Any advice for my boosting debut?
This Saturn S-1 is decent, cheap and a bit under powered so seems a great candidate for such an experiment.
Brush the sponge with one layer of the booster of your choice (Haifu Seamoon is the go-to) then leave it to air-dry for 12-24 hours, until it's relatively flat. Don't expect a super massive curl nor for it to blow your socks off, but it will act a little more like a tensor and be a little softer and feel slightly "gummier" or "stickier".
One layer is generally safe and quick to apply. It doesn't introduce a ton of tension so usually you can glue after 12 hours, but if you wanna be safe, 24. I would do 1 layer of glue on the blade and 2-4 on the sponge, depending on how viscous it is, just so you can peel it in one go after for the re-boost.
If you want a bit more, after 3-4 weeks, brush on two layers and leave to air-dry for 24-48 hours, most likely 48 especially if using a National booster. I've tried to glue after 24 and I've never got it to stick on the first time. Re-gluing immediately after will change the tension and allow it to stick well, though, but it will lose some of the softening and tension effect. It might be better to wait slightly longer and glue while it's still semi-tensioned.
2 layers curls A LOT more than 1, and 3 layers curls A LOT more than 2 and so on. The edges won't stay attached if you glue while domed unless you use some insane glue. It will keep peeling more and more if the edges don't stay on, although it will be playable for a day or two. The boosters only last a week at the peak effect so I think it's silly to put on lots of layers then have to wait a week or more for it to be glueable; you might as well have just put on one layer!
I'm not convinced there is any benefit to using more than 2 layers with Haifu, but it does seem to be able to soften it further. I'm just not convinced the elasticity actually goes up from there. It will also wear the sponge out MUCH faster, and you will probably only get 1 or 2 cycles. How rapidly you pile on the booster seems to matter a lot.
The sponge's elasticity will be greatly reduced after about 6-12 layers, depending what you use and how rapidly you apply it and so on. If you boost monthly with 2 layers, don't expect much more than 3 boost cycles until you need a new sheet. If you boost monthly with one layer, you might mechanically wear out the sponge faster and get a bit more time out of it, let's say 4 cycles or more. If you're concerned with wear, then one layer per month is probably the sweet spot.
You don't really need to apply glue before or after nor do you need to wrap it but it does IMO make applying booster a bit easier to do it onto a glue layer because the instantaneous soaking will be slightly slower and allow you more time to spread it. I don't remove the factory glue layers for this reason. I don't go out of my way to apply glue before, though, but I might try again.
If you do it onto a bare sponge, it can get globby with the national boosters unless you apply a thin layer (recommended, brush the brush onto the bottle and drain it a bit) and have good technique (brush it thinly and in various directions multiple times).
In theory applying a glue layer before the booster "should" make it soak slower but I haven't been able to measure a difference beyond a couple minutes and it curls basically immediately in both cases, so I'm not sure about that. It does make it stay liquid slightly longer in my experience, so you have a few seconds to minutes time to spread it more evenly.
These oils don't harden when exposed to air in my experience although if you apply a really thick layer onto only a specific part of the sponge, you can get a thick coating on the surface on that spot. Applying thin layers evenly won't really do this although the sponge will be soaked with the color of the booster if it has a dye.
Don't get booster onto your hands (the heptadecane is a poison and will give you nerve damage long-term) and absolutely do not get it in your lungs or stomach or it will kill you, or at best they need to pump them for chemical pneumonia. Don't get it in your eyes either. I suggest nitrile gloves for a first-time user until your technique is precise enough that you don't get it onto your hands. Probably good idea to watch out with the brush and keep the bottle under your head.
