Hey all. I'm originally from western PA, but currently living in Augusta, GA. I've been in the US Army for a little over 13 years. My hobbies include playing piano, reading, playing video games, and building computers. I'm an avid scotch and brandy drinker and like the occasional cigar to go along with. I'm also starting to get into home brewing my own beer. I guess I could say I'm getting into straight razor shaving because I'm tired of just throwing money at disposables and, when you get down to it, I'm kind of an old fashioned kind of guy and the whole idea of a straight razor shave appeals to me. I've got a 11/16 full hollow round tip vintage on the way along with soap, a best badger brush, an illinois #127 strop, and....probably most importantly, a styptic pencil lol. I figure I'll take my time and spend a few weeks shaving with the disposable and using the brush and soap and practice good face preparation, getting a good lather, and stretching my face. Then I'll move on to the easy planes and slowly build from there. I've already checked out a lot of videos and plan to keep on watching them until it's ingrained in my memory long before I ever touch razor to face. Anyways...what a long winded introduction! Thanks for providing this website...it has such a wealth of information on it and I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions once I truly begin.