I'm not surprised at all that you nicked your self with the murker. Straights are actually much more forgiving then a DE. I almost always nicked my self with my Mach 3 before I was enlightened, or went crazy. One of the two.

Anyway, I rarely nick my self with my straight now. I did the other day after a fresh honing, but it was minor and stopped bleeding the instant I broke the styptic out.

I'm glad your making progress and finding results. Sounds like you just need to work on your ATG technique a little on the neck. That is a very tricky area to get a hold of with the second pass. You are getting there though. Keep on truckin!

Matt