Quote Originally Posted by Fenwayfan77 View Post
Well, i'm a newbie, so you probably don't want my opinion!! haha. However, maiden voyage was last night. Went pretty slow. Need to get the feel of maneuvering the razor as opposed to a DE/SE. Didn't have any issues or irritation. However, i need to figure out how to handle it and go against the grain on my neck. Unfortunately, my neck hair grows sideways from the Adam's apple towards my ears on both sides. Rather difficult to figure out that angle. Will need more practice and tips. I just did a cleanup on the neck ATG with my SE.

Now, since I don't have prior experience, I can't tell you how well it shaves in comparison to other razors. It supposedly came "shave ready" but I'm pretty sure i'm going to send it out to get professionally honed by one of the guys on the forum. Will work on that. I just want to know that i'm getting the sharpest blade I can. It was enjoyable trying it out, but it definitely was not as buttery smooth as I would have hoped. Not as clean a cut as my SE for example. I'm sure that's either a combination of experience/blade sharpness or that's just how a straight shaves. Ha.
Even newbies can tell us something. I have only been at this for a little over a year myself. I too went from DE to straights.

At first I really didn't get anywhere near as close. I realised that I was applying too much pressure, the more I reduced the pressure the closer my shaves became. DE blades are sharper but I do now much prefer the feel of a straight.

I must confess that when I travel I still use DEs and because of what I have learned using straights my DE technique has improved dramatically.

I also have had trouble with my neck the hair grows right down almost to my collar level. I have found that the ATG to be quite tricky. I get it right now much more often than not. It is also the best metric for when I know my blades need touching up. I feel it there first.

Thanks for sharing and good luck with your journey. You have chosen a very good razor to start with.