WetShaving

Share your shave of the day!

Are you a honemeister? A casual honer? A honeapprentice? Interested in learning to hone? This is for you!

This is not your typical tough guy AA challenge. No Ultra Nightmare Mode, no tuggy blades, just 31 good shaves.

Straight razor maintenance is a very accessible and satisfying skill to learn, but it can feel daunting at the beginning. The goal is to create small welcoming AA community for those curious about getting into straight razor maintenance, perfecting their technique, or talking shop with fellow straight razor maintainers.

This challenge is about straight razor appreciation and lowering the entry hurdle to straight razor maintenance.

TL/DR:

1. You start with a shave-ready straight razor of your choice
2. you use it daily with the same soap and brush to keep the number of variables to a minimum
3. If you're new to honing, you read up on honing straight razors (I also recommend watching these videos by @gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social), and ask questions about honing. If you have experience in honing straight razors, you answer questions of the newbies. Feel free to share videos, meet for voice calls on discord or matrix. Get a conversation going.
4. On the weekend of August 17/18, we all refresh the edge on our straights, to experience, discuss, and share the effect of a refreshed edge.
5. Profit!

What do I need?

A shave ready straight, a finishing stone, a strop, a brush, a soap, styrofoam packing peanuts.

If you need a finishing stone, Naniwa 10k or Naniwa 12k water stones are widely recognised a as good value. You can get one here for instance.

Can I combine $Honemeisterschaft with other challenges?

Mostly yes. $Honemeisterschaft is compatible with $FriodomRiders, $RawHoggin, and all the software challenges, but it is incompatible with the no-honing rule of $headless.

What if my edge is bad? Do I have to wait for the 17th?

No, this is about having a good experience with your favourite straight. If the shave-ready edge turned out to be less than, or you have a stropping mishap, or you have the world's toughest beard and softest razor, whatever, refresh your edge, that's what the hone is for.

It is recommended to start with a good edge and wait for the 17th, so as to make the effect of the refresh noticeable. If you keep refreshing your edge, the effect of maintenance is hidden.

How do I participate?

Include the character string "$Honemeisterschaft" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)

What do I get?

The honour of displaying the 🗡Honemeister🔨 flair.

Share your shave of the day!

Are you a straight shaver? Do you hate rust? Do you like great razors? This is for you!

This is about leveraging the only meaningful innovation in straight razor manufacture in the last 75 years for a relaxed Austere August without worrying about your precious razor rusting while you enjoy your summer.

This is about Friodom! (from rust)

TL/DR:

1. Get yourself a Friodur, Inox, Eisgehärtet, Edelstahl (or any differently named stainless steel) straight razor.
2. Participate in AA with it.
3. Profit!

What do I need?

A stainless steel razor (If you don't have one and are tempted by this challenge, I strongly suggest getting a Friodur 5/8 or larger, they are all very good, and typically in can be found in great condition on eBay).

Can I combine $FriodomRiders with other challenges?

Yes! $FriodomRiders is compatible with $headless, $RawHoggin, $Honemeisterschaft and all the software challenges.

How do I participate?

Include the character string "$FriodomRiders" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)

What do I get?

The honour of displaying the 🗽FriodomRider🏇 flair.

Backstory

The heyday of straight razors is the late 19th century, and a 130 year old full hollow ground Böker looks exactly like one made this year. Even modern razors who try new design languages are typically made exactly like a century ago: A blank of carbon steel is forged, tempered, ground, and scaled.

After an initial learning curve, a good straight razor delivers fantastic shaves for a lifetime if properly cared for, and here lies the rub. Most straight razors rust. You need to keep them dry and oiled between uses, or they will turn into expensive red powder.

We're not really used to things rusting any more in our lives. Our cutlery, pots, pans, and most kitchen knives are made from stainless steel, so why aren't razors?

The first stainless steel knives appeared in 1914, and they weren't a success, but known as "the knife that would not cut". The ice-hardening process for quality blades in stainless steel was only invented in 1939 and patented by Zwilling in 1951 under the name Friodur (pseudo latin for cold-hard). This means that good stainless steel came about only after the straight razors fell out of fashion.

Zwilling (Friodur), Weltmeister (eisgehärtet), Thiers Issard and Dovo (Inox), Ralf Aust (Edelstahl) all produced or still produce stainless steel razors.

