Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum. You quite possibly had a razor that was not totally shave ready in the first place. Sadly I think with most new manufactured razors the edge is not truly shave ready from the factory. Secondly, it is very easy to dull a razor with stropping when first learning how to strop. Thirdly, it might not be the best idea to undertake learning to hone on top of everything else you have to learn in the beginning.

It might be best at this point to send the razor out to be professionally honed. If you do that, when you get it back do not strop it before the first shave with it. What that will do is allow you to feel what a truly sharp razor feels like and on subsequent shaves you strop the razor and find it is not shaving as well as the first time you have a hint that your stropping may not be all that good. Leave the honing stones alone till your shaving and stropping techniques are good enough that an edge will last you a while before needing to be touched up.

When you want to learn how to hone I would get a cheaper used razor to practice on first.

It all just takes a while to learn at the start and you just want to eliminate as many variables as you can.

Bob