar Activated charcoal facial soap
• Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 472½ (NOS 13/16" hollow ground, stainless steel)
• Brush: Zenith B21 (XL chrome-plated copper handle, 28 mm knot with 50 mm loft)
• Lather: Geo F. Trumper Rose shaving cream
• Aftershave: Noble Otter Two Kings splash

I'm really enjoying the scent of this Geo F. Trumper Rose cream. Simple, warm, maybe a bit grandma-y, but in a good way. I don't think I have it really dialled in yet, and my first pass was a bit pasty vs a watery third, but even so, performance was good enough. I'm regretting that I didn't take the post shave as well but Two Kings made a nice pairing.

It felt good to shave with a straight again after a few travel days abroad.

Fernfernfern

A Koraat Sparschweinchen with orange scales lies in front of a tub of Barrister and Mann Fern, a bottle of Stirling Varen splash, and a bottle of Seaforth! Heather eau de toilette. A Chisel and Hound synth lies on the tub

• Prep: Klar Activated charcoal facial soap
• Razor: Koraat Sparschweinchen (7/8", "Sheffield-style" full hollow, carbon steel)
• Brush: Chisel and Hound Ambrosia Maple with 26 mm Maggard knot
• Lather: Barrister and Mann Fern in Omnibus
• Aftershave: Stirling Varen splash
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Co Spearhead! Heather

Haven't done Fougère Friday in a while and I don't know why. This was positively delicious.

Also, Sparschweinchen++;

Thu 13 Nov 2025

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Weck Sextoblade (red translucent scales)
• Blade: Kismet Rostfrei, Polymer beschichtet
• Lather: Chiseled Face Groomatorium – Midnight Stag
• Post Shave: Henri et Victoria – Cognac and Cuban Cigars
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth – Tobacconist

I woke up and felt like using the Stag today. I don't think I ever combined the sweat running down the mechanic's butt crack with warm, boozy scents before, but it's a great match. Like Lady and the Tramp.

Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club Wed 16 Jul 2025

• Brush: Boti - Sunrise
• Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 50 (7/8", hollow ground, stainless steel, masonic deco)
• Lather: Chicago Grooming Co. – Irving Park
• Post Shave: Speick – Men Active
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime

For today's meeting of the Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club, we shave with CGC Irving park, courtesy of @BossHoggins10@sub.wetshaving.social (Thanks Boss!). It's a dupe of Rive Gauche and a thoroughly enjoyable scent. I consistently get great shaves from Vida's soaps, both the older base (did it have a name?) and darkwing, and today was no different.

I'm trying to decide which Friodur to use for this year's Austere August and I'm waffling between today's weird masonic deco Frio 50 with the murky history, the venerable Frio 14, the chonkier Frio 17, the Frio "the cleaver" 72-V, and a normal 72 or 59. My dilemmata:

1. I think my favourite option is the Frio 50, a great shaver, but it's what I used last year.
2. The 14 is my favourite razor of all times, but I guess I want to use it sparingly and deliberately.
3. The 17 is a great shaver but feels a bit normal for AA
4. I've never used a wedge consistently for a month, so the 72-V would be interesting, but I wonder whether I'd miss the crunch of a hollow.
5. All of the above are hard to replace if they get lost, and I'll be travelling during the lead-up to and the beginning of AA, so plenty of opportunity for lost baggage.
6. The 72 or 59 are fine shavers, but there's to oomph there. The upside is that I wouldn't mind terribly if they got lost during a flight.

Today's shave was fantastic, so I think I'm leaning towards a repeat of the masonic 50.

Thu 27 Nov 2025

• Brush: Chisel and Hound – Screwdjriver with v28 Fanchurian
• Razor: Wade & Butcher Celebrated Fine India Steel Razor -13/16 near wedge with barber's notch
• Lather: Henri et Victoria – Cognac and Cuban Cigars
• Post Shave: Ariana and Evans – Peach & Cognac
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth / Noble Otter / Declaration Grooming – Cerberus

Nice fruity-boozy shave with one of my prettiest razors. I use it rarely because I want to preserve it. Who or what I'm preserving it far is not entirely clear, though 😅

I blame the fight against smoking for the lack of intermission. Back in the day nobody expected us to be able to sit still for more than one hour without a break😄

Giddy Up for Smoky Sample Straightember

• Brush: Zenith 506U N (50/50 horse mane/tail)
• Razor: Böker Abalone
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Necromantic
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Autumn Ash
• Fragrance: Maison Margiela – REPLICA By The Fireplace

I decided to get this horse brush after talking to @PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social and @sgrdddy@sub.wetshaving.social , and it's been a surprisingly unsurprising first use. The brush has medium backbone and is lightly scritchy. There's no funk and it lathers easily. I'm looking forward to getting to know this brush better over the coming days and weeks.

