Hello, I was previously logged as a different name which I had to change to satisfy the family nature of this forum. I have been using a Mach3 for the last 16 or 17 years and now that I am 31, I decided to give straight razors a try as I had always wanted to. After much reading on the forums and youtube watching, I ordered a Dovo Best 6/8 hollow and Lynn's DVD from vintageblades.com. I also Ebayed a few online so I would have something to practice honing on and read that it is a good idea to have backup razors to switch off with so as to prolong the life of the blade. Today, I received my razors that I won on Ebay and was very pleasantly surprised to find that they were all in better shape than they appeared to be online. Amongst them were a Henkal's blade that is very clean and still has the original handle. So, I put the ugliest, wornest one (I think the blade was shortened) through an old wet stone I use for my knives. It was a freeby and I don't know much about it except it gets my pocket knife sharp enough to be practical. I put it through my new strop (from classicshaving.com) twenty on the fabric side and twenty on the leather side. I lathered up using Van Der Hagen, let my face chill with a warm towel, relathered and went to work. The blade felt like it kept snagging, similarly to how my old Mach3 would when the blade was getting old. When I was done, I rinsed my face in cold water and applied some Nivea sensitive face lotion (not that I'm sensitive, just don't like greasy). Once the slight razor burn feeling subsided with the application of lotion, my skin felt tight and soft. Afterwards, I went to work getting the razor sharper and tested it on my leg and forearm hairs and it is good to go, I think for a better run next time. I can't wait to get my Dovo and feel what a shave is supposed to feel like. I'm used to shaving with my mach3 in the shower with just water, so straight razor shaving was nice first time around even with a slightly less than super sharp razor. I am looking forward to many more good shaves. I also went to the mall and got samples of shaving creams and aftershaves. Bodyshop was happy to give some of their tester in small containers for me to take home ( and they weren't too stingy on it either). Kiehls also was happy to give testers that come in a little pre-proportioned sample packet (forgot to get the aftershave though). Sorry this post is so long but I'm quite excited and enthusiastic about my new endeavor.