Given that my honing experience (in hours) can be counted on the hand of blind butcher, there is no way I could offer an estimate with a straight face.

I'd be interested to see results of a poll of newbie honers and see if any habits and routines are prevalent. If the vast majority put in an hour of honing practice an average of three times a week, then simple arithmetic dictates that approximately 70 hours practice will result in something approaching competancy.

***WARNING! The following is pure conjecture and may depart from sense at any moment.***

Establishing a quantifiable benchmark of competancy presents a challenge. Honemeisters appear to be honemeisters because they recognise they recognise the appropriate time to change a variable, be it sharpening medium or pressure (any more variables?). They recognise the look, feel and sound that signals a change is required. Would a honemeister require a microscope? A honemeister wastes no time performing 50 laps on a 4000 grit stone when 25 would do the job. Is it fair to say that a trait of an amatuer honer is the failure to recognise when one should move on in the honing process? If so, time taken to hone a razor at a defined stage of bluntness could be a method of ascertaining meister-status. The clock stops when a successful hanging hair test is performed on the heel, centre and toe of the blade (would a honemeister be satisfied with that benchmark, or would further subdivision of the edge be necessary?)

- Defining "blunt" and mnufacturing it on demand.

IF time is to be a method of benchmarking, then it is only fair that all test participants start from the same point. What method of wear is commonly experienced, quickly manufactured and replicable? Do the honemeisters find that such an animal as "garden variety blunt razor" exists, or is each razor a fresh and unique challenge? Can two razors which have comparable bluntness take vastly different times to sharpen?

Such a vast topic, about which, I know nothing.