D Miller

Attachment 228021 This one cleaned up rather nice. I honed it useing Naniwa 1-3-5-8-12K supper stones and finished with the Suehiro 20K. I stropped with SRD English Bridle leather strop and Linen. The first 2 shaves with it pulled just a mite. Of course i strop before and after shaves. The 3 shave was very comfortable. I used the same prep on all shaves and angle of the blade i believe was the same. I've had this to happen on a couple of other blades and really don't know why. I had considered selling this one until this morning and now i believe it's found a home. anyone else have a similar experience. This photo is off eBay. i Haven't gotten around to taking new ones.

I have found, at times that the first shave of a newly honed razor is not what I liked. My method now is to wait for two or three shaves on that razor before I make any pronouncement. I think a number of razors produce better shaves starting with the second or third use. I may suggest that you also try a stropping routine of 30 to 40 linen or felt and 120 or more on leather of your choice. Again, it's the razor dictating what it needs as opossed to our subjective reasoning (with due respect to Science, there is no scientific tests that can be applied that would hold true for all razors across the board.)

I agree that only occasionally do I get the best comfort with the first shave after honing.
I think that contact with whiskers has an effect on the edge that is different than the effect from stropping.
Anyway, about the third shave most edges come around to their maximum sharpness and comfort level,

Same thing, only once or twice I was happy with razor straight after honing

Attachment 228334 This one cleaned up pretty good and i honed it using the same stones and process. after stropping i shaved with it and it did ok but not great so i put it away for use much latter. after seeing what the extra stropping did for the D Miller i got this one out today and proceeded to strop on linen 50 laps and leather 150 laps. needless to say when i used it today it had made a world of difference. now i'm not saying that that made this razor the best i have but the shave went from OK to Pretty Good. I'll have to remember this and not be so lazy when it comes to stropping. Thanks guys.