I'll give the short version...I started on this new shaving journey (I'd already been DE shaving for nine months) about six weeks ago. I got a nice 4/8 square point from altima55, a strop (Heirloom # 2) from Tony Miller, and I was set to go.

The first coupla shaves were awful. (BTW, fellow newbies...when they say "shave ready" really isn't, believe them!) But, deciding I had already spent some cash on this new shaving venture, I wasn't giving up! So I bought a 5/8 round point from Mr_Barence on eBay, and decided I needed to get with the honing, so I picked up a Norton 4K/8K waterstone. (Along with a cheap eBay 3/8 to practice honing.)

Two or three weeks, mucho bucks....still lousy shaves! I usually had to finish with a DE razor after just getting my cheeks or maybe cheeks and neck with one pass. But after learning to hone these up myself, and working on my technique, I have shaved a coupla times this week exclusively with a straight, and have have no cuts and nearly BBS shaves.

Shaving life is good! And will hopefully only get better from here. I appreciate all the advice I get from this forum, and love seeing how well others are progressing.