Originally Posted by
DaveW
I've never heard of a four pass shave. It's not much of a challenge to get a clean shave in four passes. A good razor does it with comfort and several days of growth in two passes.
I second the others' comments about the leather - short of objects residing in your strop (like specks of abrasive that would immediately be evident in shiny chips on the edge of a razor), there should never be a situation where leather doesn't improve the edge significantly.
Have the rest of us shaved right off of a stone? Sure, I did when I was a beginner, probably half a dozen times because I was told by woodworkers that stropping rounds an edge over and dulls it.