I'm gonna respond to this one, because our situations are extremely similar. I went from a dull mach3 to a shavette with dorco blades to a straight that i bought from b/s/t, shave ready. The shaves from the shavette were extremely easy, close but i was bleeding more than ever, very thin weepers that i didnt even feel. but the 1 pass shave was amazing. When i received my blade in the mail, i immediately shaved with it and was disappointed that after 1 pass i still had stubble. I reread the boards and found that beard reduction rather than removal was the standard, and i now do a 3 pass shave. I have been shaving with the same straight for about 3 months and my shaves are still not as baby smooth as i used to get with the shavette, but i cut myself less and each shave i learn some new trick to work the problem areas. A really good trick that i learned is to wrap some newspaper around a wooden board and strop on that about a 100-200 times and it will refresh your blade very well. i strop on newspaper almost every shave because i like a very sharp edge, though some like a mellower edge.. you will notice little nuances that you would never see with a disposable because after a few shaves you throw the blade away and start over. All i can say is i was very skeptical that the blade i received was not shave ready but after a week or so i realized my technique required some tweaking and its a blast to learn. good luck!