How many shaves do you guys get before having to hone your razors? I'm new to the str8's and still have a lot of learning left to do. It seems that when I'm shaving with a straight, I only get maybe 3 shaves before having to do a few passes on the hone.

My strop is a strip of leather that I got from Bill Huff when I got a razor from him. Nothing all that special. I plan to buy an actual strop, but for now this works. Anyway, I do 30 passes (both directions) before shaving, and after about 3 shaves, the blade seems to be getting dull and starts pulling pretty bad. Granted, I have a pretty coarse beard, but I wouldn't have expected it to be that few.

Any tips? Maybe my technique (either shaving or stropping) is at fault. Any suggestions? Thoughts?

Thanks!