I suggest spending a bit of time reading the shaving fora:

http://badgerandblade.com/

http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/index.php

Yes, it's very time consuming. The learning curve is steep. The results can be miraculous.

A poorly honed/stroped brand new $1000 high end cut throat razor will be worse than a supermarket blade. If you get a quality high end blade and really hone/strop it with top notch hones/strops nothing compares to a cut throat. It's not even close. DEs with good German/Japanese blades comes close. Likewise Japanese Feather cut throats with disposable blades, although these are harsher. Supermarket mass market multiblade razors are truly terrible.

Last edited by Sator (2009-05-29 01:34:23)

My pre-shave preparation is probably much more elaborate than yours:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9745

I always shower and moisturise my beard prior to that as well. I also use Proraso pre-shave beard conditioner.

It can take me a whole evening to hone a new blade using a graduated series of half a dozen fairly expensive hones. Then it takes up to half an hour each evening of stropping with a graduated series of special strops each time I use a blade, followed by several minutes of stropping immediately prior to shaving. With that I can tell you there is an enormous different. The reason: you can't improve on a cartridge, but you are constantly learning ways to improve the sharpness and smoothness of a cut throat. It's a never ending learning curve. I am at a point where I can get a blade so much sharper and more refined than the commercial junk it isn't funny - but you have to be prepared for the fact that takes a long time to get there. Barbers used to go to a trade school to learn their trade.

Bottom line for me is this: a quality edge makes a difference to the shave.  It means a closer shave with fewer passes and reduced irritation. Quality DE blades from German and Japanese makers most people have never heard of are also far sharper and smoother. Feather blades are wickedly sharp compared to the supermarket stuff. With the big makers using Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in their ads, you have to be suspicious that they are spending more money on promotion to pull the wool over your eyes than on manufacturing quality blades.

Every so often (I use a Puma Inox). I usually don't have the prep time these days so I use Feathers in an old Gillette double edge handle. Works fine.