Hello gentlemen.. Newer member to forum and when greeted I was kindly told to ask lots of questions.. Since I have many I will spare everyone and only ask a few a week.. Today's is helping me get to that glorious razor edge of whiskers falling off the bone, hot knife thru butter, etc sharpness. I am pretty new to honing myself and have the Norton 4000/8000 and Naniwa d's 12000 stones. Before going farther I'll let you know the razors I'm working on have all been honed by either Brad at Laggards or JD Arman and have less than 15 complete shaves so bevel are good (thankfully).. Back to question. I seem to be able to get my razors quite sharable at about a #6 on sharpness scale of 0-10 but not any sharper.. The razor I'm on now is a second hand store Crown and Sword 2530 with this awesome scale that's a large antlered buck in the middle with green foliage top and bottom and Barbers Friend etched on blade face (anyone have one like this let me know as internet info came up empty).. Off subject, sorry.. So when my blade only gets to this sharpness where do I go back to trying to improve? Should I start over on the 4000 or more time on 8000/12000? Now when I bought my strop laggards said this one I don't need to use pastes or anything on fabric side so I've never used it before.. On my 10x loupe my edges seem to be pretty good but since I'm not an expert maybe I'm wrong on that?.. Anyone think I should try linen with chromium oxide or get back on the stones? I hear guys say it took them x amount of time to get blade at it's best but I'm not sure where I've maxed out at? Take this Crown for example.. I've spent hours on it with the 8000 and hours on the 12000 to my strop.. No better and didn't dull it up either.. Any suggestions greatly appreciated and sorry for lengthy post.. thanks,scott