My TI razor was sharp but no matter how much I stropped it, it did not shave comfortably. I was reasonably sure the blade was sharp because Lynn had sharpened it for me. When I got my razor back from Lynn, I stropped it about 30 licks and had my first shave with it and was disappointed to say the least. It pulled and dragged and did not seem to cut the beard as I knew it should. I tried stropping it some more and tried several unsuccessful test shaves. As a last resort, before I sent it back to Lynn and begged him to see what he could do, I took out the 4-sided paddle strop that I bought from Tony Miller just before Christmas. I applied a little 0.5 diamond paste to one side of the paddle and did about 6 laps. Then I applied the 0.25 paste to another side and did another 10 laps and voila. The edge was super keen. I did another 15 laps on my hanging strop (another Tony purchase) and had the best shave I've had in some time. The diamond paste seemed to do the trick.