The reason I asked was that I had heard this and I have gone through so many different stages in my straight shaving adventure, only once (for a period of about 2 months) did I seem to be getting really smooth shaves that were close. For the last couple of months I have found it difficult to get smooth acceptable shaves, same razors, same stropping, same soaps/creams, same technique yet for some reason it's just not coming together and I have to resort to using a de to get a decent shave (shudders).