An Interesting Morning

This morning I had a visit from Fabos, whom I had mentored on several face to face times. The last visit had to do with simple razor maintenance and basic honing. Today he brought a W&B 5/8 with him that he had honed from bevel up so I could shave with it and judge on his effectiveness in basic honing. In my world, it's the quality of the shave that is the final test rather than the intricacies and mechanics of honing. I hone only for myself and trust my process to produce the majority of successful edges I use. I had shown him the method I use and gave him reading material on several other honing methods. It turns out he and I think alike when it comes to the use of loupes and microscopes, relying on feel and the naked eye under strong light. He tried variations on what he read and worked out the method I had shown him and came up with a method personal to him as mine is to me. The result, after doing a complete test shave this morning, was better than a DFS since his edge shaved a couple of difficult facial areas better than I've gotten with one of my razors. (I should have him do a little honing for me.)

I rewarded him with several shaving soaps from a batch I had gratefully received as a PIF recently and a synthetic brush since he had not used a synthetic as yet. Needless to say I am very pleased with the progress he has shown and demonstrated. The rewards of Mentoring is a two way street and I encourage those that like to teach and are secure in their shaving knowledge to actively seek out opportunities to do so.

Preserving the art :tu