Hello everyone

I know that tomandjerry00 just made a similar post to this one but i had some more spacific questions....

I just purchased a Illinois #827 and was wondering what I need to do to prepare it for use. Also i had read that some of you do not like the linen side. Is it going to damage my razor or will it just not be useful. Is there anything that I could do to make it perform better? My razor is a DOVO carbon steel.

Thanks.