niclane,
Good question. I am also pretty new myself and I had a razor that would slice a hair with the "ting" sound. I thought that this was because it is labled a "singing" razor. When I shaved it wasn't uncomfortable but there was some pulling. I just got this really old razor from an antique shop and got it shave-ready. At first I thought that it may not be sharp enough but once I shaved with it I was amazed. One of the areas that I have a hard time shaving is my moustache on the sides of my upper lip. The hair grows weird or something because it is just hard to get with my other razor. The new one took it right off and overall had much less drag.
I guess you should just hone your razor a bit if you have a chance. I know that my other razor would have been really good if it had a little more honing. This new one took me a while to get ready to shave, and now it works really well. I don't have a microscope or anything fancy, I just honed and honed until it shaved my arm "really" well. I now have many patches of arm hair missing from trying it every few laps.
If you have a hone, try using the Honing Pyramid found on this site. I believe Randy put it together with some of Lynn's advice. It worked for me.
Good Luck...