So my first shave with a straight razor in a very long time. I have been shaving with several different types of DE razors for almost 3 years now and did try a straight razor at one time but it was a no name razor but cheaply off the internet and my sink looked like an operating table. I bought my Ralf Aust from SRD along with a 3" strop and oil for the blade. Have to say it wasn't as smooth as I had hoped, I am sure purely my technique and I am a little shaky with it, so only did one pass and then did finish passes with my Merkur Progress. Wiped the blade on my towel a couple times to see if I was getting anything and sure enough I was getting lots of hair, all WTG. Will try to keep doing this as much as possible and hopefully on to more passes, but the single pass takes a while right now with me just learning. I like it, just hoping it would feel smoother. I will say no blood bath this time, with that single pass, not even a slight cut, but shh I don't want to jinx it.