Everywhere I looked I found threads about how the shavette is almost like shaving with a flint rock compared to a SR. I think I get a better shave with my shavette.

Here's some background info...
About 3 months ago I went to "art of shaving". picked up a shavette and their sensative skin starter kit (brush, pre shave, after shave, and cream). After the second day I stopped using the pre shave. After about 2 weeks I gave up on their shaving cream because it felt smoother using my old chemical foam. Haha. I blame it on hard water.

My third day shaving I found this site and learned about prep and technique. I shaved for about 2 months before I bought a vintage Geneva cutlery. My first shave was great! I soon realized it wasn't that great, I was just really excited. The seller honed it and it was shave ready on arrival but seemed to tug a lot and I bled more. I sent it to SRP to let a pro hone it and I still prefer my shavette.

I'm still only shaving WTG because my skin is too sensavtive after the first pass, and the razor really does not want to go ATG (probably due to bad beard prep). Also if this helps, my normal pass consists of many short strokes because the razor pulls on the hairs too much. I don't know how I can pull my face any tighter, which probably explaines the irritation.

Techneique seems ok, stropping seems to be working well, beard prep however is probably horrible.

Do you think that beard prep may be what makes the SR shine more than the shavette? I'm sure I'm doing many things wrong but luckily I feel like I'm making progress.

Thank you to all of you who took the time to read about my problems. I'm really a hands on learner so this has been a pretty tough experience.