So I ordered a Dovo Ebony High Carbon steel from Vintage Blades, along with some new soap, aftershave, pre-shave oil, and a strop. Turn around was good, I had ordered Saturday eve and received it today. I had started wet-shaving with a DE safety about a month or so ago.

I guess my thoughts leading up to this was that it wouldn't be that difficult, I mean what's the big difference between a DE and straight anyway? Don't laugh. I was very wrong. This blade (honed by Lynn btw) is definitely the sharpest thing I've ever put to my face. I remembered reading 'if it pulls or feels uncomfortable, stop'. It did feel like a lot of pulling (and I stopped a lot), which is odd, because I was pretty sure my angle was good. I do think my strokes are probably too short. I tend to do short, buffing strokes with my DE, which results in a BBS but slightly irritated face.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to put off shaving this morning and have my first attempt be through 48 hours of growth? Hmm. I was pretty sure at any point my face was going to erupt in a geiser of blood worthy of a Kurosawa movie.

Well, I did my whole face WTG or attempted to, no nicks or weepers. Kinda patchy at points, polished it off with my Merkur safety.

-Mike