May 12th
Tabac/tobacco Tuesday
Razor: Valet Autostrop
Blade: Feather FHS (11)
Brush: Omega 10098
PS: Proraso Green
SS: Chiseled Face Sherlock
AS: Tabac
I decided to try refreshing the blade by stropping on my diamond sprayed strop by holding the blade by hand. I held the blade gently between my thumb and middle finger and was able to do about 10 strokes on each side of the blade at a very shallow angle. I then loaded the blade in my VAS and did 10 strokes on my homemade VAS strop. I'm pleased to report that the blade refresh worked. The blade was nice and sharp and gave a wonderful two-pass DFS shave. If this refresh gets me another 10 shaves with just stropping, I shouldn't have an issue finishing the month with this blade.
As with all my shaves with this blade, I did WTG for the first pass and the second pass was a mix of XTG and ATG depending on the area I was shaving. My cheeks can take it, but my neck and jaw won't stand for it without irritation. This was something I did to extend blade life, but I will modify my normal shave routine to be more efficient with fewer passes. I am loving the results.
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I finished cleaning and repacking the spindle bearings on my CNC. Ran the spindle through a shorter break-in process to distribute the grease and seat the bearings. Heat spiked and then cooled down just like it's supposed to after service. So, the CNC is back up and running.
Razors are normally ground by hand and on a special belt sander. I don't have that kind of belt sander. So, I plan to do that grinding with a grinding wheel on my CNC machine. The difficulty will be holding the razor secure while the CNC machine does the grinding. So, I built a jig that will support the blade and keep it square in the vice. The jig isn't pretty but it doesn't have to be. The blanks set in the jig with very little wiggle room and that should be good enough. If all goes well, grinding should start tomorrow. Of course, that first attempt will be very cautious and just remove a few thousandths from the blades...

I really don't want to screw up this close to the finish line.
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