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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:
- I think my favourite option is the Frio 50, a great shaver, but it's what I used last year.
- The 14 is my favourite razor of all times, but I guess I want to use it sparingly and deliberately.
- The 17 is a great shaver but feels a bit normal for AA
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
You are spoiled for choice with all these nice frios! 😄
For what it’s worth, I’d probably base the decision on which razor I would be willing to risk bringing on a trip.
The Masonic sounds like a one-of-one razor, would be a shame to lose it!
Yes, but on the other hand, yolo?
Touché
That’s a conundrum, but as your formal education is similar to mine, I’ll suggest that your decision can include risk analysis; where you trade benefits of use against the likelihood and consequence of loss 😀
Maybe I should have taken a more applied direction because I learned none of that at uni. My analysis so far is more along the lines of Alfred, Lord Tennyson;
"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have 50ed and lost
than never to have 50ed at all".Yes, well, this from a man who was bearded during the heyday of straight razor usage. 😉
I admit that I did not learn risk analysis while attending university, but I did realize its importance during my 12 years working at one.
The only rational choice is a Gold Dollar: Highest utility if lost, while traveling. Nash would agree!
That’s certainly one strategy to which Nash could be applied 😉
I think the previous base was called 'Canard'.
Yup, not sure how I forgot that 😅
Two people, one thought 😂
[...] both the older base (did it have a name?) [...]
The old CG base was called "Canard" IIRC and I agree that it is a very solid performer - I'm not familiar with Darkwing though...
Yup, not sure how I forgot that 😅
To be fair, there's a ton of different bases with different names by a variety of soap makers. It's hard to keep track of everything that's out there.