I've been shaving with a straight razor for about two months now, and I think I may be getting the hang of the honing process, although I'm not entirely sure.

I have two questions, each with multiple parts.

1. Of the tests for sharpness I've read about on the net, including the hanging hair test (HHT), and the moistened thumbNAIL test, and the moistened thumb test, I seem to be able to most easily discern differences with the thumbnail test. I can't seem to feel anything different at all with the moistened thumb test, and can't really get the HHT to work well. Attempting the HHT, I can get the occasional hair to stick and pop, but it is not effortless for the razor to cut it. My question here is the following: are there any other tests? and my razors are able to shave me, but I have to go over the area at least twice, sometimes three and four times. Does this mean the razor is not sharp enough? I assume it should get every hair with one swipe. This brings me to my next part. I have gone through Brian Donofrio's great videos on how to prepare the Norton 4k/8k stones and have followed his advice to the letter. The stones are very flat, and lapped well with the appropriate grit sandpaper. However, I seem to have trouble getting the entire lenght of the blade to the same degree of sharpness. I gather this from the moistened thumbnail test, and also from shaving with the blades. How can I get the whole length better honed, without putting pressure on at least some part of the blade that appers to be not sharpening well?

2. I've been reading all the lore on the net regarding honing and sharpening for several weeks now and there appear to be widely divergent views on how to properly sharpen blades, how to maintain their sharpness, and how to avoid breaking the 'fin'. I've also read the article on sharpening by provessor Verhoeven that is listed in the forums here and taken a good look at his SEM micrographs of the blades up close. In particular, his figure 9 shows an exceptional picture of a straight razor edge which has been prepared by a decades long straight razor shaver. On the length scale shown in the SEM image, on the micron scale, there is no evidence whatsoever for a 'microserrated' 'fin' of any kind. I'm beginning to question whether the lore is actually correct. Given the widely divergent views on sharpending, I also wonder if there are different edge morphologies that will yield a razor able to give a great shave. Has anybody here ever seen or know of good SEM micrographs of the so-called 'fin' showing microserrations? There are web sites that claim it is visible when viewed under an optical microscope. However, given Verhoeven's SEM micrographs not showing a 'fin', and due to the low depth of field of optical microscopes where it is possible to see artifacts due to abberation at high magnification that will make the razor edge appear to have microserrations, I'm beginning to doubt the existence of a 'fin'. Does anyone have any concrete physical evidence for the 'fin'? I ask because several sites suggest never stropping after a shave and/or waiting 18-24 hours after the shave to let the so-called 'fin' straighten out, etc...

Much thanks for any info.

Cheers,
Eric