Hello,

I received a straight razor for x-mas. I am not too sure of the quality of it (she said she paid about 50 USD) but it certainly looks nice. Now it said that it came "shave ready" so later that day i lathered up with some aerosol shaving cream (old spice) and tried to shave.... emphasis on the TRIED part. it scrapped horribly across my skin hurt pretty bad, and worse yet it barely removed any hair.

Then i went to the web for answers, read a very lengthy shaving guide from this website and bought a badger brush (albeit not a super expensive one) some high glycerin shaving soap (i think it is called colonel conk?) and fanciful aftershave. then i tried it again but it still hurt, and removes little hair. So i brought it to a local shop here that said they can sharpen my straight razor, i just got it back. while it does feel somewhat better it is still a little painful and only removes the top of the hairs (feels like 5 o' clock shadow or worse even with going across with the grian and then once again across grain). I take it slow, i try to stay around a 30 degree angle, i really work in the soap, i don't know what i am doing wrong. it feels like i am just dragging the blade across my face (even though i am putting very little force on it).

Any suggesitons? could the thing still be dull? thanks and sorry about the length of the post.