I'll try to be as brief as possibe. First I'll list my equipment:

DOVO Stainless steel (ice tempered whatever that means) razor
Norton 3" combo 4k/8k stone

Jemico russian red strop Note: I did do the break in procedure on it because it did'nt lay flat. Got it wet, heavy weight on flat surface for about 8 hours, then rubbed with pumice stone, then stiff lather, clean, stiff lather with hand and bottle. Seems to be flatter but not perfect. Linen side seems to put a better edge on it.

Now here's the problem. I think I'm very close to getting a good edge on it. After failing to get the HHT, I found and did the pyramid on it once though (checking often). The edge seemed to be about the same every time. Like I just hit a road block. I could only get it to pass the fingernail tests (45 deg tilt, and regular passing over wet nail). It just would'nt pass the HHT. It would catch one every now and then somwhere on the blade but not like it should. Even after stropping a buttload. Then, i decided to try the linen side of the strop. Big improvement. Passed the HHT on MOST of the blade. It seemed just a bit dull from the point down a centimeter or two. I'm using the most even pressure on the hone, paying very close attention and going as slow as I need to. Even on the rest of the blade it seems to struggle a bit with the HHT. I tried to shave today and while it did actually shave, it was nowhere near where it needs to be. Very uncomfortable. Had to pick up the DE. Anyways, here's my questions:

1.Should it pass the HHT before it ever goes to the strop?
2.It my strop in need of more flattening possibly (since the linen seems to work best
3.What the heck am I doing wrong? I'm about to go crazy. I have been doing tons of research and I've been on this for days now!

Thank you guys so much for any advice. I'm not giving up, and I love this site!