New To You: Day 2 of Lather Games

• Brush: Chisel and Hound Azurite with 26 mm Maggard Tuxedo knot $COMPOSITE $FRANKENBRUSH
• Razor: Böker - Dönges Expert Fire Folder $STR8SNOB $RAINBOW
• Razor: Unknown Brand - Glass stove top scraper $PLASTIC
• Blade: Derby Extra Stainless Steel (blue)
• Lather: 345 Soap Co. Chapter 2
• Post Shave: Imaginary Authors – Telegrama
• Fragrance: Creed – Silver Mountain Water

Theme justification: I’ve never ever used 345 Soap Co’s soaps. The post and frag are relevant in that they represent the same fresh cleanliness (in the case of Telegrama even explicitly: “fresh linens” are a note in Telegrama, and “a freshness like clean laundry” in Chapter 2.

Challenge justification: I’ve tried all the razor types on the list, so the seasoned-veteran clause applies to me. Last year, I managed to weasel my way around the list with a shitty dovette, but this year I finally ran out of razor types. This being an emergency, using an emergency first responder rescue tool seemed like the obvious choice. I’m very comfortable honing razors, but as u/gcgallant says every once in a while, razors are trivial to hone because the spine acts as a built-in bevel angle guide. I’ve never sharpened a knife free-hand, and just looking at the tool, it was immediately clear that I would have to set a completely new bevel, since this tool has a super blunt angle, so I made sure to also have a backup solution in case I can’t manage a good enough edge. The argument for the backup solution is that this scraper was sold (in German) as a “Schaber”, which is cognate with the English word “shaver”. Fits like the fist on the eye, right? (another German thing)

It just took me two hours setting the bevel on a 1000 grit water stone yesterday evening, and another one and a half hours on 3k to 10k to get it to cut arm hair. Easy peasy. I couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold the blade for north-to-south passes, but who needs those anyway. So all ATG I went, and you know what, it was both better and worse than I expected. First of all, it shaves, but it took me what felt like four or five ATG passes worth of awkward micro strokes to get somewhere approaching a close shave. I was very pleased with myself for not spilling any blood, but then the aftershave splash made me wince and yelp. Oh well.

Now that I’m writing this up sitting in my train to work, I can feel a patch I missed during my multiple cleanup passes and I know it’ll bother me all day. But on the upside, I didn’t need to use that glass scraper, so I know what I can use next year for this challenge.

I was too concentrated on the pointy Böker (pointy toes seem to be a trademark of Böker razors) to really pay attention to the 345 soap scent, but I did put a lot of effort into getting a wet and slick lather going, and it performed well enough.