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ARKO August

rbscebu

rbscebu

Mr. Strop
I'm off and running!

Woke up early in anticipation of the start of ARKO August. While making a lovely cup of Bushells tea, I opened a new stick of ARKO. While drinking my tea, I set the newly opened ARKO on the kitchen table so as to savour its marvelous scents. I then made another cup of tea, donned my shaving jacket and retired to the bathroom with tea and ARKO in hand.

This morning I chose to shave with my Revisor 6-0035. With everything set up on the bathroom bench, I thoroughly washed my face with bath soap and rinsed. Leaving my face wet, I dipped the open end of my ARKO into some water and applied it to my face. With my Chinese guaranteed best pure synthetic badger brush I face lathered.

While that first ARKO face lather was doing its stuff, I stropped the Revisor on my Tony Miller fast bridal leather strop. I then rinsed that first lather off my face and relathered with more ARKO. What a joy that is.

With my Revisor in hand, I then performed a three-phase (WTG + 2 x XTG) passes, lightly rinsing and re-lathering between each pass. The end result was a DFS+ and me feeling on top of the world. The residual was then thoroughly rinsed off my face, patted dry and then a good splash of Wahl Bay Rum with added witch hazel.

The Revisor was given 60 laps on 0.1μm diamond pasted hanging balsa, Renaissance wax applied and put way in its kid-leather pouch and, 45 minutes after starting, retuned the Revisor to its coffin.

Oh what a start to a wonderful ARKO August!

full
 
rbscebu said:
I'm off and running!

Woke up early in anticipation of the start of ARKO August. While making a lovely cup of Bushells tea, I opened a new stick of ARKO. While drinking my tea, I set the newly opened ARKO on the kitchen table so as to savour its marvelous scents. I then made another cup of tea, donned my shaving jacket and retired to the bathroom with tea and ARKO in hand.

This morning I chose to shave with my Revisor 6-0035. With everything set up on the bathroom bench, I thoroughly washed my face with bath soap and rinsed. Leaving my face wet, I dipped the open end of my ARKO into some water and applied it to my face. With my Chinese guaranteed best pure synthetic badger brush I face lathered.

While that first ARKO face lather was doing its stuff, I stropped the Revisor on my Tony Miller fast bridal leather strop. I then rinsed that first lather off my face and relathered with more ARKO. What a joy that is.

With my Revisor in hand, I then performed a three-phase (WTG + 2 x XTG) passes, lightly rinsing and re-lathering between each pass. The end result was a DFS+ and me feeling on top of the world. The residual was then thoroughly rinsed off my face, patted dry and then a good splash of Wahl Bay Rum with added witch hazel.

The Revisor was given 60 laps on 0.1μm diamond pasted hanging balsa, Renaissance wax applied and put way in its kid-leather pouch and, 45 minutes after starting, retuned the Revisor to its coffin.

Oh what a start to a wonderful ARKO August!

full
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I wish you the best of luck with your Arko August challenge. Hopefully after 30 days of continued use, you won't develop PTSD. ( Post Traumatic Soap Disorder):D
 
rhodes96 said:
Have you tried the Derby soap? If so, what are your thoughts compared to Arko.
Click to expand...
No, not yet, so no comments.

My best soap for SR shaveing is a stick of vintage Palmolive (Australian). I rarely use it except for weddings and baptisms as I only have one partly used stick.

I have only been SR shaving for a couple of years (and wish that I had started in my teens). The soaps that I have SR shaved with are:
  • Sanofi Shave cream (Australian) 3/10
  • Nivea Sensitive for Men cream (from my cart days) 4/10
  • Proraso green cream 7/10
  • Palmolive cream (Italian) 8/10
  • Tabac (tallow) stick 8½/10
  • ARKO stick 9/10
  • Palmolive stick (vintage Australian) 10/10
I'm not into soap AD and am rather frugal with my purchases.
 
rhodes96 said:
Have you tried the Derby soap? If so, what are your thoughts compared to Arko.
Click to expand...

I have and they are similar. Scent is very fresh lemon. The Derby is a harder stick than ARKO but both grate easily to put in a bowl or container. The scent will dissipate without a lid after "time" :)

I think ARKO is a bit easier to lather but they are both 9/10 for ease of lathering.
Derby needs a bit more water and a bit more work with the brush but certainly rewards with a top quality lather. Adding water slowly achieves a well hydrated slick lather. It is not a magic soap stick, you need to get the water soap ratio correct for it to perform at its best ability. That is like any soap. Even though I make my own shaving soap and I can make almost anything to suit myself I always have had this innate curiosity about other soaps. There are quite a few positive and negative views on forums concerning ARKO but little or nothing about Derby that I could find. On a whim I decided to get a stick but the dilemma I faced was a single stick with postage was about $11 and 12 sticks delivered was $16

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/382857617330?hash=item5924179fb2:g:igoAAOSwPjNclcIT

Pros: Inexpensive - fresh scent, excellent lather quality, versatile in that it can be used as intended or grated for a bowl. Shave experience is very good, glide and cushion. Face feel after a shave was on par with much more expensive soaps. That does come back to the correct water to soap ratio.
Cons: Scent - like ARKO you like it or you don't, can be a bit drying so use a small amount of balm or moisturiser.
I found it very good for shaving with a straight razor and for me any soap expensive or inexpensive that works with a straight is good value. And yes there is often a difference.

I now have 12 sticks for Derby December :)
 
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