Here's my set up. A Japanese 1k/6k waterstone. The Norton 4k/8k waterstone. A Belgian Blue polishing stone. And a made in Pakistan strop from Amazon.com/. No strop paste.

My razors are all antique store finds and Ebay specials.

I did the conservative pyramid, followed by the standard pyramid. I did this about two times each because I just thought the blades were in pretty rough shape. Which they were. But I can't get them shave ready. I then honed them without the pyramid, using the heel first method to create hatch marks(one to two back strokes) before moving up to the next stone. And then honed until they were gone.

I can get them to shave the hair on my arm easily. And it seems like they are passing the thumb pad test. But they won't pass the hanging hair test. And they are giving a really rough test shave.

Am I just holding the razor wrong? Am I just not doing enough strokes? Can anyone give me an idea of how many strokes/passes I should be doing with my set up?