Hi all. Noob here from just a little south of DC. I've had a lifelong fascination with sharp things (I've even dabbled in amateur bladesmithing), and learning to shave with a.straight razor has been on my bucket list for a while. I started shaving with a DE safety razor a couple months ago, and I knew that'd lead to straights sooner or later. Turns out it was sooner, not later.

A while back my father-in-law gave me a handful of old SRs -- some his, some his father's. A couple weeks ago I dug them out and inspected them, and it turned out that that batch included a Wostenholm and a German marked "Engelswerk Solingen-Foche," (which Internet wisdom suggests is a CW or FW Engels) both in pretty much NIB condition. So I honed them to 0.1 micron on diamond lapping film and a granite surface plate, stropped on a homemade veg-tan paddle strop (nothing fancy about the leather), and am now five shaves into the learning curve.

Now, a question for you old hands. My shaves so far have been OK but not great, which I expected. (I do a couple passes with a straight, then finish with a DE.) I have a lot to learn, and shave #5 was quite a bit better than #1, so I'm on the right track. (Praise be to YouTube!) But I'm a little paranoid that my honing and stropping may not be quite up to par, and that could be holding me back a bit. Honestly, I suspect I'm probably OK. I've sharpened a lot of blades in my time, and these razors have the sharpest edges I've ever produced. I can float one along over the surface of a leg and treetop the hairs, no problem. Still, I'm paranoid. So I was thinking of sending one razor out to a honemeister, to get myself a reference standard for comparison. I'd like a couple recommendations for folks who could give me a perfect edge to show me what to aim for.

That's probably a longer intro than most noobs give, so I'll shut up now. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Matt