AFD, this may or may not really apply to your post, but it's just that which sent my mind out into left field. I'm starting to wonder just how telling the hanging hair test is. Maybe it's a good test, maybe not. Let me explain my line of thinking, and then an example. If a kitchen knife is TOO sharp, meaning the edge is too polished, it will have a harder time beginning the slice into a ripe tomato, whereas a normal very sharp knife has microscopic serrations that will tear through the tomato skin at a very small level. It would begin the slice easier. I've had a razor at Chinese 12k+ sharp, then stropped and it would barely pass the hanging hair test. I think it helps for the edge to not be TOO polished, otherwise the hair will slide right off, unless you exert a small amount of pressure. Does this apply with the shave as well? I know we don't want jagged edges to rake our face raw, but how polished is TOO polished? Is there such a thing? I had another razor that will plink off hanging hairs all day. I then .5 pasted it followed by .25 pasting and a regular stropping session. It would no longer pass the hanging hair test, but shaved very very well. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. I keep thinking to my barber here in town. Lathers his hone with shave soap, a few quick swipes with the razor, then a few quick strokes on the strop. That's it. It LOOKS like it shaves smoothly enough as he shaves himself in the morning at his shop, but I have no idea. He's a funny old bird and won't let anyone touch his razor. Nor does he do straight shaves anymore, except on himself. Every day for like 60 years he says. They didn't have these 12-15-30k stones back then, nor the Amplex pastes. Are we taking it too far? Is there such a thing as too sharp? If the edge truly is smooth as glass at a microscopic level, would it have anything with which to gain purchase on the whisker? Or would the hair simply lay down as the edge smothly glides over it? My thought process is that it is the tiny tiny serrations that actually tear into the whisker and begin the cut. If we get too good at removing these imperfections on the edge, have we gone too far? Then again maybe I killed one brain cell too many. OK now I have a headache.