I'm very new to this and bought a shave ready razor from a reputable source. I found my first shave with this did pull a little, but not as much as my cartridge razor on hair the same length. Of course I thought this was fantastic. Before my next shave I practiced the stropping movement before moving on to strop the razor and it went well, but still the same slight pulling. Because the shave had been like this from the start I thought I was doing well, until yesterday...

Yesterday a bit of forum browsing reminded me of the need for a light touch and plenty of strokes. I really tried hard to have the least pressure possible, got that nice hiss on the strop and went for 60 strokes. This took an age of man because of my inexperience, but it was worth it. The razor was like a knife through butter, no pulling at all. I thought at first I'd blunted it and it was just sliding over the hair until I felt my skin. Amazing.

For beginners my advice is: you don't know a sharp razor until you've tried one, so if it pulls it probably isn't, even if it's better than a cartridge. Mine passed the HHT at the start, but I'm not sure now that this is foolproof as a way of testing 'shave ready'. Be very gentle when you strop and even if it takes ages and your women folk start shouting at you to hurry up do plenty of strokes!

And I hope more experienced members can comment on this: Shave ready may not mean shave ready, it may mean honed and stropped to HHT but not 'shave', if there is a difference?