February 2017 Acquisition Thread

[Korbz]

This morning, before the heavens opened and the rain cometh in Sydney, I received my Jabonman/Eufros order.

My initial reaction to the scents has not been especially positive. But as well all know, scent is subjective, and intensely personal.

With the Lime Spices all I get is on the nose is menthol - perhaps with a lather the rest of it may open up, but buggered if I can smell anything else from the can. And I hate menthol. Whoops.

With the Brisa de Oriente I smell vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. Which for me is a "meh".

The Gea smells exactly like Jean Paul Gaultier aftershave to me. Exactly. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Reminds me of the 1990's, Muscle Mary's, Gucci's and day clubs. Shudder. Not a welcome revisitation by my olfactory cortex.

It is likely I will move these 3 on unused, as they don't appeal very much, and I am rather in love with my Martin de Candre Foutere, with the Otoko in rotation.

Of note also included were 3 samplers - dama de noche, ylang ylang and tierra humida.

I like the dama de noche - quite a pleasant flower scent. Inoffensive.

The tierra humida is... ...pungent. Wet earth indeed. Jury is out - not sure I want to shave with something that reminds me of mouldy ground: no doubt about one's sexual orientation with this scent. Very butch.

The Ylang Ylang is, to my nose, just plain wrong: it reminds me of my grand mother - that old lady powder smell. Again not one for me.

CAVEAT: my description is of course just what I smell and what comes instantly to mind; someone else may smell something entirely different, or at least interpret the scent entirely differently. I don't claim any skill in this arena, and often don't "get" the layers within scents - and wines for that matter. Still I knows what I likes, and what I don't, almost immediately.

Or put another way - just because something isn't for me, please don't anyone else be put off these soaps. They are top notch.

I had a shave this morning with this sampler:

The lather, cushion and glide was excellent - very smooth shave. In use the equal of the Martin de Candre. My face feels very calm. Scent was ok for me - as I say, quiet flowery, but pleasant.

The overall quality of the product is excellent, first rate in my limited experience, even if the scents I bought to try are not to my taste.

I'm happy to buy them should @todras change his mind I love the Eastern Breeze and Gea and about to get the ring of death in my Breeze :O

edit - bah go to a meeting and miss good stuff lol

 

[Amicus]

I'm happy to buy them should @todras change his mind I love the Eastern Breeze and Gea and about to get the ring of death in my Breeze :O

edit - bah go to a meeting and miss good stuff lol

Sorry about that - but on the plus side Manuel is still making them, and postage was quite quick from Spain. Around 10 days or so.

Happy shaving.

Best Wishes

 

[Sxot]

Nice surprise in the mail today;

I appreciate the warning although I would have preferred if they removed the blades! Maybe they thought they were adding value or something.

So inside, after very carefully unwrapping, are these;

Two "g-bars" or more accurately the "Heavy Flat Top" (as opposed to the feather light). Both are in excellent condition, one sporting the OEM blade card which was a surprise as the auction did not show this. I am no expert but they don't appear to have had much use. Both are slightly corroded but will clean up nicely as I can rub most of it off with my finger. The other is the GEM push button. That is a top mechanism! Plastic to be sure, cast handle, plastic coated. Standard heavy flap top head. Very modern looking, yet, art deco? I really like the look of this razor! All three sport the angled/flat base for resting on your pinky finger. The Gillette DE is a ball end tech code Z1. How do you know if it's a 1954 Z, or a 1979 Z? Either way, loving the etched top cap. Very cool.

I also received the straight razors in the lot that @Mark1966 posted. The ones which looked to be worthless, broken blades. The one blade I was I buying them for, is good and worth the paying price luckily. It has an engraving (scratched by hand with sharp implement). I think a name and the year 1919. I had planned on moving the blade into the scales of one of the broken blades but now I see it is personalized, they will stay. I don't think I will restore this blade at all. Just prevent further corrosion and stick it on the display shelf with my other cool shave stuff.

Oh, and that other bit is part of an Ever Ready SE blade stroper....

 

[Mark1966]

Nice surprise in the mail today;

I appreciate the warning although I would have preferred if they removed the blades! Maybe they thought they were adding value or something.

So inside, after very carefully unwrapping, are these;

Two "g-bars" or more accurately the "Heavy Flat Top" (as opposed to the feather light). Both are in excellent condition, one sporting the OEM blade card which was a surprise as the auction did not show this. I am no expert but they don't appear to have had much use. Both are slightly corroded but will clean up nicely as I can rub most of it off with my finger. The other is the GEM push button. That is a top mechanism! Plastic to be sure, cast handle, plastic coated. Standard heavy flap top head. Very modern looking, yet, art deco? I really like the look of this razor! All three sport the angled/flat base for resting on your pinky finger. The Gillette DE is a ball end tech code Z1. How do you know if it's a 1954 Z, or a 1979 Z? Either way, loving the etched top cap. Very cool.

