Well, I couldn't wait any longer for a real strop, so I stropped my first razor on some newspaper and tried my first straight shave today. There seems to be some mild debate on whether it is easier to go from DE shaving to straight shaving or to jump directly from the multi-bladed monstrosities to the cut-throat. For me, there is no question: my two years spend shaving with my DE was absolutely instrumental in producing a very good first shave with a straight. The knowledge I have gained in skin prep, stretching, and maintaining angles with a DE made my first experience with a straight seem like the most natural thing in the world. I simply lathered up, picked up my straight, and went to work, and about 15 mins later I had a shave that, while not quite as BBS as my DE, was certainly closer and more comfortable than I had any right to expect given my inexperience and the newspaper strop.

I did one pass with the grain, a second pass across the grain (which was new for me), and then because my face still had more stubble than I like, I did a pass directly against the grain, which presented the only difficulty. I had trouble maintaining the proper grip on the ATG pass, so I ended up opening the razor up 180 degrees like a Japanese razor and gripping it more like a pen for that pass.

I can tell that my edge needs work because it was pretty grabby...if this had been a DE I would know it was time to change the blade. I'm sure a lot of that was the newspaper strop...I will definitely be placing an order for Tony Miller's apprentice strop as soon as they become available. But overall, the most surprising thing about the entire shave was, as I said earlier, how utterly natural it felt. I can't believe it took me this long to try this.

Many thanks to everyone here, and to be fair, at B&B and SMF as well. I did a lot of research, read a lot of posts and guides, and watched a lot of videos before I started, and I'm sure a large part of the confidence I felt came from that.

(Sorry for the length...sometimes enthusiasm begets loquaciousness...)