So anyway. $200AUD and a Dovo razor, two-sided strop, and tube of white "polishing" goop for the canvas size of the strop.

I don't know where to begin. The razor has to be closed carefully, because the plastic case thing has a bit of a bend in it - you have to push the razor sideways a little when you close it or the blade will catch on the plastic. Precision engineering from Germany! Taiwan, more like.

But the real issue is the strop. The leather is - what - about 3mm thick? After using it a few times I finally worked out that it was not flat but concave, meaning that when attempting to strop only the edges of the leather were touching the blade. Shit - this almost certainly means that the blade is already ruined.

So I bent it a little to shape it. With a more convex profile, there was more surface touching the blade when stropping, so I started to notice that resistance. But it still didn't make a lot of sense to be working a razor against stiff, dry, not-flat leather. So I put some of that shaving oil stuff on the leather, then some leather conditioner (way to much of the stuff), then wet it a bit, whatever - it's still stiff and not bloody flat. Probably ruined as well. Whose idea was this?

The razor now after all this abuse, well - yes it will remove arm hair. But certainly not this "popping" business everyone goes on about. Definitely less sharp that when I started - cuts all over my face. So I need to hone it? Crap - I will screw that up too. Spend - what - another $200 on a hone, which I won't be able to use? What about wet & dry paper? Well, that goes up to 1200 grit, but people here and elsewhere talk about stones that are 9000 grit etc, so that's not an option. And even then, it's anyone's guess whether it will work or not.

This is shit.