Welcome to the great Hobby of Wet Shaving!! I've only been at it myself about 10 months or so, but this is something you might try to get a better shave. If your trying to learn str8 shaving AND str8 razor honing at the same time, slow that brain train down a bit and send your razor to one of the great Honemiesters available to you through the SRP site, Lynn Abrams is the 1st that comes to mind, the member called 'Utopia' did a great job for me also. When you get the razor back just wipe off the oil strop a bit if you like, do some really thourogh face prep and shave, you should notice a BIG difference and get a much closer shave than your 1st attemps at str8 honing did provide. I hope this helps. It shoud take at least one possible problem out of the bloody picture.

Have a good one and a Great Gd/day!!

tinkersd of SRP!!