Hello I am new here, well I have been on a couple of weeks reading. I had an old razor with a chip in the blade that I purchased a while back because it was a local company and I liked the way it looked. I then decided I wanted to get something and try out a shave. That is when I found this site. So I purchased an vintage Henckels twinworks at an antique mall. The blade wasn't cracked or anything but did have a few "rough" areas. I read about the technique and got my stones out and actually went and purchased a 1000/6000 waterstone from a local place. It took me a few hours and I finally had the blade where I wanted it. I didn't have a good strop but I had a piece of one I had used in the past for my hunting knives, etc. I purchased the wal-mart shaving kit and upgraded the soap to col. conk. I had actually been using soap for a little while on my old razor. I am not going to say it was the closest shave I have ever had as I was a little to nervous to go ATG but it was almost as good as my Mach 3 and the only areas I had a little trouble with, other than ATG , was above my lip. I used my M3 to finish up above my lip. I can say this was the most enjoyable shave I have ever had and I am looking forward to learning the ATG technique. I have found the resources here very useful and I am looking forward to learning a lot more!