JMS, I'm interested in your statement that "the blade glided though my whiskers as if they weren't there." I read similar statements from time to time (like a velvet windshield wiper," "like a knife throgh butter," etc.) I don't dispute those statements, but I'd like to know how it's done, and I'd like to be able to do it myself. I have been on a (futile) quest for the perfect shave for as long as I have been shaving (47 years). I've been shaved by a lot of barbers, I have shaved with most every new razor and razor blade that has hit the market, and, of course with straight razors. I have had straight razors honed by various honemiesters, including a razor honed on a coticule. I can hone pretty well myself. I have never had a shave where the blade glided through my whiskers as if they weren't there. Mostly I hone my own razors, and they pass all the regular tests. I can shave with a variety of strokes; I've shaved using only water; I can get a BBS shave with one pass, but always I can feel the razor as it cuts my whiskers. I'd like to shave or be shaved with a razor that cuts so well I can't feel it cutting, and if ever I can, I'd sure as heck like to be able to get my own razors to cut like that. I know what it feels like to have my razor glide over my face as if my whiskers weren't there, because that is the feeling I get if I shave over a portion of my face that is already BBS smooth, but I just can't duplicate the feeling when my razor has whiskers to cut. If I take these various statements literally, they can only mean that shaving a BBS face feels the same as shaving a face with a growth of whiskers. I'd like to experience that.