I bought 2 straight razors off of ebay (using many of the tips found on this website), and sent them off to get professionally honed in early June. They were sent back in good condition, and very sharp. I was a happy camper. I've been regularly shaving and stropping them since that time. I've been using the Fromm strop (Amazon.com: Fromm Razor Strop 2 1/2" X 23": Health & Personal Care), doing at least 20 strokes on the linen side, and 50 strokes on the leather side per shave. I've been using the advice from this website and several youtube videos for my stropping technique.


Just recently (~2 months after the razors were sharpened), I feel like I can't get a good edge with stropping alone, so I did some research. Come to find out, this is a pretty normal thing, and something more aggressive is needed to freshen up the edge. During my search, I found the following old thread, which was really helpful:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ing-stone.html

The thread recommends one of three options:
When your razor starts to pull then you have several options.
a. An abrasive pasted paddle strop. The abrasives to use are 3.0, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.25 micron. This is the easiest to learn simply because the stroke is the same as what is used on the plain leather strop.
b. A fine/finishing Barbers hone. This is the least cost option but more difficult to learn to use effectively.
c. A Norton 4/8K hone. For you this would be overkill initially but it is the easiest hone to use, clean and keep flat.


After looking around a bit, it looks like I can get the Norton 4/8K hone for less than $70, which seems to be one of the cheaper long-term options. Is this a wise option over doing the abrasive strop or getting a harder to use hone? I'm really going for best bang for the buck on this, since I started shaving with a straight to save money over cartridges, and the thread I mentioned above is over 7 years old. Is the advice I found in that thread still good?


What are your thoughts?