Alternating x pattern

I tried something different when honing today and had a real success with a small wade and butcher quarter hollow.
Basically I was restoring it and it need about 30 mins on the 1k to get a decent bevel, which left quite deep striations on it. When I continued the pattern on the 4k I realised it is hard to see when you have polished out all the 1k marks becuase the 4k marks blend together with it, so I started honing it in a straight line instead of x pattern so I could see the marks go.
I then continued through 8k, thuringen, 12k and paste alternating each stroke to be sure I removed all the marks from previous stones and finished with an incredibly polished bevel.
The shave was amazing although I am a little unsure how it will hold up as I spent much longer on the hones than I normally do and am not sure if it is a little overhoned. I was very suprised how much longer it takes to remove the marks than I thought - I imagine that I have 4k marks on a lot of my razor I shave with.

thats one way to be sure you get them all good idea i think have to try it myself i might be suprised by the results

I usually do circles(yes the whole process),but sometimes I do the standard x (heel to toe)then reverse x (toe to heel from the bottom of the stone to the top). this seems to remove the scratch pattern almost as well as circles.it works well for smiles with the rolling x/reverse x, IMHO.:chop:

Personally I don't worry that much about removing scratches. I use the TNT when setting bevels, the TPT once it passes the TNT. I continue with the X pattern until it pops hairs off of my leg easily all across the blade. Then I strop and see if it will do HHT. One way or another then I shave. If it needs it I take it back to the hone. If not I go on to the next.

I usually don't worry about the X pattern until I'm almost off the 4K and mainly its for stones higher than the 4K.

I needed to use the x pattern on the 1k only because of the irregularities in the blade - the heel was missing the hone completely.
In the past I never really worried too much about scratches but I was honing another razor with a very large bevel and was thinking that I should remove all the scratches to make it look better.