Got Tony's strops in the mail and had a go at stropping up my three (three? What the heck) razors. I put the feather in the drawer and did a proper shave today.

I decided to try the W&B I bought from eBay. I could tell it wasn't as sharp as the dovo Tony sent me in the starter kit but I wanted to try it. Damn thing wasn't sharp enough at ALL, kept tugging and pulling and on my 2nd pass I still had stubble standing.

So I pulled out the little 4/8 kronpunkt I traded from Gary. Wow, that thing is like a little ferarri compared to the feather. It zipped all over my face snip snip snipping away. Got a nice smooth shave (not as close as the feather, though) with it.

I have to say shaving with the feather has helped me learn to be careful and to learn the correct motions but a proper straight does feel different. I had to use a LOT more pressure on the blade, with the feather if you press down you're going to cut yourself pretty much... so I'd almost actually "lift" the blade a little as I was using it. With the regular straight I had to unlearn that habit.

My question is this... I have a pasted paddle strop from Tony with .5, 1 and 3 micron grits (his recommendations). I'm working on the Wade and Butcher to get it to be comfortably sharp instead of the condition it's currently in, so how much and how many passes would you guys recommend on the different grits? I tried about 10 passes on the 3 micron, then 15 on the 1 and 20 on the .5 (then stropped it on the leather for 30) and it made a marked improvement, but the toe and heel areas are still a bit duller than the center part (so I've been concentrating on those).

BTW Gary, thanks for the kronpunkt, I honestly didn't think I'd like the size (it comes across as almost dainty and my fiancee called it "cute") but it works around my moustache and goatee really well and it is quite comfortable.

Oh, NO CUTS, NO NICKS. Woohoo!

-- Gary F.