smgunn when i sharpen my razors when new or really blunt i progress from soft to hard to surgical black and the edge will split hairs straight of the stone and i only give a few laps on the strop brfore use which increases the sharpness even more,i only ever give my razors 20 laps before i shave 30 if i've done a lot of shaves with it,try doing some more work on the stone as it will get unbelievably sharp if you put in the time and effort,they are slow especially when you have to start from blunt but progressing makes it faster and once it's razor sharp touchups aren't too slow