Hey, I recently bought my first straight edge razor, two strops (one with two disposable straight razors and paste, the other with the regular straight razor I bought first) but I'm having some trouble knowing if the straight razor is sharp enough to use (given that I'm using the wrong technique) and if it is possible for it to ever be as sharp as a disposable razor.

Firstly, I was told that the razor would be shave ready as soon it arrived, but it seemed to be quite dull and would only manage to cut arm hairs with a lot of tugging. Since then I've tried to sharpen it using a taut strop and moving the blade along with an x pattern keeping it straight, on both the rough side and the smooth side of the strop with the smooth side last, which did very little to the blade.

I then tried using paste on my second strop (red and black), with the black paste applied to the rough side of the strop and the red to the smooth, using the same technique and then followed it by using my regular strop. This did help a little in the way that it tugs much less now, but it still isn't very close in shaving and any small stubble the blade just glides over.

However, using one of the disposable straight razors it managed to shave very closely using the same technique.

So my question is, is it possible for me to sharpen the blade I bought (Empire double hollow ground and round pointed, high carbon steel cut throat: http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1336/dsc00640y.jpg) to be around as sharp as the disposable razors without having to buy expensive hones. And is it worth buying a new razor which is shave ready or just using the disposable straight razors instead?

Thanks.