Fascinating reading - thanks. I'm a little confused - please forgive my newbie ignorance and what might be a dumb question to ask in this revered thread! When honing to set a bevel (let's say for a new old razor purchase), is the fundamental difference to honing that of the grit size or a different angle of attack (for example, with taped spine)? I have visions of two processes but common sense tells me that this cannot be as the 'routine' honing is done with spine flat against the hone. I think I've answered my own question but you guys could perhaps straighten me out by explaining the special process of setting a bevel - I take it to be the initial extra work that is done on a razor that has lost the bevel, through wear or damage and done with a relatively coarse grit, (maybe 1000) to get the cutting done. So the complete honing would be: set bevel - perhaps lots of laps on coarse grit; progression honing through finer grit sizes to develop the edge; finishing to make it super sharp.

I've been wrong before