Very fine shave today. The brush shown, with the snakewood handle, I purchased some years back from Strop Shoppe, mainly because of the handle. When I got it and used it the first time, I was somewhat taken aback by how soft it was: it has a 55mm loft and knot (of silvertip badger) felt very yieldy—not much backbone at all.
But since I had it, I thought I’d better learn to use it, and I found learning it quite easy. I wet the knot well, give it a couple of shakes, and then brush the puck—which this morning is Meißner Tremonia’s Moroccan Rhassoul, as you see—quite briskly and with enough firmness that the brush splays open. Since the brush is soft, you can really bear down, but brisk brushing with the pressure described results in the brush being quickly and easily loaded. It takes about 10-12 seconds, but if you’re still learning, give it 15-20 seconds.
Then move the loaded brush to your (wet, washed) beard and brush briskly, working the lather up. If it seems dry, you can add a driblet of water to the brush and work that in. Indeed, as an experiment, you should do that in any case: learning is by trying different things.
Now that I know how to load the brush easily and quickly and how to work up the lather using the brush, it’s a favorite exactly because the long loft is so soft. And the brush has excellent lather capacity as well.
The razor today is the Above the Tie S1 head on a UFO handle, and it did a very fine job, producing effortlessly a BBS result. A good splash of Anthony Gold’s Red Cedar, and the day is underway.
Filed under: Shaving
