I've been lurking on the forum for a little while, and I figured now would be a good time to introduce myself. So hello, all, and thanks much for all the information you've provided so far, which I greatly appreciate.

I ordered a starter kit from Tony Miller and a hone from Tilly, and since the former arrived today I decided to try it out. I've had a beard for about a year, born of frustration with the electric shaver, but because of work I can only keep it until the end of the month. My beard is too patchy above my jaw line to grow out, so I figured a good way to start practicing would be to try and shave my cheeks and the lower part of my neck where I keep the beard trimmed back. I'm happy to say I did not cut myself, and I think I did a pretty good job on my cheeks. The lower neck I'm less proud of, but it doesn't feel any worse than when the electric is finished, so I'd say that's an okay start. Did a lot of experimenting with angles and changing hands, and will have to continue to do so.

What surprised me the most, though, is the fact that, well, I had fun shaving for the first time in my life. I may actually enjoy going beardless again!

Of course, being a beginner, I know I'm not doing everything correctly, and that brings me to my questions:

1) Stropping. I'm using a hanging strop, holding it taught, and going slowly and gently with blade as flat as I can hold it, spine and edge in contact with the strop. I'm not, however, feeling any drag, and the rasping noise is almost imperceptible. What, if anything, should I be doing differently?

2) Lather. The lather I made (using hard soap in a mug) seemed adequately functional, but it reminded me more of gel than any lather I'd ever seen - I couldn't seem to create any bubbles, so the result was a flat coating on my face which I couldn't build up the way I'd expect to be able to do with lather. It also dried more quickly than I would have liked, but that may have more to do with the fact that I wasn't shaving very quickly than anything I did with the soap. What am I doing wrong?

Those were the two major things that crossed my mind. No doubt I'll have more questions in the future :-)

Thanks in advance for any advice, and thanks again to Tilly and Tony Miller for prompt service and products I look forward to using for many years.

-Feng_Li