A few weeks ago, I bought my first straight--a brand new Dovo Tortoise 5/8. I DID NOT order the pre-honed option, since I've been sharpening tools and knives of all sorts for years and there seems to be a wealth of information on the web detailing honing/stropping straights. So I studied up and stropped it myself. Without too much effort, it passed the HHT, but this leads to my REAL question:

Once your razor passes the HHT, how can you tell what effect any further stropping is doing? The shave is pretty comfortable and I have yet to cut myself to the extent that a styptic pencil was needed. There is a little more resistance than with my DE, but the blade is 2X as wide as well, so this makes sense to me.

Thanks for the input.