Break-in progress has seemingly stalled for the brush. I don't feel any day-to-day changes anymore, but the tips haven't split yet, so I'm getting curious about when this might start, as I expect a significant change in how the brush feels at that point. I might have to continue this break in through Straightember.
Very nice early morning shave.
Single digits now, AA is flying by.
Solid shave, the routine continues.
I’m still thinking that stropping is a highly overrated activity.
According to Brad Maggard, old soft Sheffield steel "springs back to life" when stropped. I'm now thinking that a comparative Sheffield edition of the #NoStrop challenge is in order for science.
The edge has hit its stride and – at peak smoothness now – is a joy to use. I like hollow grounds for their gentle touch, and I like heavy blades for their smoothness ATG. When a comparatively light blade like this one gives you a smooth fool's pass, you know the edge is on point.
I saw and photographed split tips in the brush a few days ago, but I can't find them anymore, and the brush seems in no hurry to start a mass splitting event. I'm starting to feel impatient.
Oops, almost forgot to post my shave. This day really got away from me.
Good shave, still enjoying my choices.
A puck of tallow Tabac
It's honing weekend in the HoneMeisterschaft! I.e., the first time since August started participants actually should do something 😅
I have a fairly minimalist honing setup. For instance, despite being tempted on multiple occasions, I have not yet dived into the natural stone finishers. I have a Naniwa 3k/10k Super Stone combination stone, a lapping plate to keep it flat, and a big bag full of styrofoam packing peanuts (actual styro, not the starch-based bio-degradable ones). I also have a Jeweller's loupe, but I'm not using it anymore. That's it.
The 3k side is maybe a bit fine for setting bevels, but with a bit of patience, I've also managed that in the past (even on chonky vintage wedges with wide bevels).
Is partially copied from "Simple Straight Razor Honing" on Science of Sharp, but instead of counting strokes, I rely on how the razor feels on the hone and, most importantly, the @[email protected] packing peanut test (here shown on a styrofoam deco ball, but packing peanuts are cheaper and work just as well).
Starting out honing razors, the most difficult part for me was to figure out what works and what doesn't. I'd frequently spend an hour or more honing a razor without palpable progress. I tried to visualise progress using loupes, a microscope lens, etc. Every once in a while, I'd get that glorious edge through trial and error, but the lack of reproducibility was frustrating. At some point, @[email protected] shared with me how he uses packing peanuts to test the progress he makes during honing, and it's been the missing link to get reproducible sharp edges. Styrofoam has thin membranes around porous beads or puffs. It's a bit like a tomato in that a sharp knife slices through the skin effortlessly and allows you to make clean cuts, while a blunt knife struggles to cut the skin and crushes the meat underneath. Packing peanuts are like that and make the difference between more and less sharp parts of the edge obvious. Except, the peanuts all feel exactly the same.
Even though a few laps on the finisher would have been just fine for refreshing today, I decided to do the whole process.
I soaked the water stone for a bit over ten minutes. It hasn't been lapped in a while and looks correspondingly dirty in the water bath.
There were a few dished areas of the stone,
and lapping both sides flat took a while.
With a freshly flattened and soaked stone, I started off by thoroughly killing the edge,
An then rebuilt it with trailing edge strokes on the 3k side, frequently interrupting to check my progress on packing peanuts. At first, progress is very fast and some areas of the edge become noticeably sharper than others. This shows where to apply more pressure and when the edge felt uniformly sharp, I moved over to the finisher side. Same process again, trailing edge strokes and peanut tests until it's uniformly sharp enough to just melt into the styrofoam.
To finish, I stropped on chromium oxide-loaded canvas for a few laps to get any potential burrs of and smooth out any potential rough bits (I only use loaded canvas right after honing, and only clean canvas and leather after that) and test again on the peanut. (The reason for that last test is that some razors I've honed for the first time got really sharp on the peanut test, but after stropping would feel horrible. The edges would just crumble during the first shave. This can be remedied by killing the edge and start over from a coarse stone to cut away the weak surface steel).
Now I'm not sure how it went for everyone else, but my blade did not really need a refresh of its edge yet, so I wasn't sure what to expect from the refresh. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't a huge difference. The fool's pass did feel noticeably smoother, and that's always nice.
Great shave today, and I'm looking forward to reading all the honing posts today. Have a great Sunday!
I had my mail held back during our vacation and I went to fetch it all this morning. My tub of No Scrub made it me 🎉.
I also got a pristine NOS Friodur 17 that I'm excited about, and finally a regular sized Tabac EdC and a comically large Tabac splash. If only it wasn't Austere August 😅
I see some honing and second luxury shaves in my near future.
So, there is some contradictory information about Friodur razors floating around the interwebs. For instance, according to the text of German Wikipedia (English Wikipedia, the ice-hardening process for hardening stainless steel was invented in 1939 and patented in 1951, but according to the time table in the same article, it was patented in 1939 but the name Friodur was only introduced with the first ice-hardened blades in 1951.
But then I saw a mysterious 7/8 Friodur 50 on eBay with a patent stamp D. R. PAT 41-DL4678.
Now I can't find that patent document, but it seems to be a patent stamp from the patent office of the German Reich (presumably of the third kind given that the Friodur name appeared in at the earliest 1939 and the Reich Patent Office was dissolved after the allied victory). So it seems that this is a 1941 Friodur model.
It's also the only Friodur I've ever seen to have etchings on both sides of the blade. Here's the usually blank back side with a big sweeping Friodur logo:
It seems like the early Friodurs made a really big deal of being Friodurs. Must have been expensive razors.
