Quote Originally Posted by holli4pirating View Post
I find the DMT1200 more aggressive than I like, even when broken in.

You should be able to shave comfortably off an 8k, but since you can do better, why wouldn't you? Even something cheap like a pasted strop should offer an improvement.
+1 to all of the above. I wasn't saying that going over 8k is 'overkill' at all. Only that going to at least 8k is highly recommended to get a straight razor shaving well. I personally usually go with an Escher following the 8k but when I was learning, and even now sometimes I test shave off of the 8k. If the shave isn't close and smooth at that level the razor needs more work before moving up to a higher grit finisher. IMHO.