The Abalone treated me very well again today.

Loving the scents today. Sweet and smoky.

Day 11/31 of TabOKtoberfest

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Dovo Barbarossa Inox (5/8", shortened blade, stainless steel, Spanish tip)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Company – I, Rich Moose (sub-exclusive sheep tallow)
• Post Shave: Sir – Irisch Moos
• Fragrance: Atelier Rebul – 1895

I was at a conference in @PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social's home turf and we met for a lovely dinner, where he surprised me with his Dovo Barbarossa to try. The Barbarossa is a fascinating and odd little razor. It's a 5/8" blade, seemingly made from the same blade blank as the regular modern Dovo 5/8"s, see my Dowo 41 Inox blade for comparison (which I happened to travel with, coincidentally), but the blade is about one third shorter. The Spanish tip makes it look even more stubby.

I've been curious about this for a while because I don't really understand why traditional straights have a ~75 mm edges. Anyone who, like me, has a patch with horizontal direction in their beard growth pattern in the hollow bits under the jaw line knows that the long blades get in the way where the shorter blade of a DE or a traditional kamisori don't. In short (pun unintended), the design made sense to me.

So, how does it shave? First off, with the short blade and the wooden scales, this thing is so light it's a bit unsettling at first. Then, I wasn't aware how much I'm usually just keeping the tip of a straight in view, and this short blade always tried hiding behind my hand. Both of these issues are just small deviations that play tricks with muscle memory, though, and easily overcome with a bit of focus.

The shave was uneventful, and the shorter blade wasn't the superpower I thought it was, but I probably need to play a little with the new geometry to figure out how to best exploit it before floating the idea of a sub-exclusive short-blade cleaver out of Ulrik's new 9/8 blanks 😅

Mon 08 Dec 2025

• Brush: Semogue Owner's Club (cherry wood and boar)
• Razor: Thiers Issard Le Dandy (5/8", square point, carbon steel)
• Lather: Mike's Natural Soaps – Hungarian Lavender
• Post Shave: Chatillon Lux – Pure Lavender
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original

simple. great shave.

Fri 14 Nov 2025

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 17 (NOS, 7/8", hollow ground, stainless steel)
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles – Connecticut Shade
• Post Shave: Chiseled Face – Gemütlichkeit
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth – Tobacconist

Yesterday's combo left me wanting to play with more tobacco combos. This time I started with warm, sweet pipe tobacco with vanilla and nutmeg, took it in a fully gourmand direction with oatmeal cookies and coffee, and finished it up with the warm, dry scent of a cigar shop. It worked!

Sat 22 Nov 2025

• Brush: Declaration Grooming Washington Blood of Kings B3
• Razor: Raido Star – 堕落の剃刀 Razor of Depravity (8/8", extra hollow, carbon steel kamisori) 🇺🇦
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Tres Matres
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Tres Matres

Using SW feels special now. Good special, but special.

Day 11 of Atlas Shaves 2 – Electric Boogaloo Tue 11 Feb 2025

• Brush: Zenith r/Wetshaving exclusive MOAR BOAR (31 mm × 57 mm bleached boar)
• Razor: Böker – 14er (8/8", extra hollow, carbon steel, square point)
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles – DFTR
• Post Shave: Catie's Bubbles – DFTR
• 

Phew, finally a few artisan points after a dry spell with only scent notes. DFTR is my blind buy of the year. Well, and so is Blugère. Damn it, too many great scents.

Road to Victory:

Tue 28 Jan 2025

• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts Tabak Oridjinal, now with 28 mm Gelousy knot
• Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 14 (8/8", extra hollow ground, stainless steel)
• Lather: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original
• Post Shave: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original

Travel day shave before driving up the mountains for a short skiing vacation. I've been looking forward to this for weeks.

Have a Stank®tastic Tuesday!

