"shaving sharp" is what I consider a knife that when held against the skin like a razor and brought against hair, the hair is removed. "hair popping" is when with a little effort moving the knife against the hair/skin literally makes the hairs jump out of the way. Tree topping is a newer level of sharpeness, if you can tree top, you can probably split hair. Drag the blade through the hair without touching skin, the hair should cut free hanging. At .25 micron you should be able to tree top hair and split most except the finest hair. Don't always go by the bevel finish as a true testament of sharpeness. Remember, its the very edge of the bevel thats doing the cutting, the polished bevel decreases resistance, but the very edge is opening up the material. I can round the hell out of an edge while convexing it on a belt sander but shine it up like a mirror.
As far as stropping, I probably strop 100x per side per strop. So 200 total for the 1 micron, 200 for the .5 and so on. After 1 micron I don't notice any real difference in final sharpness after a few cuts as the .5 and .25 edges won't stay that sharp after the first piece of cardboard.
At 1 micron if done right you should have an edge sharper than you can imagine. Wittling hairs and being downright scary. At .25 we're well beyond the realm of useful and just showing off, but it is fun to do.
