Celtic Odyssey

Like a lot of traditional wet shavers, I have some vintage Gillette razors in my rotation. I have a very early Tech (the one with the triangle slots in the guard), a 1965 Flare Tip (that’s my birth year), a couple of Travel Techs, a Super Speed, and some Adjustables . But the one thing I ’ ve wanted and couldn’t ever seem to get is a Slim Adjustable (K3), my birth year and quarter. I scoured the Interwebs for years to find one but they were mostly non-existent. The ones I did find were either too beat up or too expensive. But then it was Christmas 2020. While searching through eBay I actually came across a decent Slim Adjustable (K3) for a pretty good price so I bought it with some money I received as a Christmas present. When the razor arrived, I gave it a good once over. There was some greening on the handle and head (meaning the brass was showing) but the doors worked well and so did the adjustment dial. The knurling on the handle was a little less than I had hoped though; it just...

When I first started my traditional wet shaving journey several years ago, my wife gave me a really nice Sandalwood shaving soap from the Art of Shaving . It came in a really beautiful, wooden bowl and smelled amazing! But… When I used the soap, it really irritated my skin. The first pass was fine but the second pass made my skin burn a little bit. When I tried a third pass, I had to wash off the soap immediately. My skin was all red like I had been scalded. Ever since then, I’ve only used fragrance free soap. A few months back, I tried that soap again thinking that my skin had probably toughened up after all these years. While my skin might have gotten better, the soap still burned me so I just stuck in the cabinet. I should note that hundreds of other traditional wet shavers don’t have that reaction to the Art of Shaving’s Sandalwood shave soap. I’m just one of those people that has a bad reaction to it. Furthermore, others have bad reactions to other soaps or creams. In a recent vi...

  John 1.[1-9], 10-18 (TIB; adapted): [1] [IN THE BEGINNING there was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. 2 The Word was present to God from the beginning. 3 Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light— 5 a Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the darkness has never overtaken. 6 Then came one named John, sent as an envoy from God, 7 who came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through his testimony everyone might believe. 8 He himself wasn’t the Light; he only came to testify about the Light — the true Light that illumines all humankind. 9 The Word was coming into the world—] 10 was in the world— and though the world was made through the Word, the world didn’t recognize it. 11 Though the Word came to its own realm, the Word’s own people didn’t accept it. Yet any who did accept the Word, who believed...