Classic Newbie experience

Hi All,
First, a sincere thank you to everyone who posts on this site. I just started using a straight a couple months ago, and feel I have learned on this site what would have taken years (or never) to figure out on my own, since I do not know anyone who shaves with a straight. Now to my first experience sharpening.... I purchased a set of stones on SRD (great website! I actually found it before finding this site, and see them discussed quite a bit here, so I feel good about my purchases). Anyway, I was super excited to sharpen for my first time. I watched a lot of Lynn videos, and read up on the wiki. I started on a 1k Naniwa, and progressed to 8 and then 12K. I took my time, was patient, felt a few errors, but tried to go slow enough not to damage the blade when my stroke was off... Once I completed going through my stones (about 30 minutes) I rushed off to the bathroom to strop and try it out! I was so excited by the time I got to the bathroom, I forgot to strop, or even thoroughly wash the blade after sharpening! The razor was sharp, but chewed the hell out of my face from the remnants of the stones, and not stropping! Dumb, but I got a good laugh out of it, a rash, and a sharp razor. Can't wait to continue working towards perfection!

Great story and I'm glad that you have posted. If your progression is 1k, 8k, 12k, then you might benefit from a 3k, 4k, or 5k inserted into the progression.

I agree with Utopian that you might benefit from an intermediate grit of 3k to 5k as it will lessen the amount of time on the 8k. I'd also suggest, if you haven't been doing so already, is to watch the bead of water in front of the blade. What I've learned from a thread here is that you want the the bead to eventually flow evenly upon the belly of the blade before moving up to the next level.