Just shaved with the straight razor again today. Same prep and lather as last time, and shaved N-S, S-N and then did a pass across the grain in an oblique upward stroke. The cheeks were BBS after the last stroke, but there was still a rough feeling on the neck. I'm sure some of you would cringe at the technique, since I hardly ever used my left hand to hold the razor, and had to hold the razor in pretty weird ways to get the blade to reach all areas of my neck and cheeks. But hey, it worked!

Since I was still a bit rough on the neck area, I finished off my neck with an oblique downward stroke with my Merkur... and managed to nick myself over the adam's apple, would you believe! Three passes with a big knife and no nicks, but the "safety razor" nicked me! Life isn't entirely without humor, eh?

After the finishing stroke with the Merkur, my neck was BBS too. The main reason for not using the straight for the last stroke was that I couldn't figure out a way to get the razor to do that stroke without the point catching my skin and slicing me. Maybe it would be easier with the round point I've ordered, when it gets here? I will definitely have to try that.

All in all, I'm making progress with the straight razor shaving.