This thread has me thinking about my understanding of honing and shaving. Over the past couple of days I've come up with some criteria I feel must be met to achieve the results indicative of a shave ready razor. Please bear with me and keep in mind I think it requries an experienced straight razor user to assess shave ready status. For what it's worth, I have been shaving a straight razor for ten years and have watched multiple honemeisters in person as well as being guided through a complete razor honing by one of them.
Critera:
Razor needs to be in good repair (no rust, chips, broken scales).
Bevel must be consistently set along entire edge (no microchipping, dull spots, rolled edge, etc.) This can be verified by inspecting edge under magnification, feel of blade on hone, pushing slurry ahead of entire edge while honing. My belief is this requires knowledge and experience.
A proper progression needs to be followed from bevel set through higher grits. The progression can vary. It is not necessarily a set number of strokes on each higher grit stone, but making sure the edge is meeting the sight and feel requirements stated earlier. The razor should only be moved to a higher grit when it has met these criteria.
The razor needs to be finished on a stone higher than 8k. Grit rating is not consistent across different brands so I don't have an absolute number. For example, I have heard one of the new synthetics at 10k is finer than a Naniwa 12k. I have also skipped over natural stones to keep things simple. In addition, different users have their own preferences on what they like in regard to smoothness so a 12k might be sufficient for one person while another prefers 20k.
The razor needs to be stropped properly (an edge can be damaged with improper stropping).
Results:
During the shave test the razor needs to cut through all stubble on that stroke.
The razor should not feel like it's tugging or pulling hair on that stroke.
The razor should not feel irritating or nick the skin on the pass.
Note that some honers will shave test a razor using multiple passes, i.e., going from with the grain to cross the grain to against the grain. In addition, they might be testing more than one razor at a time, shaving one side of the face with each razor. Again, it takes an experienced straight razor user to accurately conduct a shave test. Poor technique like bad blade angle, improper lathering, etc. will affect the quality of the shave.
Hopefully, this doesn't come across as pompous or all-knowing. I just have some thoughts on shave ready based on experience. I feel there is a minimum criteria to be met for desired results. I'm sure there is a lot more that could be added or opinions differing from mine. My suggestion for people really wanting to learn what shave read really is would be to 1) have a razor honed by an acknowledged professional and shave with it and 2) watch multiple pro honers conduct shave tests on Youtube.