I got my razor (Dovo best quality, 11/16, full hollow) from SRD a few days ago and gave it a try last night with a bit of a beard. After the first try at a stroke I realized shaving a beard of 1/2 inch or longer clear off my face probably wasn't something I should try as a beginner. So I just put down the razor, dried it off and put it away. I trimmed my beard down to about 1/16 to 3/32 with my electric shaver. This morning I decided to try again. Showered, dried, stropped, lathered up with Williams mug soap and a cheap 5 dollar brush, and gave 'er a try.

I only shaved from the sideburns straight down to the cheekbone as suggested for first timers.

My results weren't really that good or that bad.

When I run my fingers down along where I shaved it has that smooth oily feeling. But when I run them against the grain, I can easily feel the stubble leftover despite making multiple passes of WTG short strokes. I can even still see the stubble in the mirror if I look very closely at a tangent to my skin.

I did make multiple passes as I kind of inspected it after each pass. I did 4 or 5 passes on each side trying to get rid of that little stubble leftover. Each subsequent pass I increased pressure and/or angle of the stroke to try to cut more of the stubble off.

I started with a very small angle to avoid cutting myself and to get the feel of it. I may not have increased my angle to a full 30 degrees. My pressure went from barely staying in contact with the skin to kind of pressing in in order to get that stubble off.

I shaved the rest of my face with an electric razor, ATG, and got a closer shave, with less irritation and redness.

I really hope straight razor shaving turns out to be a better method to shave with. It's such an appealing way to shave.