And I thought the DE version of wet shaving had swallowed me up these past four months: I'm afraid I may be sliding over to the deep end...

Hello everyone. I switched to DE shaving in November, and I've been loving it. Needless to say it became an active hobby pretty quickly, and I've succumbed to RAD, SAD, even a bit of SBAD, all while stumbling while I learned and refined my angle, pressure, and lather (why don't they tell you how important and elusive great lather can be?). Recently, my DE shaves have been great and pretty much problem-free.

Maybe because I'm craving a new challenge, and maybe because the idea of a straight razor has been seductively whispering to me the whole time (however much it did and does intimidate me), maybe because it just has such a bad-ass appeal, I've decided to give straight razor shaving a try. Gulp!

Based on recommendations on another forum, I ordered a "sight unseen" razor and poor man's strop kit from Larry at Whipped Dog. Then this afternoon, after spending more time (too much time?) reading up on this whole catastrophe I placed an order with Portland Razor Co. for one of their Siren models. I figure the 7-8 week lead time for that will leave me with some quality starter time with the other one.

So, I haven't even held a straight yet and I already have two on the way. I figured I'd better register here and avail myself of another strong community and all the information you have to offer. I'm just hoping the potential satisfaction from learning to wield a very sharp piece of metal will outweigh the bloodshed.