Hi Pete, whilst getting all my DV7 coins from different places together to submit to the official pool for the coin swap to DV8 I found I had numerous amounts at varying weights and ages so used your method to combine the blocks into one. My total staking weight, as indicated by hovering over the pickaxe did indeed go up a little, as you observed. By checking the now two amounts back in the wallet the age, potential stake and weights were at zero, as if starting from scratch, but it is noticed that the days to stake had dropped to under 200, whereas before all of the day to stake had been between 350-900 - Hopefully by using your method of combining small blocks into one large lump cause the waiting time to stake to be reduced dramatically.
This was a purely academic test as once all my DV7 coins from my various staking places will be sent to DV7 official pool for the coin swap before they will ever stake in my DV7 wallet. Eventually if I get them back as DV8 I will attempt to keep them in one big block for staking, wherever is best . Thanks for the advice