I also received the straight razors in the lot that @Mark1966 posted. The ones which looked to be worthless, broken blades. The one blade I was I buying them for, is good and worth the paying price luckily. It has an engraving (scratched by hand with sharp implement). I think a name and the year 1919. I had planned on moving the blade into the scales of one of the broken blades but now I see it is personalized, they will stay. I don't think I will restore this blade at all. Just prevent further corrosion and stick it on the display shelf with my other cool shave stuff.

Oh, and that other bit is part of an Ever Ready SE blade stroper....

Nice scores!

Yes, the warning about blades is nice - but a lot of people DO expect they will add to the value. Look forward to seeing these cleaned up !

 

[Sticky]

Nice start to SE loving! Did you get the coated GEM blades from Conaught?

Just a note: some members are viewing on a different forum scheme (dark) which means colour changes in font often don't translate between the two so should be avoided. Your post above has resulted in black text on a dark grey background which is nearly unreadable. If you really want to change font colour from the default, I would recommend you view the post on light and dark to check how it is translated between the two.

Thanks for letting me know. It looks fine on mine but I had no idea it could look so different to others.

The problem may have started when I copied and pasted the picture from ebay (I tried to save the picture but could not), when I started to add text it was red so I changed the colour. I will have to do things a little differently next time and check, as you suggest.

Thanks again

 

[Snooze]

Nice surprise in the mail today;

I appreciate the warning although I would have preferred if they removed the blades! Maybe they thought they were adding value or something.

So inside, after very carefully unwrapping, are these;

Two "g-bars" or more accurately the "Heavy Flat Top" (as opposed to the feather light). Both are in excellent condition, one sporting the OEM blade card which was a surprise as the auction did not show this. I am no expert but they don't appear to have had much use. Both are slightly corroded but will clean up nicely as I can rub most of it off with my finger. The other is the GEM push button. That is a top mechanism! Plastic to be sure, cast handle, plastic coated. Standard heavy flap top head. Very modern looking, yet, art deco? I really like the look of this razor! All three sport the angled/flat base for resting on your pinky finger. The Gillette DE is a ball end tech code Z1. How do you know if it's a 1954 Z, or a 1979 Z? Either way, loving the etched top cap. Very cool.

I also received the straight razors in the lot that @Mark1966 posted. The ones which looked to be worthless, broken blades. The one blade I was I buying them for, is good and worth the paying price luckily. It has an engraving (scratched by hand with sharp implement). I think a name and the year 1919. I had planned on moving the blade into the scales of one of the broken blades but now I see it is personalized, they will stay. I don't think I will restore this blade at all. Just prevent further corrosion and stick it on the display shelf with my other cool shave stuff.

Oh, and that other bit is part of an Ever Ready SE blade stroper....

Looks like you've caught the SE Acquisition Bug @Sxot !! Good work!

 

[todras]

edit - bah go to a meeting and miss good stuff lol

I went out to grab a coffee one Saturday morning here and missed a Wolfman posted to BST, then I come back to see that none other than @alfredus the great had grabbed it so there we are

 

[Snooze]

One of the fairly well known American Wet Shavers "Cap" did a live feed on Sunday and went through his collection of SE razors which was quite interesting (just skip through the boring bits)

 

[Sxot]

Looks like you've caught the SE Acquisition Bug @Sxot !! Good work!

Oh yes. They are so much closer to how a straight feels. Still use a straight 9/10 days but these are good for sure. I don't think my DE will get much loving anymore. None in fact.

 

[Sxot]

Thanks for letting me know. It looks fine on mine but I had no idea it could look so different to others.

The problem may have started when I copied and pasted the picture from ebay (I tried to save the picture but could not), when I started to add text it was red so I changed the colour. I will have to do things a little differently next time and check, as you suggest.

Thanks again

Yeah the default setting is best as it's "auto". It is black on the light scheme and white on the dark. As soon as you change the colour the auto is lost.

 

[Sticky]

One of the fairly well known American Wet Shavers "Cap" did a live feed on Sunday and went through his collection of SE razors which was quite interesting (just skip through the boring bits)

Thanks for posting this, very interesting. My two featherweights cleaned up really well and can't wait to try them out but the blades ( the ones he recommends in the video) won't arrive for a while. Think I have the SE bug and I haven't even used one yet!

