I am having a heck of a time getting my HC as sharp as I want as well. I have done a lot of sharpening so I think I no what it is. The stainless is very hard and has
a serious resistance to grinding. This makes for a wicked sharp edge that retains it's sharpness but makes it a real bugger to get sharp. S7 ,SR101 and INFI are all quite easy to sharpen so a lot of us are not used to the high speed stainless.

If I did an S7 or infi blade like I did my HC it would be perfect but I still can't get it to shave. I will have to resort to a microbelt on the grinder I think.