Hi gentlemen, a story and a question.

My razor is a 10/8 smiling chopper. Last night, as is my custom, I did a quick HHT after stropping, testing the blade at both ends and in the middle. It passed with flying colors. Then I decided to polish it up a bit with Autosol and a piece of cotton wool, taking care not to polish up the edge. I failed, as I found to my horror that the blade would no longer cut a hanging hair after the polishing. I started stropping like crazy using my usual straight (i.e. non-X) pattern on my 3 inch strop, hoping to bring the edge back. Eventually, I got the middle of the blade to pass the HHT again, but the ends stubbornly refused. In desperation, I tried doing an X-pattern using a very light touch - lighter than I normally use - for about 20 laps. Lo and behold, this brought the ends back to life.

So my question is: has my technique been wrong all along, and is the X-pattern the correct technique to use for a smiling edge, regardless of strop width? Or is it more likely that I've been using too much pressure?