Hi Gents (and ladies?)

New guy here, been doing the ol' hack and slash with that cartridge barbage for the last ten years after aplying cold gel to my face with my fingers. Never again! Just when you think life ran out of little pleasures for you to explore it turns out the most dreaded part of the day can be an enjoyable one!

Before I get to my question to the experts, let me start out by thanking all those who contribute to these wonderfull forums! Such a vast array of knowledge and what seems like a friendly bunch of nutcases! Just my kind of place!

I also apologize for asking a question in my very first post!

In any case, I got a straight razor shave at a barber last month and loved the experience so much I decided to go at it at home. After some reading and research I decided to buy a couple of razors online and related items. Sure enough, picked up a Boker and a Dovo Ironwood from SRD as well as a strom, some creams, and other items. Not only was the buying experience a pleasure (fast and friendly) but the prices where great and the razors arrived in amazing shave ready condition! Followed the advice on shaving and stropping and although the shaves where very good I know I still need some work to get really good at shaving and stropping, and since I am not very good with my hands usually and preffer the work of a proffesional I will leave the honing to the masters.

Here is the thing though, I travel and live in Dubai and Riyadh, and there are no Honemeisters around, and I am sure no one as good as Lynn Abrams. So I will have to ship the razors all the way to the states, not a problem for me but I would like to maximize the intervals so I am getting a 7 day set and wondering what minimal equipment do I need to maintain them for the longest time? A year would be great!

My thinking is that if I get 7-9 razors (2 Dovos, a Boker, and a few TI) in shave ready condition and be vigilant about stropping I can get to a year easy. But what would eb the optimal stropping method? My strop has both a canvas and leather attachments, when to use which?

Lastely, although I do not want to get involved in pastes and a collection of stones, I am not completely opposed to buying one stone, a barbers hone for example, and using that every few months. Thing is I am not very good with my hands and do not want to damage the blade on my razors.

Looking forward to your insight guys!