Greetings, I've lurked on most of the shaving sites I could find for months now and I've finally decided to take the plunge. At my stage in life, I am fortunate enough to have more money than sense, so I jumped in the deep-end and picked up everything I think I will need. If anyone is interested in critiquing the setup I would appreciate knowing where I went wrong or what dangers I should look out for with what I picked up. With that, here is the setup:

Razor: Professionally-Honed DOVO All Stainless Steel, 5/8
Brush: Rooney Shaving Brush, Style 3, Medium, "Super Silvertip"
Strop: American Made 3" Extra Wide Mountain Strop
Shaving Cream: Castle Forbes Essential Oil Shaving Cream
Oops Stick: Pinaud/Clubman "Nick Relief"

Now, if you will indulge me, I have a couple of questions that I could not resolve in my research.

1) Is the "Professionally-Honed DOVO All Stainless Steel, 5/8" shave ready? They had "factory honed" and "professionally honed", but I'm still not sure that means shave-ready.

2) On the recommendation of the wiki here, I did not buy a hone at all. Am I naive enough to believe that you can, for the life of the razor, merely keep it sharp using the fabric and leather sides of the strop? This was one aspect of the whole straight razor business I found a hard time finding an answer to.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to liberal use of the styptic pen as I wander down the road of straight razors as I will use it for both my head and face.

Regards,

Bodach, cut-throat in training