I'm still a greenhorn when it comes to straight shaving (only about 25 shaves), but I have found that lather and prep make the biggest difference in my shaves from one day to the next. Any time I nail the lather and preshave (which is a handful of times at most), I get smooth shaves with no tugging in any direction. I only go N-S and S-N because of how I can fit the blade on my face and neck. This ends up being WTG-ATG on my cheeks and below my chin, and XTG-XTG on the rest of my neck. I have had a couple of shaves with zero irritation and weepers, but whenever I don't I can always identify something in my prep or lather that was lacking from my best efforts.