Then you should not practice honing on something that needs to be properly honed. Best to learn to shave & strop first, hone later.
Try practice stropping on a single sheet of newspaper held by a clip. Most but not all mistakes will become obvious.
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Thank you all for the suggestions and info. The shaves did start as good when I first got the razor, so yeah, pretty sure it's me. I'm most likely going to send it back to get re-honed and will go ahead and grab a leather strop as well. If Lynn mentions what the specific issue might be, I'll report back.