Here are the "rules" I have managed to break successfully:

1. Stropping before every shave . . . I don't need to strop just off the hone and I can get away with stropping every other shave ok. Somedays I wonder if stropping is a little overrated.

2. Using shaving cream . . . I have done a water only pass many times, usually after a cream pass though. But I find that its a lot easier to see the whiskers get shaved without the cream. I can't do this with a DE but I can with a straight. Cuz there smoother.

3. Water . . . yea no kidding. I have successfully shaved without water. You apply the water into the cream anyway. Just let it soak and you can shave without water . . . why? Good question, it seems to work best out in the country without running water. Again, though, your just soaking the beard with cream. The point is a straight, honed properly, cuts into the steel cable we call a whisker pretty well. The problem with other razors is the edge dulls quickly. Same with a straight, but in our case you've got a hone to correct it.

Here are the rules I have yet to successfully break:

1. Honing with the blade flat on the hone and a light touch . . . I can use tape alright but generally I've had to stick to this rule hard and fast. I can use almost any stroke or angle I choose but flat is key. I'm still a big fan of the X pattern though. While were on the subject I'll say using a light touch on the hone, ultimately, is a good rule too. I have broken the rule once. Got a wicked sharp blade by using pressure and a washboarding stroke back and forth, but only once. A thousand other times a light touch was the key, in the long run.

2. Stropping lightly . . . I have had mixed results with stropping using pressure. I've used it successfully many, many times and yet on occasion I end up with a wicked sharp edge that isn't aligned perfectly and the shave suffers a little. I have tried and succeeded many, many times but in the end I'll have to say this "rule" has defeated me and I've been forced to stick to it. I wonder if all those movies we see the barber stropping in it got created because a movie director saw someone stropping as daintily as I do and said "Oh, no way anyone in my movie is going to strop like that".

3. 30 degree angle when shaving . . . mixed results over these few years. A high angle second pass, maybe. I've even tried a 90 degree angle but ultimately I find 30 degree shaving angle to be the best, everywhere. Might be simplicity but for me I'll call it a rule I'm sticking with.

4. Shaving with a light touch . . . oh yea, I've tried digging the blade into my skin. It works, but whats the point of irritating your skin? Just to remove some whisker . . . no thanx. I use a light touch shaving too . . .

I think I'm seeing a pattern here . . . you?

4. Dry blade. I can treat my blades very, very poorly. But as long as they are dry when done, they survive nicely.