Hey guys,
I had my first shave today. There were definately some ups, downs, and laughs. I started off stropping my Dovo special with my newly purchased Illinois #127 strop. I took it slow and I think the razor sharpened up pretty well after around 25 strokes. When I applied the soap my girlfriend bought me for my birthday (Geo. F. Trumpers in a wooden bowl) everything went well for half of my face, then the lather started to fade. It turns out that there was a residue of soap that gave the illusion that there was no plastic on the soap. The residue was enough to lather up half of my face and it took me a good 5 minutes to figure out that I needed to remove the plastic (this is where we laughed). My sideburns, cheeks, and chin all shaved very well, and I only got one small nick on my chin. My neck was a whole different story. While shaving my neck, the razor became more ackward to hold and the changing hair directions on my neck made some strands hard to get to. After all was said and done, the skin on my neck was red and irritated, and there was still a lot of scruff (looks like I need more practice). I think overall the shave went pretty well as any skepticism that I had about straight razors went right out the window. I was able to get a really good shave on my face (better than expected). After the shave, while stropping, I got a little overconfident and strated to move quicker on the strop, and I knicked my strop pretty good...oh well. I have to say thanks to everyone for there advise thus far, and I look foreward to learning more.
Santiago Flores