Wed 05 Nov 2025

• Brush: Chisel and Hound – Screwdjriver with v28 Fanchurian
• Razor: Filarmónica 14 Doble Temple (8/8", extra full hollow, carbon steel)
• Lather: Geo. F. Trumper – Rose
• Post Shave: Mäurer & Wirtz – Wild Ride
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz Tabac Man Gravity

I don't use this GFT cream often enough. It's such a simple scent that I often overlook it, even though it's just a delight.

Shout-out to @gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social and @snooting@sub.wetshaving.social who are keeping BBS November alive. Maybe I'll join again next year.

Tue 04 Mar 2025

• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts Tabak Oridjinal, now with 28 mm Gelousy knot
• Razor: Böker – Abalone (6/8", full hollow, carbon steel, French point)
• Lather: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original
• Post Shave: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Original

Ok, this MM format seems to carry more potential for surprises than the brackets last year and I'm loving it so far. The bot's last count (a couple hours before shavinginct's official count) has Chiseled Face, Declaration Grooming and Wholly Kaw tied for last.

Scrape time: Tue 04 Mar 2025, 05:58:45 GMT

I definitely wouldn't have predicted that wholly Kaw could outlast these two and here we are, it's down to tie breakers. I'm also curious to see whether Mammoth's strong showing is due to Monday or the Mafia and it's worth noting that the Talent crew seems to have started bleeding followers despite the total number of participant growing significantly. We'll see, there is still time for stragglers to change the result around the edges.

I had a fantastic shave this morning. AS2EB had interfered with my regular Tabac Tuesdays and I've missed them. There's just something about a totally familiar setup to come back to every once in a while that really appeals to me. Oh, and I love the Stank®.

The Böker with the vicious pointy point is also becoming a favourite. It requires more concentration than my other razors and forces me to slow down and use different geometries.

Wed 07 May 2025

• Brush: Declaration Grooming Washington Blood of Kings B3
• Razor: Koraat – r/Wetshaving exclusive Moarteen (15/16", full hollow, carbon steel)
• Lather: Eleven Shaving – 5
• Post Shave: Chatillon Lux / Declaration Grooming – Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth / Declaration Grooming / Noble Otter – Cerberus Fougère

The "small" 24 mm knot on the Washington is really nice to use and makes me question the trend to large badger knots. Usually this lasts until I use a large badger knot, at which point I remember why.

Cerberus Fougère caused me some anguish over the last couple weeks because I couldn't find it. It seemed to have simply disappeared. I checked everywhere that made sense and some more places. Then yesterday, I found it right where it's supposed to be, in my half of the bathroom cabinet, and I have no idea how I hadn't immediately found it all this time. I must be getting old.

This was a fun scent progression, from earthy-citrussy over earthy-floral to earthy-green.

Fri 14 Mar 2025

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Wolfman Satin WR1 dual comb 0.74 mm gap head on hollow WRH1 handle
• Blade: Feather new Hi-Stainless
• Lather: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Leather
• Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Leather
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Leather

I really love how the citrus and leather play against each other in this.

Nice participation number again in yesterday's match-up:

Scrape time: Fri 14 Mar 2025, 09:39:35 GMT

Having Stirling, Noble Otter, DG, and BaM tied for last place tells me that the project of introducing chaos into March Madness totally worked. This is fascinating. Also, Bubbles tied for first with Talent makes me happy.

Yayy, winner++;

@walden@sub.wetshaving.social, @gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social, @whosgotthepudding@sub.wetshaving.social, do I have your permission to share your addresses with sahenders?

I'm not pinging DaveWave94 because sahenders already knows his deets.

Purple Green Wed 23 Apr 2025

• Brush: Zenith – r/Wetshaving exclusive MOAR BOAR (31 mm × 57 mm bleached boar)
• Razor: Koraat – r/Wetshaving exclusive Moarteen (15/16", full hollow, carbon steel)
• Lather: Mike's Natural Soaps – Hungarian Lavender
• Post Shave: Chatillon Lux – Pure Lavender
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz – Tabac Man

I got this tub of Mike's Hungarian Lavender from the very generous u/ElrdrormR. It's a sharp, aromatic lavender that reminds me of the lavender part of CB Purple Grapefruit, which is to say it's lovely. Even though I've had samples of Mike's since 2021, I've tried it for the first time this February during AS2EB, so I'm still not used to how easily this soap lathers into dense, slick lather. The Moarteen slid through my whiskers like it was nothing on this lather.

And now, a long day of WFH with workers updating our 123 year old balcony to modern safety standards. They came earlier than scheduled, so I got to open the door with lather face. Good start.