Well as an update to this saga, shaved with this beauty today. I'm not experienced enough to say it was the razor but i had my smoothest/bloodless shave so far with a straight. After 5-6 day growth it was very nice. As a side note, the Aus ebay seller HOYPOLOY was great to deal with and i literally gave it the 50 passes on the strop and was good to go. He said he used a shapton 15k finisher and was very helpful, wouldn't surprise me to find him on here.