I'm not big on remembering anniversary dates or marking mile stones so I am just looking for educated guesses and round numbers. At our last Western NY meet Cassady made some comments about his usual honing style and I have been replaying it in the back of my head ever since and I assure you it is not intentional just the odd way my brain works and it brought me to my latest revelation. I then started thinking, how many edges did I hone prior to this revelation?

Well I have 100 and something straights and have gone though them all at least three times improving the edge as my skill improved and new hones were added. I've been honing since May of '08. I know it sounds a little weird to do the edges over and over again but I shave through all of them once and then start over. Up to now I have looked at my honing technique and stropping technique as two separate methods and probably was a bit anal about pressure and contact on the hone and felt the need to use two hands to be sure all parts of the edge were in contact with the hone when I wanted it to be. This weekend that changed.While I was able to get the HHT to perform on all straights before, now they pop w/o any effort. So...

I guess I have honed ~ 300 edges so far. My latest revelation in honing is to hold the razor as I would when stropping except run the edge first down the hone. Changing the hold on the straight while honing made me confident the edge was on the hone where I wanted it, improved the keenness of the edge and reduced my honing time by 2/3's.

Roughly, how many edges have you honed so far and what was your latest honing revelation?