Thanks guys for the advice. My only other question is when you say 25 times on webbed side do you mean 25 times back and forth (50 total) or just 25 total (13 one way and 12 coming back)?

Yes I am very thankful for my wife's generousity, but it was a Christmas present and the amount i spent on her would have both me at least a few Mastro Livi's .

So far I am so happy to be using a traditional straight again (actually it is fantastic). I liked the feather a lot but always felt like it was a fake shave (and it was so unforgiving). I just hope my shoddy stropping doesn't ruin the new razor.

I also always bought "shave ready" razors when I used to use a tradtional. I realize now they were not actually shave ready. I also thought stropping sharpening the blade, so as you can see, I never had a chance.