Well, I've only recently added to my collection and before that I had a DOVO Black Star that I used day in and day out for months with no major change to the edge. And I do have a fairly tough beard.

I got that one from Trumpers, and they do an excellent job at honing razors. Need to go there for some lessons of something...!

When I got my newest two they both came shave ready (one from The Invisible Edge and one from SRD, so both are light sabre sharp!) and I could tell, very marginally, that the Black Star was duller. Half a dozen to a dozen strokes on my Shapton 16k for that one and the edges on all three are absolutely A1, I just cant tell the difference between them.

I think whats made the difference is the stropping and the almost obsessive care I take of them. I do 25 canvas with white paste then 50-60 leather before hand, then 10 canvas and 10-15 leather afterwards. I dont do loads of passes during the shave having worked out a routine that gets me BBS with one pass only.

I also make sure they are bone dry before I put them away and I use two different clothes to dry them, just to make sure they are really dry! I'll also take them out now and then and make sure they are still good, with no little spots forming. If there are any, out comes the MAAS and a Q-Tip.

I really think that the white chalk paste is the secret weapon to keeping an edge shave ready. Its very slightly abrasive and the 25 strokes just seems to repair the damage done by the last shave. I know I'll have to go to a coarser grit stone eventually but this seems to be working at the moment...!