Turns out the strop is pretty important
I've been trying to get my self-sharpened blade as sharp and as comfortable as one done by a well known honemeister around here. After much work, head scratching, shaved arm hair, swearing, etc., I've come to the conclusion that I just wasn't stropping it enough. The blade passed every sharpness test out there, it just wasn't comfortable. It was very irritating and scratchy, where Glen's blade was smooooooth.
I stropped it on a paddle strop for thirty minutes straight. I'm not exactly fast on the stropping (I'm more concerned about accurate strokes than total number of strokes), but that's still *alot* of stropping. The shave I had afterwards was just as smooth as Glen's blade.
Now I know what he meant by "strop the crap out of it" after the .25 diamond paste. Turns out Glen's alot smarter than I gave him credit for.... ;)
Paddle strop guys: if you're not getting a smooth shave, try more stropping. It sure seems like it takes more laps on a paddle strop than a hanging strop to get the same amount of blade smoothing.
And Glen... thanks again for all your help and patience. I think I'm finally getting somewhere!
And Besides being necessary:
Stropping is FUN! I love the act as much as any part of shaving. Glad to hear (read) you are coming up to speed on your self sharpened blade!
-Rob