Hello all,
I just now joined the forums. Not sure if I should be starting a new thread or not, haven't used message boards for a long time.

Anyway, my experience so far with a straight razor has been similar to jeff and others. ("Newbi, worst shave of my life" thread).

I bought a Thiers-Issard Sheffield steel razor from classicshaving.com Beautiful thing. Instructions said ready to shave, not to strop until after a few shaves. Also a Belgian coticule stone and paddle strop from Bestsharpeningstones.com Supposedly the strop is for sharpening on one side, non-pasted leather on the other. Using a top-quality badger brush from Vulmix.

Been experimenting for more than a month now. Wont' bore everyone with the tales of bloodshed and raw skin. Here's where I am now:

The razor seems to shave ok when one side is against my face and hardly at all when turned around the other way. Any advice on how to correct this?

I'm currently overseas, as I frequently am. One reason I decided to switch to a straight razor. Availability of cartridges is limited and their quality often poor. But, frankly, I just always wanted to master the art of using a straight razor.

Resources on hand include the Belgian coticule (supposedly 8000 grit) and the paddle strop with factory applied sharpening paste on one side. I did buy a 4000 grit stone also but didn't bring it with me, thinking I would only need to maintain the fine edge.

Needless to say, my experience with honing and straight razors in general is very limited. The only thing I have on my side is time, ha, ha, ha.

It would seem to me that the bevel is not even on both sides. I do have a cheapie magnifying glass with which I've been studying it but I'm still not sure how to go about correcting this to get it shaving decently no matter which side is against my face. I need to flatten the surface of my hone, too. Made a start with this using 60 and 100 grit sandpaper but after what seemed like a lot of material removal, it still isn't flat and even. Also doesn't produce a thick slurry like it did initially. I will soon have access to a flat (hopefully) plate glass table top on which to try again.

At it's best, when testing on leg hair, the good side causes the hairs to pretty much pop off right at the skin. Bad side doesn't cut at all, except oddly enough, at an angle greater than 30 degrees when it pretty much rips the hair out.

Sorry this post is so long but reading the other newbie posts I figured the more experienced guys need to know equipment and condition details in some depth.

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.