Gents,

I won a shave ready razor off of eBay a while back from Bob Keyes. I tried shaving with it a few times before I had a strop, which I think kinda dulled the blade. Today, I received a 4 sided paddle strop with diamond pasted sides from Tony Miller. Stropped a few times and tried it out. Still pretty rough and tended to grab my beard. I decided to try to use the 0.25 micron paste. Made 30 passes and stropped 30 passes. MY GOSH, the difference. It must have really made a difference because I tried it after that and it really was quite a bit sharper. I gave myself my first couple of nicks with a straight razor. Nothing too serious.

The thing that I was amazed at was how uncoordinated and unnatural the movements of shaving and stropped were. I watched the videos and read the manuals and it seemed so easy. When I was actually doing it however, I felt like I was learning to write again or something. I guess that's what practice is for.....