Hi there. Im on about my third month of straight razor shaving. I have been a wet shaver all my life, and was having spectacular DE shaves prior to the switch. I gave that up for the lust of the straight....

I have made great improvements, and have learnt a great deal, but i have hit a huge brick wall and this is wearing me down. Im close to jacking it all in and i need help...

I have a Wapi that I purchased shave ready from the Invisible Edge. I strop on canvas and leather approx 50x each prior to shave, and then again 20-30 of each after the shave. Im pretty certain that my stropping technique is sound.

Last month I felt that the edge needed a refresh, and so i purchased a nanwia 12k which seemed to work really well at bringing back the edge. I felt the difference. (Having said that there are 2 or 3 very small but visible chips/imperfections along the edge, which the 12k was unable to get out.) Again, im pretty certain that my honing technique is sound.

I know my shave prep is good. Always hot shower taking extra time to soften beard, followed by a good amount of face lathering time with a EJ best badger brush and quality products such as trumpers creams, soaps, castle forbes or tabac etc.

So the actual shave....

I shave every other day (all my life, my skin has been in better condition if i shave every other day as opposed to every day...this seems to be no different with the straight).

My beard is very coarse. I am the stereotypical dark, thick haired greek...i liken my beard to that of Steve Carell if that helps the description.

I get very good shaves on my cheeks. WTG, XTG (both directions). My neck is acceptible (always have been very sensitive there). The problem areas are the chin and just under the jaw line.

Fristly, regarding the chin...the first WTG pass is a decent pass. I get good easy beard reduction. But the problems begin trying to get any closer than that. It seems no matter the blade angle, no matter the cut direction, no matter the pressure i use, no matter where i pull my skin, or how hard i pull, the hairs will not cut well at all. ATG is the only thing that works, but my god does it tear my skin up. I get nicks all across my chin that way. I end up spending a solid 5 mins doing touch up passes on small patches of my chin, shredding up the skin as i go. Even then the results are patchy. Im not even searching for BBS here...simply a good, even shave! This was never ever a problem with my DE. Even a gilette sensor excel used to do a far superior job! I know people will probably tell me that for ATG passes you need to reduce the blade angle, reduce pressure etc...but i really have tried everything! I doesnt work!

Regarding just below my jaw line. I have very hard to reach spots...where no matter how i position my blade, I cannot get a good cut. I pull the skin upwards, downwards, angle my head in thousands of different positions...Just cant get the right position. I always end up with a rough patch in this position on both sides of my face, with the surrounding skin a little raw from trying to get to them.

As I said, the shave on my cheeks is great, but these two problem areas are frustrating me tremendously. Last night I almost threw my razor against the wall in anger. Ill repeat that im not even going for BBS. I just want them smooth and not randomly patchy. So I would really appreciate your input. Do i persevere? Or do I go back to my DE where I can get perfect shaves every time with perfect skin to show for it (not sexy, but very effective)?

Many thanks in advance.