Help me get my edge back!!!
I got my vintage straight razor last week, it had been honed and stropped and was lovely and sharp - HHT no problem.
I've shaved with it three times and stropped it about 20 times before and after each time. However, after the second shave I applied some strop paste (Dovo stuff with the yellow stripe) to the strop. It seemed so go in reasonably well, but the next time I stropped the spine got some paste on it, so perhaps I put too much on? Anyway, I gave it a wipe and took off the excess (I think) and kept stropping. Still no more sharpness.
I looked at the stropping video and in the Wiki and realised I'd been far too agressive with my stropping (too much pressure on the blade) so have since been stropping more gently.
Now my question is - can I get the edge back with stropping alone, and how much would it need?
Or have I ruined the strop with the paste? What can I do to get it back to what it was like when it was new? It's a smallish Dovo strop, btw.
In terms of hones I only have a small BBW (4000 grit) at the moment, so can that be used to get some edge back, and if so, how?
Should I get the coticule and get to work with that in the pyramid method recommended here?
Help, guys! My technique is getting better but obviously if the edge isn't keen enough I need to make more passes to get all the hairs, and this means more irritation.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Om