Update: 8000 stone is flat and clean. Gave the Dovo 30 round trips on the stone yesterday then 50 round trips on the strop. Not much improvement, but some improvement nonetheless. Same story this morning with the TI resulted in a little more improvement. Possibly different steels...? Haven't honed the small Dovo yet. Haven't tried the hanging hair again either. Maybe I'm doing it wrong...just grab one of my wife's hairs from her hairbrush, hold it between thumb and forefinger, and try to cut it 1/2" from my fingers? No more resistance than the flex of 1/2" of hair will provide? I may give a paddle strop & paste a shot. I assume buying a new one and dedicating it for the paste is the way to go. Maybe one with leather on both sides and do a .5 and a .25? The advice is helping though. Still had a helluva time with the chin the past couple of days, but the overall shave was smoother for sure, especially this morning with the TI.