Well - I still wish I had bought the non XS version, but it has its uses. I find that with extremely soft soaps (such as Marduk by AYLM), it's easier to have a very soft brush, and the XS horse works very well with that. Also, I kinda got used to it being soft and floppy - we'll see on the 1st of September how I'm dealing with a more normal brush.
But the brush itself has held up well: no tangling of the bristles, and for now no visible splitting of the hair either (even though with the fanning out of the knot, something somewhere must have changed).
Very nice shave today. A bit more tinkering with my patterns. I plan to continue this into Settantesimo Straightember.
I will be traveling for the next couple of days and will return on September 2. The conclusion of the exciting story of the Kismet blade (that doesn't change) will be written then.
Brush: Rubberset 400-3 with a 26 mm unbleached Zenith boar knot at 56 mm loft
Razor: Weck Sextoblade Med Prep
Blade: Kismet Rostfrei, Polymer beschichtet (35)
Lather: Barrister and Mann – Oceana
Post Shave: Ralon – Original
Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man
The end of AA is near and I felt premature nostalgia for this setup during today's shave again. This is silly since I'm really looking forward to Sample September and rummaging through Mount Smushmore.
Confirming easy pickup of lather from a ring-of-death/dying soap tub with the Slurry Lather method. Yep, worked fine.
䷀ Razor and Blade Notes
(Timeless - Stainless Steel .68 - Open Comb ::: Gillette - Nacet - M ‹527 uses›)
Same: First pass has some tugginess to it. But no irritation that lasts longer than a little tuggy stroke. Latter passes feel fine and give a reasonably close shave. 3 quick passes.
Razor and Blade Performance/Comfort Rating: 2 out of 5 (Okay)
䷀ Soap Notes
(Chiseled Face - Midnight Stag - White Label)
I just love all the aspects of this scent!
Scent Strength: 6/10, nicely present during shaving.
Lather... Wonderful slurry lather today, from 8 sec of loading.
Again, it seems that if you have a slim ring of soap left in your tub, a wet-load technique like the Slurry lather will make it easy to load up in short time.
Same: Comfortable soft tips that do flex some, but that are supported by a base with strong backbone. As with all young boars, I look forward to the tips splitting with more uses and getting softer with use. I am generally using a hair dryer to gently treat the tips and age them just a bit faster than normal.
During the Shave Feel: Cheeks: Felt blade but comfortable Neck: Felt blade but comfortable After the Shave Closeness: Cheeks: Close Shave Neck: Several hairs are showing some tip length (still a pretty good shave)