The front side has the typical shank markings of earlier carbon steel Henckels straights (Later Friodurs have the swirly Friodur logo in addition to the Zwilling (twin) logo):
But the really interesting part is the decoration etched into the front face of the blade. First, there's what looks like the double-headed eagle of the Scottish rite of Freemasonry.
A big Eye of Providence:
A Freemason's Star (apparently not really a star of David, but a geometric regularization of the square-and-compass symbol of the Freemasons
And finally this image I couldn't find information on that doesn't make me want to put on a tinfoil hat. Supposedly a scythe and a winged hourglass symbolising time as the destroyer of humankind's institutions. I will not link to my fishy sources.
Here's the whole thing! I'm not sure yet whether I think it's pretty, but it's sure interesting!
I'm going to hone this puppy to get it ready for Austere August, $FriodomRiders, and $Honemeisterschaft
Are you a straight shaver? Do you hate rust? Do you like great razors? This is for you!
This is about leveraging the only meaningful innovation in straight razor manufacture in the last 75 years for a relaxed Austere August without worrying about your precious razor rusting while you enjoy your summer.
This is about Friodom! (from rust)
A stainless steel razor (If you don't have one and are tempted by this challenge, I strongly suggest getting a Friodur 5/8 or larger, they are all very good, and typically in can be found in great condition on eBay).
Yes! $FriodomRiders is compatible with $headless, $RawHoggin, $Honemeisterschaft and all the software challenges.
Include the character string "$FriodomRiders" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)
The honour of displaying the 🗽FriodomRider🏇 flair.
The heyday of straight razors is the late 19th century, and a 130 year old full hollow ground Böker looks exactly like one made this year. Even modern razors who try new design languages are typically made exactly like a century ago: A blank of carbon steel is forged, tempered, ground, and scaled.
After an initial learning curve, a good straight razor delivers fantastic shaves for a lifetime if properly cared for, and here lies the rub. Most straight razors rust. You need to keep them dry and oiled between uses, or they will turn into expensive red powder.
We're not really used to things rusting any more in our lives. Our cutlery, pots, pans, and most kitchen knives are made from stainless steel, so why aren't razors?
The first stainless steel knives appeared in 1914, and they weren't a success, but known as "the knife that would not cut". The ice-hardening process for quality blades in stainless steel was only invented in 1939 and patented by Zwilling in 1951 under the name Friodur (pseudo latin for cold-hard). This means that good stainless steel came about only after the straight razors fell out of fashion.
Zwilling (Friodur), Weltmeister (eisgehärtet), Thiers Issard and Dovo (Inox), Ralf Aust (Edelstahl) all produced or still produce stainless steel razors.
I'm convinced that good stainless steal razors are on par with good carbon steel razors, and they have an undeservedly bad reputation. Join me in shining light on the best straight razors ever made.
Are you a honemeister? A casual honer? A honeapprentice? Interested in learning to hone? This is for you!
This is not your typical tough guy AA challenge. No Ultra Nightmare Mode, no tuggy blades, just 31 good shaves.
Straight razor maintenance is a very accessible and satisfying skill to learn, but it can feel daunting at the beginning. The goal is to create small welcoming AA community for those curious about getting into straight razor maintenance, perfecting their technique, or talking shop with fellow straight razor maintainers.
This challenge is about straight razor appreciation and lowering the entry hurdle to straight razor maintenance.
A shave ready straight, a finishing stone, a strop, a brush, a soap, styrofoam packing peanuts.
If you need a finishing stone, Naniwa 10k or Naniwa 12k water stones are widely recognised a as good value. You can get one here for instance.
Mostly yes. $Honemeisterschaft is compatible with $FriodomRiders, $RawHoggin, and all the software challenges, but it is incompatible with the no-honing rule of $headless.
No, this is about having a good experience with your favourite straight. If the shave-ready edge turned out to be less than, or you have a stropping mishap, or you have the world's toughest beard and softest razor, whatever, refresh your edge, that's what the hone is for.
It is recommended to start with a good edge and wait for the 17th, so as to make the effect of the refresh noticeable. If you keep refreshing your edge, the effect of maintenance is hidden.
Include the character string "$Honemeisterschaft" in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that's a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it's still too soon 😅)
The honour of displaying the 🗡Honemeister🔨 flair.
This Moar Boar of a sub member was loosing a lot of bristles. They were done with it and let me have it.
I was surprised how hard it is to cut off all the bristles of a boar knot!
It was so hard that I was convinced I was cutting into the glue bump and had finally figured out its shape:
But the actual glue came a few mm deeper.
I was worried at first that the tiny hand mill wouldn't be up to the task and that I'd need to find a 32 mm Forstner bit and figure out a way to grip the handle strong enough to withstand the torque of the Forstner bit on a drill press without ruining it, but as it turns out, it was quite easy and quick to get the hole deep enough:
I've set the handle with a 30 mm Maggard Silvertip knot, and I'm looking forward to trying the most exclusive of all subbrooshes, the Moar Badger soon.
Share your shave of the day!
Like @[email protected] the other day, I also have taken advantage of Yourshaving's anniversary sale and got myself three new brushies to break in:
I've been meaning to try a Semogue Owner's club for a while now, mainly because of @[email protected] singing its praises and this is going to be perfect for this year's AA Raw Hoggin'. The pretty Butterscotch brush is a Zenith 506B Manchurian. It's my first Zenith badger, and my first silver tip badger. I'm curious to break this one in, but will probably wait for after LG. Finally, the black one is a Zenith 506N XS (you can see, I like the 506 form factor), an extra soft horse hair brush, which was recommended by @[email protected] among others. This one will wait for LG.
Boaring only as a boar pun, or will it also be boring by choosing a single setup?