So I went with the standard-issue Dovo 5/8 that you all reccommend for newbs, strop from srp, been alternating between my old tweezerman and a simpson beufort to see which I like better, col. conk bay rum soap, and c.o. bigelow bay rum balm. Gotta say, it's not as hard as the intro how-to stuff makes it out to be. Shaved my whole face the first try with only one cut, and subsequently every other day for the past week with no cuts and beautiful results. Only problem I'm having is that I can't seem to get quite as close as I'd like right under my jaw line and I find the angles for across the grain to be pretty tricky. It's loads of fun, though. Takes me a while so I don't have time to do it in the mornings but I do it right before bed and my beard's not thick enough to need to be shaved again in that short amount of time. I'm surpised at how much better it is than the ol' mach 3.