Good morning,
I recently started straight razor shaving and have five shaves down now. I am shaving with a new DOVO classic 5/8 razor. I have a Bismarck #1067 hanging strop, I also have a 4k/8k and a 12k stone. I practiced on all of the sharpening apparatus with a cheap razor and I feel that after watching Lynn's video and with my practice, my technique is good for a newbie. So the first thing I did with the DOVO out of the box was strop it up. Slow even passes, rotating on the spine with light even pressure. I think i did 40 laps + or - and much to my surprise, it snapped a hanging hair. I lathered my left cheek and gave it a test. It did shave but it felt like it pulled a bit and I also got a little nick, not a bleeder but enough to end the first test. I decided to go to the hones and followed Lynn's advise and did a short pyramid as the razor was in good shape to start with. Back to the strop and then the face. Over the course of the next four shaves my technique is getting better but I know the blade could be sharper.

OK, the strop questions. I noticed that the blade does not always make contact with the strop in the middle, only on the heel and toe. I know this also because the blade shaves much cleaner with the heel and toe than the middle. The strop was fairly stiff new and I didn't get any dressing so I started rubbing it with a smooth glass bottle as per suggestions I have read here and that seemed to help a bit. I got some neats foot oil yesterday and have done a few applications followed by the bottle treatment. It is softening up a bit but I can still feel that it is not even across the width of the strop. Is this a defective piece of leather or is this a common problem in mid to low level strops? Should I continue to oil and rub? I can't afford the heirloom right now but I thought about getting the TM apprentice strop and making my current one a pasted strop. I assume I will not have these issues with one of Tony's. Any advise will be appreciated!

Thanks,