10 days of a noob shaver

Soooo its been ten days and ten shaves now since I started using a straight razor and I'm loving it. Each shave is getting a little bit better but there are still a couple of problem areas (the upper lip and my kneck, the beard grows from left to right and I just can't get an angle I'm comfatable with to go ATG).

With the help of the kind people here this is what I have learnt.

1) Pressure.... You don't need much. After only ever shaving with a mach3 or similar for the past 20 odd years this took a bit of adjusting too. I'm sure I'm still using to much at times but I'm getting there.

2) Stropping........its not as easy as it looks and I wish I had seen a little more for a wider strop instead of having to learn the cross stroke. Twice now I've had to refresh the edge on the12k stone because I've dulled the edge on the strop. I have now watched a few more stropping videos and I think in getting there. On the plus side there are no knicks or gouges on the strop so at least I'm doing something right.

3)Refreshing the blade.......Much easier than I thought, the spine on my razor is dead straight so that helps allot, also the experience I have sharpening hundreds of knives probably helps. I don't think I'd feel confident enough to do a full bevel reset though and I'm going to get a cheep eBay razor to have a bash at that.

4)This forum......Invaluable, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be at the stage I'm at now without the help of the people here so thank you all :)

I think that's gabout it for now

One happy shaver :) :)

Edit: I forgot

5) Beard growth....I have never before took any notice at all in which direction my hair grows which seems critical to achieving a really close shave with a straight. I can now tell you exactly which way it grows on each part of my face ;)

6)Lather.......in the pre straight days any old gel or cream would do. Now I find myself spending a good ten minutes creating that lovley thick creamy lush lather mmmmmmmmm :D