I got the dull razor blues...

[shinyribs]

When i first got in to all of this business with str8s i wasn't sure if it would pan out or not so I sorta cheaped out.Or so I thought.I went to the local beauty supply shop and bought a Personna Magic "straight" razor.It's just a little plastic scaled blade holder that holds one half of a DE blade.Learning how to shave with those sheet metal blades was interesting,nerve wracking and a little bloody at times.I became very close with my styptic pencil during these times.I almost named it but knew it's life would be short in my care so did not commit to a lasting relationship with it.Everything seemed to be going well and i was enjoying the new found skin health benefits of str8 shaving immediately.So I jumped in head first and bought a "shave ready" Dovo Best Quality razor in a very complete kit and commenced to stropping away.Very disappointing.The razor pulled and tugged and was very noisy as it cut my facial hair.The DE blades are so sharp that you never hear the hairs "breaking off",they just slice off nice and smooth without a fuss.I was chalking up my disappointment to bad technique and inexperience. Along this time I stumbled across a very nice looking W&B in an antique store for $15.I got it home,disinfected it,stropped it and shaved with it as is.No honing!It shaved considerably better than my "shave ready" Dovo I paid much more for.Not cool.Well,the W&B was doing good but I could still hear it struggling thru the hairs and never shaved as smooth as my disposable razor.Much less clumsy and a lot more fun/satisfying to shave with.But BBS just wasn't happening.So I sent it out for professional honing since my hone collection basically does not exist.That,plus I just wanted it right.When it came back home I was very pleased with it as it shaves much smoother and quieter than before,but I still cannot get BBS with it,or even close.Not even my sideburns will go completely smooth with it. So my question is this:can a straight razor,a real solid blade razor,not one that holds refills,actually be made as sharp as a DE blade?It is very annoying to own these two beautiful razors(the W&B and the Dovo)yet I use my $7 Personna Magic "blade holder"with Wilkinson Sword blades every night to touch up because i refuse to shave only to finish with 5 o'clock shadow.What am I missing here?