- Brush: Semogue Owner's Club (cherry wood and boar) (3)
- Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 50 (7/8", hollow ground, stainless steel, masonic deco) (1)
- Lather: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
- Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
- Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Roman Spice
Sigh. Of. Relief.
I found the time today to hone my razor, and now it's smoooooth! ☺️ No more tuggy shaves for this face this month.
About my process: I'm using a Naniwa combination waterstone with a 3k side and a 10k side. This time, I killed the edge and then honed it on the 3k side, frequently checking the edge on a strip of styrofoam until it pushcut easily without much resistance along the entire edge. Next, I switched to 10k and repeated the procedure. After a while, the pushcuts become effortless. First only on some parts of the edge, which then tells me where to apply light pressure with my fingers until I have effortless pushcuts along the length of the edge. I'm using both trailing and leading edge strokes, but only apply pressure during the trailing edge bit. I have a pasted canvas strop which I use exclusively after honing, and a few laps on it make the edge feeling smoother during the first shave in my experience, but also seemingly sharper: the pushcuts in styrofoam are like the blade melts into it. I'm thinking this is the edge being deburred and possibly the bevel convexed by the pasted strop, but I can't know for sure.
This is pretty much also the process I'd use at home, the only difference is that I have a big bag of styrofoam packing peanuts for edge testing (the u/gcgallant method) at home and my muscle memory works better with those than the strips of styrofoam I managed to scrounge up in my vacation location.
The brush is starting to resist splaying less, which makes it easier to lather. It's still hogging the lather and the tips haven't started to split yet, so there's still some work to be done.
$FriodomRiders $HoneMeisterschaft $RawHoggin