Corking SE blades?

[nortac]

Having just started to use SE blades during GEMini, I noticed that the first few shaves on a new SE blade are rather harsh, but improve with subsequent shaves. This seems to be much more pronounced with SE blades than with DE blades, IME. So does anyone cork their new SE blades or otherwise prepare them? I never bothered to cork my DE blades, as they seem to be much smoother by the second shave, but it seems to take three of four shaves for the SEs to smooth out.

[Rylos]

I do "cork" my SE blades before their 1st shave. I use some styrofoam instead of actual cork.

[man00ver]

I will sometimes strop them lightly on my palm or on denim, particularly the carbon-steel blades. I don't find this necessary for the stainless variant.

[Viseguy]

I usually palm-strop them.