I'm convinced that good stainless steal razors are on par with good carbon steel razors, and they have an undeservedly bad reputation. Join me in shining light on the best straight razors ever made.

Share your shave of the day!

Share your shave of the day!

Share your shave of the day!

Share your shave of the day for Saturday!

Share your shave of the day!

Share your shave of the day!

The Lather Games theme (from the other website) is:

``` Information Overload

"Product marketing must list at least 10 scent notes. Note: remember that notes are scent descriptors used for marketing - not actual ingredient lists. Caveat: fragrance dupes will count the number of notes listed in the dupe's marketing description - not the original product's description." ```

Roam Two is a great scent that is not OG Roam, but still great. It wasn't on sale.

Promises - marketed for winter, an interesting scent that's absolutely worth the $5 I paid for it.

Cootie Killer 2.0 hand soaps - I got 6 of them for $2.50 each. I've never smelled Le Grand Chypre before so buying 3 bottles was a small risk, but it was worth it. It smells like a lemon-lime type of soft drink. Fougere Classique is so stanky and awesome, but I might be the only one in the house to use it.

Share your shave of the day!

``` Wildcard Wednesday

"Product can be any singular product you want to use - it doesn't even have to be soap. But here's the catch: any subsequent shave by other LG participants on the same day with the same product will be disqualified; only the earliest submitted shave will earn points for being on-theme. Note: For the purposes of counting brands for the Soap Brands bonus point, whatever you use here will be counted as whatever brand it is. Palmolive dish soap? Palmolive. Skippy peanut butter? Skippy. Barrister and Mann Cootie Killer? Barrister and Mann. Home-made soap? Assume it's branded however you would usually brand it if you made something. Two soaps superlathered together? Whoops, that's a disqualification." ```

Episode link

The third week of the 10th annual Lather Games has come and passed and you must be eagerly awaiting your dose of of gossip, shenanigans, ditch shittings, miscarriages of djustice, and inside baseball. You're probably also looking to glean intel about your fierce competitors.

Come join Chief Podcast Djustice OnionMiasma as he guides hon. Merikus and djundjila through this retrospective and definitely doesn't forget to edit some parts out.

Also, tell us when you're doing the challenge, please and thank you.

Share your shave of the day!

If you're playing asking with the lather games on the other website, today's theme is:

``` Christmas in July, but in June

"Product must be: - Explicitly marketed as a Winter scent OR - Explicitly marketed for a holiday occuring between Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox OR - Strictly feature pine, fir, or spruce. (Evergreens with dirt or lichen? Nope. No dirt allowed in the living room - only the tree!) Caveat: Products explicitly marketed for multiple seasons or other seasons do not count (eg. ""a summer breeze through pine trees"")." ```

Share your shave of the day!

Share your shave of the day!

For those playing along with the Lather Games on the other website, today's theme is:

``` Sweet Sunday

Product must be a sugary sweet gourmand. Products inspired by sweet, desserts, etc. are good candidates for this theme. ```

Sorry, just now remembered to post our off-topic thread.

Share anything that doesn't necessarily need to be relevant to wetshaving: your weekend plans, recent events in your life, something interesting that's happened. Also music/movie/book recommendations are very welcome.

Bonus prompt question for those who can't think of something to say: With warmer temperatures creeping up in the northern hemisphere, do you begin to use more mentholated soap/cream/aftershave in the summer months?

Share your shave of the day!

The Lather Games theme for today (from the other website) is:

``` Spooky Season

Product must be:

Explicitly marketed as an Autumn scent OR Explicitly marketed for a holiday occuring between Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice OR Products that prominently feature spicy accords may be accepted. ```

Share your shave of the day!

If you're following along with the Lather Games at the other website, today's theme is:

``` Fougère Friday

"Product scent must demonstrably be a fougère (one of the most prevalent fragrance families in men's fashion). It should be marketed as a fougère or classified as one on a reputable site. Note: The mere presence of lavender, coumarin, and oakmoss in a product does not make it a fougère (nor does their absence necessarily rule the category out)! Ask an expert ahead of time if in doubt. Caveat: WK Fern Concerto is not eligible for this theme because of reasons. Just ignore that one." ```

Share your shave of the day! For those of you following along with the Lather Games on the other website, today's theme is:

Sunny Days "Product must be: - Explicitly marketed as a Summer scent OR - Explicitly marketed for a holiday occuring between Summer Solstice and Autumnal Equinox OR - Prominently feature aquatic or citrus accords. Caveat: Products explicitly marketed for multiple seasons or other seasons do not count (eg. ""Christmas oranges"")."

