My wife would sometimes repeat the old joke that goes something like this:

-When I first met my husband, I thought he was a Greek god.

-Now I know he was just a god-damned Greek!

Apollo was the mythical Greek god who is often idealized in Greek and Roman sculpture through the form of the kouros or beardless youth. How fitting then that a razor blade should be called Apollo, bringing forth anticipation of a beardless mug emerging from its unimaginable 0.06 mm thinness. I took Leisureguy’s advice and used the “swish and shake” method of preserving the carbon steel blade from rusting by briefly immersing it in rubbing alcohol. I wanted to get a second shave from this blade since Michael was having so much success with the Treet Blue Special (4 shaves!).

I used the Tabua Rasa “dry” shaving cream all by itself today, after yesterday’s failed superlather. The brush was my very large, very old (20 years) Mason-Pearson Super Badger with its deep breach. The TR performed adequately but the Apollo was a bust. The uber-thin blade chattered like an anorexic schoolgirl’s teeth waiting at a Montreal bus-stop in the middle of January! The blade dragged its way across my beard like a hungry hobo’s shoes on a dusty road! Hey, I’m running out of metaphors here, but you get my drift? The result, a not so pleasant shave with lots of extra gristle to my bristle. Truly…..there was no Greek god here today!