I did the same thing as yourself. I was about 22 years old when I bought a str8 and tried to shave with it. OUCH! All it did was pull at ever whisker on my face. I had no idea that even a brand new razor still needed to be honed. It was put into a drawer and stayed there for 20 years. When the economy started tanking so bad, I figured I would pull it out and learn up on using a str8. That's how I came to find SRP and within minutes I found where it still needed to be honed. I used a Smith's tri stone (Highly not recomended to use) and got enough of an edge where I saw a huge difference. I wound up buying a set of Norton's and ordered a shave ready razor from by barber. I've been shaving with a str8 for about 7 months now and love it! Once you get your razor honed, you'll find a huge difference and most likely get addicted.

Good luck and happy shaving!

By the way, I started buying vintage razors and probably have about 20 of them. ADDICTING I TELL YOU! LOL!