Hello gents,

I'm pretty new here; done a lot of reading and a little posting. Just finished my second straight razor shave, and I have some questions. (For background, I've got the dreaded combination of dark heavy beard & sensitive skin. Also, for some reason, my beard grows really fast. If I go for more than a day without shaving, it becomes quite a project.)

I used to use a Mach3, but switched to DE shaving about eight months ago. I'm very comfortable with that now, and have been getting great shaves for quite a while - either pretty close and irritation-free or BBS with slight irritation on my neck. My setup is:

Prep: Hot shower, Proraso pre/post, C&E Best badger brush, one of several soaps (Honeybee unscented, C&E Nomad soap) or creams (Proraso green tube, Kiss My Face unscented, Tom's of Maine mint) - usually augmented with some of the KMF for added lubrication.

Shave: Gillette Slim adjustable w/Feather blade. I usually have to change the blade after 3 shaves.

Post-shave: Hot water rinse, cold water rinse, Alum bar (usually), more cold water, Thayer's Witch Hazel, and either Proraso pre/post or Nivea Sensitive formula for ASB.

Moving to the world of straight razors, I bought a Wostenholm 5/8 full-hollow (thank you Neale, and Joe - I think - for the gorgeous purpleheart scales!), combo 4-sided pasted paddle strop from Tony Miller, and Lynn's DVD.

Pre-shave prep as above. Stropping carefully and slowly on the leather side of the paddle (x-pattern) 30 times for first shave; then 50 for second shave. The blade passes the hanging hair test.

Okay, here are my questions/problems:

1) The main question, really. The shave feels very rough. Should it? I keep a 30 degree angle with my skin, move the razor at a slight angle (which does help a bit to slice through), and take short, slow strokes. But it still feels rough, with pulling of hairs, and it's an effort.

2) I do three passes - WTG, XTG, and XTG again - same as with the DE. But, though I cut whiskers each time, I can't get anywhere near as close as with the DE.

3) A lot of irritation. The usual problem areas on my neck, but now everywhere else, too. Particularly the chin.

4) How do you do the areas midway between the adam's apple and the side of the neck? There's a bit of a hollow there, and no matter how I stretch the skin, I can't quite seem to work out a technique. I could do this with a DE, but the longer blade of the straight keeps gettinng in the way - no matter which part of the blade I try to use, another part of it makes unwanted contact with another part of my neck. (Does this make sense? Hard to put into words!)

I know my technique will need to develop over time, but I'm a bit puzzled that it should feel so bad, since I understand the grain of my beard, direction of growth, etc., and have applied all I've learned from DE shaving. Could there be a problem with the razor? Neale said he used it only a few times, and he gave it a few passes over a coticule before sending it to me. I wonder if I somehow messed it up in stropping? My guess is that the razor is fine and the problems are just those of a newbie, but I want to rule it out as a possibility, of course.

One other thing: if I need to use the pasted sides of the paddle, what is the technique for that? Wet or dry? X-pattern leading with the edge (as in honing) or with the spine (as in stropping)? How many strokes on each side?

Sorry for such a long post, guys. But I figured the info might be important.

And many thanks - this place is wonderful, friendly and very helpful.

-Michael