After having received some strop treatment, and cleaned the hone up as advised on one of the other shaving websites I spent 20 minutes honing the newer blade and then another couple of minutes stropping it.
A quick test on my forearm showed it was hair cutting sharp, two gentle passes leaving a big patch of bare skin on my otherwise hirsute arm.
I gave the blade another couple of goes on the hone and the strop, just to be sure, and went for a shower, 5 minutes under a really hot shower and a good face scrub, I'd left the brush to soak while showering, so out, dry and get a lather going and on the face.
What a disappointment, no matter what angle I attacked my face the bristles were left intact, so much for the forearm test
WTG, XTG and ATG all failed to give me a good shave. A quick swap to my Gillette Slim Adjustable and Astra SP blade saw a perfectly acceptable shave delivered, so no waste shower
I'll be looking into other ways of getting an edge on the blades, YouTube has these things being used and I want to be able to get a good shave from one, after all, it's 'only' a straight on a stick, so what's to stop me getting a good shave? Apart from the ruddy safety bar thing...