BentonClay.com is indeed more than a shaving blog. For our friends over at BadgerandBlade.com (the definitive site for traditional wet shaving) there is indeed a store launch planned. The target date is July 15th at which point our Lime Bergamot glycerin shaving soap will be available online, and our unique formulation of preshave oil soon thereafter. We hope everyone enjoyed their samples and look forward to providing quality products for your wet shaving needs.
Honouring our Fathers
Sponsoring a Father’s Day PIF (“pay it forward”) contest over at badgerandblade.com has offered a privileged glimpse into the immense love, respect and gratitude many have for their dads. Reading these posts I feel I am on hallowed ground. Clearly each participant is already a winner, and with such moving tributes written about them, so are their dads. Read the thread here.
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Hair for Oil Spills
Any men’s grooming blog would be remiss not to mention the Hair for Oil Spills Program organized by A Matter of Trust. This program collects human and animal hair to weave into matts and stuff into stockings for soaking up oil spills. Benton Clay recommends spreading the word to your barbers and veterinarians. matteroftrust.org
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Time for Tea
Benton Clay would certainly have been a tea-drinker, and had he lived in this present era may well have enjoyed premium Chinese teas from JAS eTea. Their web site is aromatic, mouth-watering and educational: ten minutes there superceded an entire lifetime of tea knowledge. Time to place an order. Mr. Clay would approve.
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The best ever travel shaving brush
Innovative portable shaving brushes abound for travel purposes, but I recently found one without rival for both portability and bristle quality: my own face. It’s true. My own whiskers make superb work of churning up lather when rubbing the moistened Benton Clay soap cake directly upon my own face, a possession which travels with me wherever I go. For those wishing to “Ban the Can” for travel or for any other reason, this method offers a way to swap can for soap without any additional need for shaving brush or mug. Perhaps others have discovered this same technique and held their peace on the subject. Are you one of them? Feel free to post your views here.
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Slow Shaving with Benton Clay
When we at Benton Clay began producing our short runs of shaving soap, shaving mugs and shaving brushes, we chose the tagline, “Time. To Shave.” The phrase emphasizes the importance of taking time for the small things in life – reclaiming the time that electric razors, petro-foam and propellants took away. As we talked with more and more people about their own shaving journeys we realized that the movement toward traditional shaving is part of something bigger – the slow movement in general and the slow shaving movement is particular. We are excited to participate in that movement by adopting slow “making” processes and by providing slow shaving tools for others. We have a web site in progress, but in the meantime feel free to look at our Flickr Gallery. We’d love to hear from you. http://www.slowplanet.com/app/index.php/marketplace/item/112
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How do humidors work?
Quite simply, without sufficient humidity, cigars crumble to dust and become unsmokeable. To address that problem, a humidor serves as a mini ecosystem for cigars that prevents them from drying out. Good humidors are lined with cedar, a type of wood which easily absorbs moisture and furnishes a humid environment for the cigars. The cedar lining swells slightly too: just enough to create a tight seal when closing the box. A humidor with a good seal makes a low-pitched “pff” sound when the lid is allowed to fall closed. Then adding moisture in the first place is the other part of the equation. This gets accomplished by wiping down the cedar lining with a damp cloth and by moistening the “puck”-like humidifier disks that come with the unit. Combined with regular priming of these disks, the cedar lining of a desktop humidor accomplishes humidification without automation, electricity, or moving parts.
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International Slowness Day
Yesterday, International Slowness Day, was so that I only just now got around to writing about it. I used it as an opportunity to enjoy limes – in the morning, a slow shave with refreshing lime bergamot shaving soap and a slow mojito in the evening, all sandwiching a slow day at work. Next year I’ll try and be more intentional about it.