Ok try to follow me on this....I am a newbie and I have two identical razors both of which I bought shave ready. I have kept one to shave with and the other to compare. I have been shaving around 2 months now and even though I have no tugging or pulling out of my shaver I decided on a whim to try the other to see how it compared. I had a much much much closer shave on the one that I hadn't used.

This leads me to the conclusion that I (as expected) have dulled the other razor most likely due to crappy stropping or some other nonsense.

My question is this....how do I know when a razor is in need of a touch up if I don't experience tugging or pulling? I know the obvious is...duuuh...when you are no longer getting close shaves but this is all in relative terms....that is how close is close?

Second question...I have the 4/8 Norton combo...would I be best served just to swipe it a couple of times on the 8 then try a again or do I need to go to the pyramid laid out in the honing Wiki?
Thoughts?