Greetings from a DE shaver...but not for long.

Good Morning,
The name is Brian and I'm seriously contemplating the move from DE to straight razor. Shaving with a DE is a much, MUCH better experience than with the multi-blade razors. I've got my lather under control and learned a bit of patience with the DE. I've even learned how to shave with a DE will at sea during a storm that kicked the seas up. Now that I'm getting ready to be in one place, hopefully for the remainder of my days, I'm looking at getting into the straight razor shaving experience. I've looked over the videos and read the Wiki posts and am feeling good about it. What I'm looking for is some advice on decent razors (I know that is a wide open question, like what is the best car or cup of coffee) and more specifically some experiences that the veterans had when they first started stropping. Some say to strop before and after; some say just before. What is "pull", meaning, "This strop is good and has decent pull when using it." Another question, does anybody live in the Springfield, MO / Ozark, MO area that shaves with a straight razor that would like to give some advise? Where can I get a blade re-sharpened if I screw it up on the honing block (not that I would do that with a new, shave-ready blade), which leads me to my next question. When do I know when I would need to hone my blade.

Thanks for the assistance and hope to hear from you soon.

Brian Wright