I have been straight shaving for about a month and a half. My shaves are getting better and better, but they are still pretty bad.

Problems
1. I have to do like four passes with two or three of them ATG. Some parts of my face are BBS, but on shaving day it feels like I am getting a big diaper rash! One time I did five passes, that's my max...

2. The toe of my razor fails to cut my beard regardless of the cutting angle. So I have whiskers that I can never seem to cut near my ears and sideburns.

Solutions/ Corrective Actions?
It occurred to me that I might have messed up my razor, either through closing it on the scales or through bad stropping. My lather is really good, as well as my beard prep. So I think we can eliminate those two variables.

One of the things that I have done to correct my problems is to get a microscope from Radio Shack and examine the blade at X100 magnification. I noticed that the edge is had some small diagonal markings going from the edge, but was very smooth compared to some other non-shave ready razors that I have. So I took my razor to the barber hone for 5 laps and re-checked. the small markings had lessened. So I repeated the process. In all I did 15 laps on the barber hone. After a shave test, I have gotten my smoothest shave yet, however, I still had to do 4 passes.

Upon further inspection of the blade under the microscope, I noticed, very very tiny inconsistencies along the edge of the blade. Could this be micro-chipping? Also I notice that the light reflects off the edge of the razor. At first I thought that might be a rolled edge, but I notice the same thing on the other side of the razor. It makes me think that the edges of the razor are not coming together seamlessly. Could this be a wire edge? or a double bevel? I don't think it is a double bevel because it is so tiny. So I did some more work on it with the barber hone, and am going to shave test it tomorrow.

Any advice you could give me would be great! Also if anyone could shed light on the observations about my razor I would appreciate it!