This Moar Boar of a sub member was loosing a lot of bristles. They were done with it and let me have it.

I was surprised how hard it is to cut off all the bristles of a boar knot!

!

It was so hard that I was convinced I was cutting into the glue bump and had finally figured out its shape:

!

But the actual glue came a few mm deeper.

!

I was worried at first that the tiny hand mill wouldn't be up to the task and that I'd need to find a 32 mm Forstner bit and figure out a way to grip the handle strong enough to withstand the torque of the Forstner bit on a drill press without ruining it, but as it turns out, it was quite easy and quick to get the hole deep enough: !

I've set the handle with a 30 mm Maggard Silvertip knot, and I'm looking forward to trying the most exclusive of all subbrooshes, the Moar Badger soon.

!

Share your shave of the day!

Anyone else crack open their Roam 2.0? I’m a tad disappointed. It’s a great soap: lathers well, smooth shave and very pleasant scent. BUT, it’s not Roam. I know Will said it wasn’t. I just didn’t expect it to be so different. The tail-end of the profile retains that grassy old-Roam scent, but the top-end is very barbershop-y. I like it, but people in the office won’t be complaining about it like the original. 😖

The second week of the 10th annual Lather Games has come and passed and you must be eagerly awaiting your dose of of gossip, shenanigans, Osma poisonings, and inside baseball. You're probably also looking to glean intel about your fierce competitors.

Come join Chief Podcast Djustice OnionMiasma as he guides hon. VisceralWatch, J33pGuy13, and RedMosquitoMM through this retrospective and definitely doesn't forget to edit some parts out.

Also, get your spelling right, please and thank you.

Share your shave of the day

Share your shave of the day1

The Lather Games theme (from the other website) is:

Don't have a Cow, Man!

"Product may not contain animal-derived ingredients of any kind (e.g. tallow, egg, yogurt, silk products, lanolin, animal milk, etc.). Note: ""stearic acid"" is usually vegetable-derived unless explicitly labeled otherwise."

You have spoken: the community shave will take place on July 17th (the 3rd Wednesday of July)!

But we still have to pick to soap. Every soap will get their own comment, and if you want to vote for this soap, please comment below the soap nomination with something indicating your approbation. You can vote for several soaps; in case of a tie, we will figure something out.

Share your shave of the day!

If you're playing the Lather Games on the other website, today's theme is:

>Father's Day

Product must be from a company that is older than you. Caveat: Spearhead is not older than you, even if their Seaforth! trademark is.

Share your shave of the day!

For those of you following along with the Lather Games at the other website, here's today's theme:

Near Death Experience:

Product must be whichever full-sized tub of soap in your collection you are closest to finishing. Caveats: squeeze-tubes, shave sticks, and samples are ineligible for today's theme.

Bots seem to be asleep so I'm jumping in for them 😅

How was your week? Share everything off topic (or even cool shaving related stuff) you want to do this weekend. Any plans for traveling, concerts, movies? Music, film or tv recommendations? Personal stories of what's currently happening in your life? We'd love to hear it here.

Short note: usually this thread is called Free Talk Friday or FTF for short. On the Reddit community, this used to be our "almost anything goes" thread. However, since we're a smaller community here I believe we can extend the thread for the whole weekend so no one must fear an empty thread when they miss posting on Friday.

Share your shave of the day!

If you're playing the Lather Games on the other website, today's theme is:

Frigid Friday

"Product must contain a cooling agent in its published ingredient list (e.g. menthol, menthyl methyl lactate, synthetic cooling agents). Caveat: Adding an after-market cooling agent to a non-cooling product will not satisfy this theme."

Share your shave of the day!

If you're participating in the Lather Games on the other website, today's theme is:

Dupelgänger

Product scent must demonstrably be a duplication of another company's fragrance (e.g. Stirling Executive Man is a dupe of Creed Aventus).

Share your shave of the day!

