Razor: Yaqi Mellon
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Ever-Ready 100T 2 band badger
Soap: Like Grandpa Wild Rose
Aftershave: Like Grandpa Wild Rose Balm
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
Another day, another restored brush. This Ever-Ready 100T was a pickup in a raffle win I was lucky enough to receive. Along with several soaps this jewel was in the bunch. It definitely needed some TLC with a slightly beat up and discolored handle and original badger knot. For this particular brush, I pulled the knot, widened the hole with a forstner bit, wet sanded progressively from 200 grit up, hit a buffing wheel with some red rouge and finally some flitz polish to complete. I again 3D printed a spacer and set this smaller size knot in the enlarged hole at a loft I liked. It turned out perfectly. There is a nice amount of backbone but the enlarged hole allows this to fan out nice and wide. This brush is small but mighty. The knot is a really nice 2 band I picked up from Yaqi. It took several lathers to get the funk out of this one but it is past that stage and breaking in nicely.
Today felt like a wild rose kind of day. This scent continues to be a favourite in my den. It is not your typical floral or rose, it has a bit of zip to it. Like Grandpa has a really nice soap base, it loads and lathers very easily in any water type. Slickness is good (lathered and residual) and post shave is about average. Like Grandpa tends to have lighter scents but this is one of their more dialed up strengths, coming in around mid strong. The matching post shave is fantastic, while being a bit heavy going on, it absorbs well and leaves your skin feeling very hydrated. This continues to be a go to for the harsh prairie winters.
The Yaqi Mellon continues to be a favourite razor of mine. While not as smooth as my Karve, I find it very efficient, has fantastic audible feedback and always gives me a great shave. Today was a seller one.
