Quote Originally Posted by red96ta View Post
Try face lathering. Load up your brush on the soap puck and then go to your face to create the lather. IMHO, this works better for soaps. Increase your stropping to 50-60 laps when you start out...when you get better, you can judge the blade's edge based on how it feels on the strop and the sound it makes.

And yes, you need more razors...
+1 on face lathering..... and variations of it.
This morning I pulled out my trusty $7.00 CVS boar brush.
Loaded it up and began building a lather on my
face. Too dry -- it was -- so I reached for my tin cup
dribbled a bit of hot water in it worked the brush in it then
back to my face. Dribble more HOT water, work
in the coffee cup back to the face... Each addition
of wetter lather was warm and pleasant. Bit by bit
the lather on my face improved and it was time
to shave.

Lots of lather left on the brush and in the cup
for a second cleanup pass. Ran some hot water
on the outside of the cup to warm it up. Refresh
the lather and apply nice warm lather.... not hot but
nice and warm...

For some reason face lathering gives me the best
shave. If I just paint lather on the shave is less
than if I work it a bit on the face. Not hard or scrubby
like I did this morning but work it a bit. Partly it is
the time it takes and partly it is the way it cleans my
skin and whiskers.

Clean whiskers harks back to HHT results. Most of us
are of a mind that an oiled razor of oily hair does
not make for a good HHT result. I would assert that
clean skin and whiskers has a lot to do with how well
a razor shaves for many of the same reasons. Building
or perfecting the lather on the face is valuable for
this reason.

As always -- your shave result is all that matters.