If you're participating in the Lather Games on the other website, here's the theme description for today:

CREAM "Product must be marketed and labeled as a cream. Not soap, not soft soap, not croap; CREAM. Don't get cute with it. Note: Products marketed as ""cream soap"" from any company other than Catie's Bubbles will be subject to judge discretion."

To start, it goes without saying that this shaving hobby is typically not a money-saver, even if it's pushed as such by enthusiasts trying to convert people to this style of shaving. Looking at the price of shaving soap using price per oz. is fairly common (I still do that sort of thing even when I'm in the grocery store), but die-hard hobbyists tend to scoff at it, because, well, you sometimes get what you pay for.

With that being said, there are people all over the world with varying budgets, and like any hobby you can spend as little or as much as you want. From Col. Conk to Sebum Gold, there's a wide spectrum of cost for shaving soap.

In this recent video from Stirling Soap Company, Rod talks about how tubs are the most cost effective form factor. Samples and even Refill Pucks are more labor intensive, making them more expensive per oz. You might assume, as I did, that a refill puck would be cheaper per oz. because it doesn't come with a plastic jar, but you would be wrong.

But wait! Take a look at Barrister & Mann. They recently lowered the cost of their samples to $3.99USD, and their samples are a full 1 oz., just like Stirling. That makes them $0.11USD cheaper than Stirling samples.

Now lets do some math.

5.8 Stirling samples to make one of their shaving soap jars: $4.10*5.8 = $23.78, a lot more expensive than just buying a jar for $14.24USD.

4 B&M samples to make one of their shaving soap jars: $3.99*4 = $15.96, a whopping $9 cheaper than buying a tub for $24.99!

Does a tub, label, etc. cost $9 extra? Are the samples a loss leader like rotisserie chicken and hot dogs?

Either way, it's great to have both of those companies offering generous samples. House of Mammoth also has relatively large samples, but they're 1/2oz for $6.00USD.

The first week of the 10th annual Lather Games has come and passed and you must be eagerly awaiting your dose of of gossip, shenanigans, Osma poisonings, and inside baseball. You're probably also looking to glean intel about your fierce competitors.

Come join Chief Podcast Djustice OnionMiasma as he guides hon. VisceralWatch, J33pGuy13, RedMosquitoMM, Wallygator88, and djundjila through this retrospective.

Also, get your formatting right, please and thank you.

Hi everybody,

so we are planning to do a (monthly, but pausing in August) community shave! We collectively choose a soap, and on D-day, everybody uses the same soap for their SOTD.

We need to know several things:

• Who would be interested in participating? If you would like to join, respond to this message by including "I'm in!"
• When will we do it? It would be best to choose a Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday, to avoid clashing with the reddit theme days, and it would be easier to organize if we could avoid the beginning of July. Furthermore, it would be probably best to fix it once and for all (something like third Wednesday or last Sunday of the month). Opinions?
• Finally, we need to agree on a soap. I don't know how to poll this (I know you can do a poll on Mastodon, not sure about lemmy). The idea would be: everybody who participates nominates a soap, and if that soap is picked, that person agrees to send out smushes to everyone who doesn't have the soap. In order to be on the safe side, we probably would want to have the soap picked three weeks before the chosen date.

There are surely things that I have forgotten. Any ideas, questions?

It's that day of the week again! Share your shave of the day!

If you're playing along with the Lather Games on that other website, the theme today is "April Showers Bring May Flowers".

Product must be: - Explicitly marketed as a Spring scent OR - Explicitly marketed for a holiday occuring between Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice OR - Prominently feature floral, grassy, or petrichor accords. Caveat: Products explicitly marketed for multiple seasons or other seasons do not count (eg. ""summery lilac"").

Share your shave of the day!

I see a few cakes next to usernames (my cake day is June 10th).

It has been an interesting year, so thanks for hanging in there!

This Lemmy instance is a nice place to hang out, so here’s to many more!

I worked on the database stuff some more today and didn’t have any luck with getting federation of comments working again. I decided to upgrade the server to the new release, 0.19.4 even though it’s so new, with hopes that it might jump start some federation stuff – and so far it hasn’t! finally got federation back to a working state, at least so it seems, maybe?! Thanks @Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me.

The new version has some neat new features, though.

Under your profile you can click “Uploads” and see all of the pictures you’ve uploaded. Some of them seem to be “lost”, but that’s par for the course. You can even delete the pictures. Yay!

Share your shave of the day for Sunday!