Ok, so all of us here span the range from rank newbees to seasoned veterans and I'm sure most of us consider ourselves to be at least adequate honers. Therefore we all KNOW that our razors are sharp and give the best possible shaves.

If we have a razor honed by a true expert then we know for sure what such a razor feels like and we know the characteristics of a truly great shave. But for most of us we have to use our own skills and go by the usual tests and our own instincts as to what a truly great shave feels like.

I often wonder how many of us think we are getting a great shave but in fact have gotton use to a mediocre shave but don't realize it. Probably it was no different 100 years ago. Alot of guys just never got good comfortable shaves and that played right into the hands of Mr Gillette and he knew that and it was another reason people dropped using straights in favor of DE's.

So my question to everyone is what criteria do you use with each of your razors that makes YOU positive your getting the best shaves possible? To you,what does a great shave feel like? I'm not really asking for a technical answer as to what a well honed razor looks like but just what it feels like on your face.

And while were on that subject assuming you know what that perfect shave feels like can you get it equally from any quality razor or are there some razors that no matter how much time you spend honing they just don't seem to reach the same level of shaving nirvana as others or do you believe that any quality razor can be made to shave equally well?