Well gentlemen, I finally did it........last night I was able to have a presentable one pass shave. I'm about, oh 15 or 20 shaves into this adventure, but a change in technique and good razor and beard prep made it possible.

The soap: Provence de Sante
The brush: Omega 10049
The razor: generic extra hollow ground PIFed to me by a member on B&B.

I started with a nice hot shower, then lathered and two minutes with hot towel on my face. Then lathered again and started with ATG this time instead of my usual N-S, S-N, out-in routine. Starting with ATG made all the difference in the world, I think. I rarely do a hot towel, and can't really tell the difference in my beard when I do it, but yesterday was stressful and I needed it! I think the difference in technique really made the biggest difference. I also stropped 20 times on balsa with CrOx and 20 times on balsa with FeOx then 50 times on my poor man, which helped bring the razor back a little. The before and after arm hair tests were very telling. Before, it would barely pop arm hair. After, all my arm hair is half it's length. Oh, but it won't pass the HHT test. I think I'm going to order some hones from Larry so I can get it to pass the HHT.

I also included the diagonal stroke across my throat, which resulted in a couple of nicks due to learning a new technique, but a very nice shave as well.

All in all, I was able to get an "out the door" "business meeting quality" shave in one pass. It wasn't a "date night" level shave, but I'm not kissing anyone from the office either! So stick with it any fellow newbies. It can be done!