Hello Gents! I just wanted to introduce myself, I'm new to the straight and DE shaving world, having just bought a Merkur 43C DE, and a Dovo 5/8 straight.

I want to thank you guys for all the information that you all have put here, it's been instrumental in helping me choose the right stuff to get started with.

Now, I haven't used the straight yet, as it's still in shipping, but the Merkur DE is a beautiful piece. I've only shaved with it twice so far, and it's a real treat to look at and to hold. Has really nice weight.

The only issue I've had so far is razor burn. I've tried both the Merkur blade and an Astra blade, and both have given me some pretty bad burn, mostly on my upper lip. I'm a long time multi-blade shaver, and haven't had razor burn like this in years. I was planning on changing blades again to try the feather that a lot of folks seem to like, but I'm going to assume im doing something wrong too.

Any suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong? I'm trying to use as close to zero pressure as I can remember to do, letting the heft of the razor do the cutting, and trying to figure out the best angles. Also, it seems to be that I get the burn on my second pass, which has been a ATG pass, the same as I would do with my multi blade razor, but it never burned me.

Thanks everyone, appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

-Jeff