I've been reading through the archives for a while and I've got more questions now than before. I think my favorite line is something like ask three straight razor users a question and you will get eight opinions. For my first razor I'm looking for something that will be a great shaver and last me for as long as I take care of it, but I'm not looking to break the bank and not looking for anything ornate. The only thing I've figured out is that whatever razor I decide on I'll have it honed for me by an expert to start. Although I'm reminded every morning that I "need" to shave every day, my modal frequency of shaves is one per week. My hair is moderately coarse and fairly dense. I've been using a DE for most of my shaving life and don't have problems with skin irritation. Since when I do shave I have a lot of hair to move through, should I be looking for a wedge or 1/4 hollow, and if so where is a good place to look? For an idea of price, I've already got a mug, brush, and soap so I figure to get started I'm going to have to buy a razor, a strop for daily use, and a pasted strop/hone and my budget for those items is roughly the equivalent of a mid-level Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. It sounds from reading here that in the future I'll probably end up buying more stuff, but I'm just worried about getting started for now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ryan