Ok... I've got an update. Since the last post in this thread, Gugi graciously loaned me a nice little Bengal wedge. It shaved very smoothly, similarly to what I'm used to. I'm really glad that it was a wedge because that answers Bart's question from before, as well. Considering I've never really had any issues getting very good results from other steels, I'm thinking that Gugi's suggestion that I hadn't gotten a "quality" Sheffield blade yet. Either that or there's something in my technique that isn't quite working with Sheffield steel as well as it does with the American and German (and Chinese for that matter) steel.

Thanks again, Ivan