Well gents most of my new appliances and products arrived (still waiting on the Tabac cream), and I enjoyed my first ever DE shave last night. A few observations and a couple questions. First though here's what I'm using: pure badger brush and some soap cakes from Porter of Bozeman, MT. A Mercur long handled razor w/ Mercur blade. A whipping bowl and hot water kettle.

I followed the instructions of a few sticky's here. ie: using boiling water to soak brush and whip lather. Squeezing and shaking water out of brush. Spending a few minutes whipping until obtaining a thick, creamy mix. That all went pretty well, but does raise my first question. How do you guys keep your idle lather hot/warm? As mentioned my water is piping, but after a few minutes sitting there while I made my first pass subsequent lathers were cool to cold. It doesn't seem feasible to spend 2 minutes whipping up new lather between each pass.

Bringing me to another point. I did not follow advice and only do one pass. I just didn't get a close shave on the first run and needed a few more passes. I did not find it irritated me too badly. I never scraped an area without first lathering, and I laid off the pressure. I'm sure those two things helped. I was also forced to tempt fate and go ATG and XTG in order to achieve some smoothness. In the end a bit of cheek redness a few hours later but nothing to get in a twist over. Question 2. Are you experienced guys getting smooth skin with one or two N - S passes? I've always kind of had to shave in all directions to achieve smoothness. For this first go I think I maintained a decent angle, but I'm pretty sure there were instances where I wasn't cutting (over the chin and down the neck especially). So I think that was part of it, but it just seems to me a couple N-S passes won't be enough.

The final results weren't too bad. I definitely got a closer shave than with disposables and w/ no pain and no nicks. I did not however achieve a totally smooth face. There was still some stubble to be fealt in some areas. All in all a pleasurable experience with these few areas of concern. Oh and btw I did go out and get some Aqua Velva Icy and Musk splashes. Also some Tabac cologne is on it's way. My wife thinks I've got a girlfriend to which I responded one is enough!

As always your thoughts and advice are sought and appreciated.