All we can do is share our experiences based on our memories. I was honing my own blades within the first month, but generally shaving with a Shavette during that early period. If I had to give timelines, I would say that my shaving with an SR started getting competent at about three months. At six months, and shaving every day, I was using my own honed blades and getting what I felt were really good shaves. While I never concerned myself much with BBS, I did want perfectly smooth sides of the face and a perfectly smooth neck as well. I think my quest for that clearly accelerated when I became comfortable with the ATG pass. While I had used it for some time, it took additional time to learn how to be aggressive with the blade and get the job done without causing any problems. After two and a half years, I still feel like I make progress with every shave, but I think I was achieving all the personal goals I had set at the one year point. By this time as well I was getting it all done within ten minutes, and that was important to me.