Longhaultanker here, truckin' on the road. I'm from Houston, Texas, but I could be anywhere at any give time. I started straight razor shaving about six months ago. When hog deep into it. When I made the decision to do this I went to youtube and started watching videos. Decided to start with honing stones first. Bought full set of Sharpton Glass stones and a Gold Dollar 208. Started honing away. Lynn Abrams, Geofatboy, Drmatt357, Howard Schechter, others influenced me. My first shave on my own honed blade was an experience... not too bad but for that pretty good cut on the left side of my mouth. Things got better. More honing, more stropping. Now I've got 2 Thiers Issard and 2 Dovo of different sizes and points. Oddly, my 7/8 TI square point is giving me my best shaves - tough whiskers on this old man. Right now, my Gold Dollar 208 is still my sharpest.

I want to give a hat tip to the folks at ClassicShaving.com. My last truck run took me to Santa Ana, CA, passing through Palm Springs where CS is located. I called ahead to see if it was alright to stop by. I was greeted by Katie whom I had talked to several times. She introduced me to Will, owner along with his wife. Will gave me the grand tour of CS, showed me numerous products, and we talked for over 2 hours. Best thing I learned was less honing and more stropping. But it was great to visit and get validation that most of what I was doing was on the mark. (Fortunately there was a truck stop very near by). Great folks there!