Today marked my fourth SR shave. I started with a set of 70 laps on the strop. I took a shower and used Nivea pre-shave face scrub while my brush was soaking in hot water. I built up a lather with my AoS lavender shave cream and used AoS pre shave oil and lathered on top of it while I got everything ready and gave my razor 10 more laps on the strop. I relathered and started my WTG shave. It went pretty smoothly today but I still feel like I have some tugging and every so often there feels almost like a suction between my neck and the blade.

My XTG went okay... I had a little time constraint so I neglected my upper lip since it came out pretty good in the first pass. I had some nerves since my last shave left me with a nice 2 inch slice on my left cheek! My neck came out a little better than it has but is still stubbly. I finished up with cold water and AoS after shave lavender (I love the smell but I have some ToB sandlewood on it's way!)

My razor only passes the HHT in the middle. And I am aware that it's not an accurate way to test the sharpness of a blade but since the toe or heel doesn't pass is there something I should do to improve that? Is there something that I should be looking for or looking out for as a beginner? With the tugging is there something I should look out for, especially when it comes to my neck? Lastly how often should I oil my strop?

Thanks in advance,

Rob