I guess I'm a little older than a lot of the members here-56, so I started with a DE,and played with the old mans Rolls Razor,and grandpas SE,but I didn't know how to hone a SE. My father had the same Italian barber for at least 20 years and he showed me what to do and gave me a shavette,and Ive used them on and off for the past 39 years,but a good straight is much better than a shavette,so when I started buying razors I found this place and a few others and what surprised me the most was that many didn't even know about DEs, what did they think we used before cartridges?