Well, around 10PM I hopped in the shower, with my new shavemac brush soaking in some HOT water.. Took a nice long shower to give my beard and brush plenty of time to soak.

Lathered up, took the Wolstenholm 50 laps on the strop, and gently proceed to do a WTG on one cheek. That went well, though not *as* smoothly as I'd hoped.. razor "pulls" a little. Stropped 20 more laps, re lathered other cheek, wtg, 20 laps neck, and so on. Go into bedroom grab radio and Pat Green CD... re lather, another 50 laps on the strop, x-grain (20 laps on strop for each new "section)... so far so good. 50 more laps, and.... atg. I'm proud to report probably 80-85% of my face is BBS, including cheeks and most of neck. At least as good as I ever managed with the Sensor. It did take me almost an hour and a half though versus 10 min with the Gillette. And no nicks severe enough to warrant styptic. Wipe down with COLD water on a washcloth... very gingerly apply some "bump stop" (contains misc. acid, alcohol etc... expect MAJOR burn), with no real negative side effects. So then I get careless and give a squirt of Mama Bear aftershave and !!!!!!! BURN BABY BURN!!!! Yikes. That was painful... try to bear it for a bit, but give up and pat face down with wet washcloth again. Now my face feels mostly back to normal. I do have some "red" on my face indicitave of a close shave/irritation.

Questions:
a) My wostenholm, though clearly very sharp does not pass the HHT, and when the ATG strokes really felt more like it was pulling hair rather than cutting... is this normal, or should I seek more honing, or is my stropping suspect?

Misc Comments:
a) couldn't resist... took "No Cussing" for a spin even with no scales, or honemeister job. (I believe this is akin to taking your newly acquire project/hot rod car out for a spin before getting seats, or tuning the engine) I can already tell this one's going to be a favorite... LOVE it. Not that the wostenholm's going to get neglected... but the Case is superb.. can't wait for the ebony scales and will probably send it out for a honemeister job.

b)Pat Green is good shaving music

c)I did a pretty decent job with some left-handed work.

d)looking forward to gettin better!!