 

[Sticky]

Nice surprise in the mail today;

I appreciate the warning although I would have preferred if they removed the blades! Maybe they thought they were adding value or something.

So inside, after very carefully unwrapping, are these;

Two "g-bars" or more accurately the "Heavy Flat Top" (as opposed to the feather light). Both are in excellent condition, one sporting the OEM blade card which was a surprise as the auction did not show this. I am no expert but they don't appear to have had much use. Both are slightly corroded but will clean up nicely as I can rub most of it off with my finger. The other is the GEM push button. That is a top mechanism! Plastic to be sure, cast handle, plastic coated. Standard heavy flap top head. Very modern looking, yet, art deco? I really like the look of this razor! All three sport the angled/flat base for resting on your pinky finger. The Gillette DE is a ball end tech code Z1. How do you know if it's a 1954 Z, or a 1979 Z? Either way, loving the etched top cap. Very cool.

I also received the straight razors in the lot that @Mark1966 posted. The ones which looked to be worthless, broken blades. The one blade I was I buying them for, is good and worth the paying price luckily. It has an engraving (scratched by hand with sharp implement). I think a name and the year 1919. I had planned on moving the blade into the scales of one of the broken blades but now I see it is personalized, they will stay. I don't think I will restore this blade at all. Just prevent further corrosion and stick it on the display shelf with my other cool shave stuff.

Oh, and that other bit is part of an Ever Ready SE blade stroper....

Nice looking SE razors! Like you say, the Push Button has a great look, very jealous.
Enjoy your haul.
P.S. If you ever feel like trading a one of your G Bars for a Featherweight let me know, just picked up two as you can see in this thread.

 

[todras]

Eufros Amicus acquisition, nice fast send, well wrapped and arrived in excellent condition. Lovely lime essential oil off the Lima Especicas, good to have a tallow Brisa de Oriente in the house too and a spare GEA.

 

[filobiblic]

If you don't like them @Amicus I will buy them from you on the spot, Manuel makes some of the best soaps on the market and his scents are top tier. The map is never the terrain with Jabonman, you need to lather them for the accords to open up.

As I said, if you would like to sell them I will take the lot immediately.

You rotter. Got in too quick for me!

EDIT: Too quick for anyone! Talk about leaving no scrapes for the poor... [emoji6]

 

[todras]

You rotter. Got in too quick for me!

EDIT: Too quick for anyone! Talk about leaving no scrapes for the poor... [emoji6]

Ive got a 4 tub order due to land any day too from Manuel, but this was just too good to pass up.

I'm hoping it lands before the weekend as it has a tester of the new Rosa Bourbon in tallow in it which I will bring along on Saturday for the Sydney meet up.

 

[Korbz]

You rotter. Got in too quick for me!

EDIT: Too quick for anyone! Talk about leaving no scrapes for the poor... [emoji6]

Group buy Phil?

 

[todras]

Bit's and pieces for Autum/Winter today, Manuel's order is in with the Rosa Bourbon and Ylang Ylang Tallow samples and a few soaps. Some Haslinger SPA Sandelholz soap and balm and some Schafmilch for the cooler weather from Maggards.

 

[Mark1966]

Group buy Phil?

Bit's and pieces for Autum/Winter today, Manuel's order is in with the Rosa Bourbon and Ylang Ylang Tallow samples and a few soaps. Some Haslinger SPA Sandelholz soap and balm and some Schafmilch for the cooler weather from Maggards.

No need for group buys here anymore @Korbz. Just contact @todras and jump aboard one of his daily buys - bulk discounts must apply!

#envyspeaking

 

[todras]

No need for group buys here anymore @Korbz. Just contact @todras and jump aboard one of his daily buys

I like to run solo tbh, group buys and all that tend to lead to unnecessary delays in delivery which is something I avoid if at all possible.

Well, that's it for a couple of weeks for Manuel anyway, his new soaps will be coming out at the end of the month he informs me and that will be the next time I pull the trigger there....

Today's been quiet other than that, aside from an T&H 1805 Cologne from Mens biz I had been wanting for a few days to complete my T&H 1805 set

 

[Snooze]

I like to run solo tbh, group buys and all that tend to lead to unnecessary delays in delivery which is something I avoid if at all possible.

Well, that's it for a couple of weeks for Manuel anyway, his new soaps will be coming out at the end of the month he informs me and that will be the next time I pull the trigger there....

Today's been quiet other than that, aside from an T&H 1805 Cologne from Mens biz I had been wanting for a few days to complete my T&H 1805 set

@todras Mr Ahmed Fahour from Australia Post thanks you for ensuring Aust Post is back in the black due to Sydney parcel deliveries (of wet shaving products)...his bonus is safe for another year