Wool Fat and Amber
I was feeling a little old fashioned today. My wife Janet was preparing a presentation for church on pioneers. I got to thinking, what would be pioneering like for a shave. I did not have a large bowie knife laying around with a chunk of homemade soap for my theme. Perhaps one day I will shave with a bowie knife. Then again, I think I will pass on that idea.
I started by grabbing Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap because the container has a certain charm to it. On the container it states “Original 1893 Formula.” The first ingredient listed on the container is Sodium Tallowate, the main ingredient in homemade soap. This may be a pioneer soap after all with the addition of lanolin to keep the skin soft.
As for the Razor, I used the Clauss New Departure razor. I gave it a quick honing, used the linen side of the strop and finished it off with the horse hide strop.
The Wool Fat Shaving Soap lathered up well with the Kent VS70 boar hair brush. It is not as soft as a badger hair brush, but it worked well with the soap. A nice lather was created on my face and there is a light pleasing fragrance from the Wool Fat shaving soap. Once lathered up, the Clauss razor made quick work of any facial hair. The Wool Fat shaving soap left my skin feeling soft. For the finish I decided to use Co. Ichabod Conk’s Amber Aftershave. It was a wonderful old fashioned shave of the day.
