Hi guys,

After about the 20th try at re-honing my Dovo stainless steel Ivory micarta, I finally got it incredibly sharp. Pretty close to a disposable straight razor, and it just slices a hair on contact.

It seems like stainless steel really needed a lot more time on the lower grits of my Naniwas before I should have moved on. After really setting the bevel with Lynn's circular strokes, and with various other strokes I tried out, like double strokes on one side at a time, it seemed to have worked perfectly. I actually started every hone with circular strokes first, then regular honing thereafter. It worked beautifully.

After the 12k, I only stropped on leather, and shaved, and it was absolutely smooth and deadly on the whiskers. Until some later experimentation.....

Now here is my questions:

After the shave, I tried stropping on 0.5 micron diamond spray on a felt pad, then on rough leather, and then on smooth leather to see if I can even get it better, but I then found that the edge went blunt again, and did not come close to slicing my hairs like before.

I tried touching it up on the 8k, 12k hone and leather strop only, but it made no difference to the sharpness. I then had to completely re-hone from 1k up to 12k and strop on leather only before I could get it back to near perfect condition....?

Any thoughts guys?

I am pretty sure it is not the way I am stopping, because I strop the living daylights on leather only with all my razors, and it just makes them better every time, so I don't think it is my technique on the leather.

The bluntness came after the felt pad with diamond spray, but I have no idea why....?