OK, I have enough data now to know I'm not crazy. Here's what's happening:

I'm honing to 12,000, then maybe chromium oxide or not. At any rate the level of scratching on the blade as seen under a microscope has reached a pretty good point, varying on how far I go with the chrome (on glass, by the way). With the chrome on glass, it can reach the point of no scratches at all

Then I strop.

I have two different strops, my belt, some leather strapping not intended for stropping, some misc leather on wood, and newspaper. The razors are a selection, about a dozen of them, all different.

I'm cleaning everything well between steps, including a very complete job when I check with the scope.

No matter what I do, the strops are scratching the blades. After stropping, no matter which blade, no matter which stropping material, the scratch level is back to about what I get directly off an 8000 stone.

I've tried everything, all combinations, and that's what happens, every single time.

Comments? I can't be the only person who ever saw this.