Baffled by needing many passes

[medicineball]

First post here - thanks for the resource! Started shaving this week with a strightrazor. The thing I can't figure out is the number of passes. My first pass results in very little hair removed, and I'm always doing at least four passes before it looks like a real shave. I must be doing something wrong, but what? My blade was honed by a service, and I'm wondering if maybe I messed up the blade the very first time I stropped, when I didn't understad how to flip the blade and flipped in over on the blade side instead of the spine. any ideas? thank you!