I'm still consider myself a newbie to SR shaving but I am still trying to better my shaving and sharpening techniques. A little while back, I was re-watching Lynn's video on honing and finally noticed that when he finished with the hones he said do the usual fifty strokes on the leather strop. Then it sank in, he said FIFTY. I had been doing only ten or twelve strokes before shaving and getting just OK shaves. Next shave, I hit the fifty strokes on my old Illinois 992 and what a difference in closeness and comfort it made. So, two days later, I tried it again with a different razor. Bingo! Close and comfortable with no razor burn after. Just goes to show, one has to pay close attention to all aspects of shaving with SRs.