I'm about 6 months in, probably averaging 3-4 shaves/week with a SR, the rest with DE (easier to travel with or go quickly).

I feel like I've been making progress getting at least DFS on 2/3 or 3/4 of my face, and then cleaning up the rest that I can't manage yet with a DE. (I get a little more territory each week). Good news is that I almost never get a nick or any discomfort. The bad news is this week it seems my shaves are getting worse. All 3 of my SRs in rotation were from SRD, thus I am sure nothing was originally wrong with them...a R. Aust 5/8, a R. Aust 6/8 Stainless and a Dovo Prima Klang 5/8.

My favorite has been my R. Aust 5/8, but I always was less happy with the other 2. Sooo, based on a thread on SRP somewhere recently, last week I decided I'd use only my favorite, and vary soaps and/or cream to see what my favorite was. I kept everything else equal, stropping before shave 7-10 on linen, and then 50-60 on the smooth leather side of a SRD paddle strop (my go-to strop) and face prep (hot towels from Lynn's video). I also strop 7-10 on canvas and 30 - 40 on the smooth side of the paddle strop after my shave, after rinsing and drying the razor with hot water and tissues. I'm pretty OCD about the drying process, and let the razor rest on my BR cable box (which is always warm) for 12 hours before fully closing it and putting it away in the drawer of my jewelry box, which has desiccant in it. I feel I have good stropping technique, and decent shaving technique, except for my chin, mustache area and a few corner of my goose fleshy, 65 year old neck. Last week went fine and out of my 4 shaves I got almost perfect DFS for the areas except those I mentioned above. I settled on my favorite soaps being Pre-de-Provence, and my favorite cream being DR Harris Arlington.

Now this week, I decided to keep one of those two soaps/creams and use my 3 razors in a rotation. The Dovo was OK...decent shave , but not DFS. The 6/8 R. Aust was not good at all, I'm just not confident with it for some reason...then today I went back to the R.Aust 5/8, and it felt terrible, but I got a decent 1/2 DFS shave.

Maybe after 30 shaves the 5/8 needs either more stropping or a refresh, but the other 2 only have 10-15 shaves each. I may start keep a log, but I'm not generally that anal about things.

Anyway, I'm just curious if others have up and downs like this and if anyone has suggestions on possible solutions (which I know is a dumb question on this forum site)

Barring another solution, I'm going to use my SRD certificates to send my rotation back to get them back to Shave ready.