Nothing is a given...

I am a relative newbie to the St8... I am enjoying the ritual, what my wife calls the "MAN bubble bath", which is the whole process from preparing the lather, to the shower, hot towel, shave, and finish. Yeah, you know... face balm & A/S along with the, "Hey honey, just feel this BBS face!" Ok, you know you do it too :nj

I've got, probably, 10-12 razors at varying stages of restoration. Some are done and I've incorporated a real 'rotation' :y. I expect that, within the next 30 days, to be able to say that I have a legitimate 7 day rotation.

Back to the "title"... Beginning with my first razor (and one of my favs) the Dubl Duck Dwarf... I was able right off the bat, to hone and strop with great success. Actually Glen aka gssixgun initially got it in excellent shape for me. I have since rehoned, and of course, stropped it as required. Nothing is a given means: each razor, even though they may be excellent shavers and of good steel, each one requires a different 'hand'. One must have a different relationship with each of his/her razors. The balance while honing, and particularly for me, while stropping, is different with each of my razors. The 'feel' that exists with one of my W&B, with the hone and strop, is different than what exists with my DD. The same holds true with the rest. This really came to realization this morning when I shaved with my "New to me" worked-back J. Rodgers that I got from Mike aka 'marosell'. The razors edge was excellent. In fact, he said that it had given him the best shave he'd ever had (to date). I stopped this morning and the edge was 'there' but it lacked that "Oh yeah... this feels good" effect. I restropped and really had to purpose to feel the blade and strop working together. While several of my razors and strop work together quite naturally now, it isn't a given that each razor that is added to my growing pile (sshhh DW might be listening) is going to have that same natural feel... until by time and effort, it is found.

Sorry to be so long winded on what may very well be a no-brainer to some of you, but like I said, as a relative newbie it is (and will probably always be) a passion in process.