Quote Originally Posted by Whiskers View Post
I put a blade on the 4k for hours (literally).The blade was sharp enough to awkwardly cut arm hair. By 'awkwardly' I mean holding the edge about 0.5 cm above the skin of my arm and it would cut maybe 2 hairs out of 60-80 the edge would actually contact.
You are very persistent, and that can be a good thing. But you are now stubbornly doing the same tests and the same aggressive honing when you know it isn't getting you anywhere.

You know the sides of the bevel have already met to form a "V" edge. You need to stop wearing away the blade for no reason.

Please learn how to do the thumbnail and thumbpad tests. The TNT will let you know when the bevel is formed and nick-free. Stop using the 4K at that point. Except maybe as part of conservative pyramids. (Also stop doing the TNT after going to finer grits.)

The TPT confirms you have sharpness. It can be tricky to interpret - as someone else pointed out it can mislead you to think it is losing sharpness as you polish the edge. Buy some DE blades to compare the feel against. They are cheap.

And once you've got those DE blades, try those arm hair popping tests on them. I think you are in for a rude awakening.