Hello again:

I registered with SRP, and acquired my first straight razor, just about three months ago. One question I had at first was how much better shaving I was going to get, compared with my trusty Merkur Classic double-edge. Some here said the straight would be better, some said it was the experience that drew them in, and the actual shave was merely comparable at best to a good DE shave.

I plunged in anyway. It was rough going at first. It took two weeks for my hands to stop shaking, and more than a month to work out a reasonable technique. It was only recently that I realized I wasn't stropping properly, and finally worked out an overall approach that seemed to give me pretty good shaves from a keen edge. But even so, I felt that my shaves were not as good as I had been accustomed to getting with my old DE.

Today, I sent my razor off to be re-honed because I couldn't get it really keen (won't perform an HHT), in part I think because I hadn't been stropping it right. But that gave me a chance to go back to DE shaving for a bit and compare results.

Today, I think I got the greatest shave I have ever had in my life, with my old Merkur DE and a new Merkur blade, using the same soap I had been using with the straight razor. I think the combination of equipment I was skilled in using and a bit more attention to grain and stroking technique that I had acquired using the straight razor turned out to be the best thing ever. The shave was so slick I wondered if the blade was actually touching my face. It was beyond BBS - it was like my skin was glassy smooth. In fact, it was so smooth I think I terrified my beard - over 14 hours later I still don't even have any 5 o'clock shadow!

Which is great, but also kind of disappointing. I don't get anything like this result with the straight razor. My technique has gotten to be OK, though still not great, and I think I can improve, but the bottom line is that I get shaves with the straight razor that would have been good-but-not-exceptional with the DE, and not as good as my best DE shaves. "BBS" is out of the question, most days. And I seem to get unusually quick 5 o'clock shadow. Getting a great shave after going back to the DE merely points up how mediocre I had been doing with the straight.

Is this going to get better? I've read the Wiki many times, and try to follow its advice, but I still don't have a really reliable technique that leads to good shaves. How long did it take others to reliably produce a comfortable, BBS shave executed with skill? Is there some more advanced program I can follow to fine-tune my technique? Can I expect to really do better than my DE shaves, or is the straight razor just inherently not that much better in terms of closeness?

Thanks for any suggestions.