The Straight Road - Part 60: Tough Thursday
Thursday was a bit of a strange day. After spending a couple of days with SWMBO Jr. off school sick, I was back to work after a brief trip to my eye doctor in the morning. My work day would prove short-lived, as I received a call in the early afternoon that SWMBO Jr. needed to be picked up from school due to a return of the abdominal pains she'd been having. I took her home and she seemed to be feeling better, so I opted for a shave in the early evening, right after SWMBO arrive. Well, during my shave, the pains returned with enough strength that we needed to return to the emergency room to have her checked out again. Thankfully, the doctors were able to determine that it was nothing more serious than some intestinal irritation and the need for more fibre in her diet, so the pains should clear up with some correction of her food and a mild laxative.
All of this leads me to be able to report back on yesterday's shave, such as I remember it, so here we go.
The Anticipation
The razor of choice was my newly-restored W&B 6/8 Barber's Notch, which had been honed using a Norton progression from 1k to 4k/8k, then onto the PHIG and finally finished up on the Thuringian. To go along with that, I selected my Trumper's Spanish Leather and MWF, as well as Trumper's Unscented balm. This would be my first shave with a razor I had finished on the PHIG/Thuri, so I was sort of excited to see how it felt. The bevel on the razor was certainly shiny, so I was hoping for some decent smoothness.
The Prep
A hot shower helped relax some of the stress that having a sick child tends to put on a parent. Thankfully, she has been remarkably healthy, so this has been a bit of a rough ride for us the past week. Even though you know it's nothing serious, it's never easy to see her in pain and not be able to fix it. Anyway, the shower was pleasant, helped along by RazoRock Artisan Coconut soap and a good scrubbing with my bristle shower brush. I ended it off with Real Shaving Creamy Face Wash, hoping to give my whiskers a good prep for the shave. The razor was already stropped so that step was removed, the brush had been soaked, the scuttle was warm, so it was time for some lather.
The Lather
I decided to try a little different lather technique, one which is championed by Marco over at B&B, which is to leave the brush really wet and not shake it out at all. I had pre-soaked my MWF, so I took the very wet brush to it and, without applying much pressure, swirled it for a solid 125 rounds on the puck. It seemed to pick up a fair amount of product, though I think in the end I didn't pick up enough, as the lather ended up very runny, which required me to squeeze out the brush and swirl some more to pick up more soap. In the end, the lather was a bit airy and thin, though there was a ton of it. My next attempt with MWF, I think I'll try to start with a drier brush and add water as I go, which seems to work better for me. Overall, I've been getting better lathers from my DR Harris soaps than MWF lately, which is a reversal of how I started. Time to run some practice lathers and figure that out! Either way, the lather was passable and got the job done, though the glide wasn't as great as it could have been. Three passes, touch ups and still some went down the drain.
The Shave
The razor was sharp, that's for sure. It took off the whiskers and did so without any trouble, but it wasn't quite there. It didn't pull, but it wasn't as smooth as it could have been, either. The first pass was a good one, without nicks or discomfort, though I do have an irritated ingrown on my neck which required some careful manoeuvering in that area. The first XTG, which is then "outward" one, was also quite smooth, as I paid special attention to a light touch and practicing a slight scything motion with the razor, whose smiling edge makes that fairly easy. You can really feel the difference with a scything stroke, I'm finding, so I am going to work on that technique over the next few weeks. The third pass was a bit tricky, as the lack of smoothness on the edge was starting to show up and I was a bit sensitive on the throat area, though I still managed to get through without too much razor burn. I did, however, manage to ding my nostril at some point, which left the tiniest nick. Luckily, it barely bled and hasn't left a mark.
The Post
The brush and scuttle came first, both getting a nice warm water rinse and then returning to their spots on the shelf of the den. After that I went after my face with a whole bunch of cold water, washing away the residue of MWF and soothing the slightly tender areas, especially on the neck. Alum was next, providing its own special form of feedback on the areas that were a touch stingy, which always gives me some perspective on how the shave ended up. Witch Hazel was next, then I moved onto the rest of the cleanup, stropped the blade for 25 on the webbing then 50 on the 'roo and splashed on the Spanish Leather. There was some sting, but it wasn't as bad as I suspected. The unscented balm came last, finishing up a nice smooth shave, though unfortunately my next stop was a trip to the ER with SWMBO Jr..
The Verdict
The shave was what I would classify as "not bad", which means the razor gets a trip back to the stones. Overall, I am happy with the direction of my shaves, as I am feeling pretty good about my technique and the feel I get on my face. There is still a lot of work to do on the chin area, but at least I haven't been cutting myself anymore. The MWF lather is also a bit of a challenge, as I need to figure out where I'm going wrong there. A week of straight MWF will likely help that out. Now it's time for me to finish out the JaNorton challenge and see how that goes.
Exploration and discovery are keeping things interesting on The Straight Road.
Well, I had thought I'd be taking a break from my ADs, but a couple of items caught my eye and I could not resist hitting the buy button. First was this Nagamasa Kamisori, which was waiting for me at work yesterday. It appears to have the Tamahagane marks on it, which makes it an interesting specimen. It also appears to be NOS, which is a bonus. I have posted a few photos in this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...-kamisori.html
http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMG_9373.jpg
The other thing I have on the way is a purple Welsh slate hone called Llyn Melynllynn, which has been getting rave reviews and is said to be a great finisher. I am looking forward to trying it out. With quite a bit of home time this week, I also rigged up a couple of razor racks out of coat hanger, which I've put on the shelf in the den. Eventually, I think I'll make some out of wood, but for now these don't look too bad:
Den Shot
http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_9382.jpg
Up Close
http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_9385.jpg
So as you can see, things are moving forward at quite a pace on The Straight Road! I also have a couple more restores that need to be moved to the next stage, which is scale finishing and polishing. Lots of stuff to keep me busy!
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Jack