I am new to straight shaving. I was looking for a project during the slow winter months here in Wisconsin and this seemed to be right up my alley. I picked up a Wade and Butcher from an antique store but it was not really sharp enough though it was in good condition, cost only 10 dollars, and will be good to practice honing on once I get up to that point. I purchased a black star Dovo from Straight Razor Designs and a honing stone (planning ahead for my W&B). This razor was supposed to come professionally honed, tested, and stropped. I was confident going into my first shave that it would do the trick. I was unpleasantly surprised that it hung up quite a bit on the first pass. The sound it made was of a metal bar being dragged through a wheat field. I figured it was because it was sitting for a while and needed to be stropped first. So I let it sit for a couple days. This morning I again felt up to the challenge so I carefully stropped the blade and prepped my face. It did a decent job on my sides on first pass though I was still getting some feed back from the blade and it did not seem to glide as I have seen on the videos that I have watched. My neck was a sort of nightmare as I am thin and have plenty of valleys and veins that looked much more vulnerable than I have ever noticed before. I did make the first pass successfully but nowhere near as close as my safety razor. I was set and determined to do a ATG pass but gave up as every whisker I hit snagged and my blade began to jump.
So at this point I am not sure where to go. Does the blade just need to be stropped better? I noticed when taking it out of the package that the wear on the spine was considerable and uneven. I wondered immediately if the quality of the honing job was questionable. I would not have thought anything of it if I was satisfied with the performance but now that it was less than I expected doubt has creeped in. I will wait a couple more days and give it another try, this time stropping it a bit more (40 passes on the first try). It might also be the soap that I am using. It was a gift that from my wife and is locally made. Might now have the lubrication needed. But the hanging up and the pressure needed was a red flag even if there was no soap.
Any advice from anyone on this would be greatly appreciated. I am not looking for a perfect shave on the first run, but I want to know where my folly is coming from and there are so many variables at this point that I don't want to change what is working and would hate to misplace the blame on a razor when it is something much more simple than that.