Excerpt from the OP:
‘It's not that I'm down on my other razors or my stones or my honing, but I'd really like to be consistently using edges in the league with what I used yesterday. I should also mention that I have razors, razors I've honed, which are sharper than today's Herder, but that doesn't negate how much shaper I think the Japanese razor was. Plus, the Japanese razor was very comfortable and smart so it lost nothing by being sharper.’
Lol, I am under the impression that I did answer this question.
Refer to his comments regarding the vendor’s edge performance.