I have a few issues

1. Stropping
2. Honing
3. Shaving ( getting a bbs)

I have a prehoned Wapi from Invisible Edge, and it's a great razor, sadly my stropping skills suck. It's not that I haven't watched the videos and heeded the advice, its the small nuisances that are not explained by anyone, and you have to discover yourself. There is a definite and certain feel and sound when I am stropping the razor right. I now do a HHT after every strop to make sure I'm not screwing up the edge, the problem is not every strop session I do is improving the edge(either on the .50 diamond or on the latgio), I don't always pass the HHT on all parts of the edge, I'd say only 75 to 85%, and that's were it is now too.

I have a 3 wide strop, approx 26in long,one side is Latigo ( black) the other is Cowhide and that's pasted with .50 diamond. It used to be pasted with .25 diamond paste, but I never found I got the right edge from that paste so I removed the .25 paste and repasted with .50. I like the.50 paste, but again I get inconsistent results.

I'm not holding the strop loose, maybe too tight at times. I thinking maybe Im applying too much pressure downware to keep the blade level and even on the strop, actually I don't know. I have heavy big hands, and often when I started DE shaving a few years ago, I didn't realise how much pressure I was putting on the razor and cause some irritation.

Anyways, I have been shaving for about 3 total weeks now. I have racked up about 15+ shaves. I'm really looking for some advice here. I just bought a barber's hone and a chinese 12k. The barber hone I purchased has been explained to me to have somewhere around a 6k or 8k style grit. Obviously the Chinese 12k is much finer. I'm going to lap the Chinese on a plane of glass and some sandpaper when it arrives.

Is anyone just honing and not stropping? Can you shave well just like that and for how long, as I feel my stropping skills are just not making the best of the edge, probably dulling it or making it uneven.

I also purchased another razor from a user here that's already prehoned and sharpened to get a better idea of the edge and of another razor. I know some people like Wapi's some don't. I bought an Enkel's model, looks very good, and hopefully it shaves well.

I just am looking for the clutch situation of getting a consistently good edge, so that I know I only need to work on technique for a BBS.

Ok any advice welcome.

I'm thinking of doing a video of both my shave and my stropping to show you guys, so I can get some advice, but any suggestions would be welcomed now too.

cheers
D