I will just mention in response to #5 that I previously was rinsing my shavette off in hot water between strokes, but recently switched to wiping it off on a damp towel. It gets the hair off faster and I just rinse off the towel thoroughly afterwards (though if I owned more that 2 towels, I would use a fresh towel each time, but it doesn't strike me as a big deal).

So +1 for wiping on a towel.