I find honing to be just like shaving with a straight. The learning curve is similar and there are similarities on how you either get a good edge or a close comfortable shave. The biggest thing is spending time doing it. When I first started honing razors I had to forget everything thing I knew from honing knives and carpentry fodder. A smooth edge and a sharp edge are not one in the same, and like building a house or making a good lather you must have a solid foundation on which to create it. There is much wisdom to be gleaned from Lynn and Glen's YT videos and much more on this site, but the one thing that cannot be truly conveyed with out having direct experience is the touch it requires to obtain a smooth sharp shave ready edge. I must have honed 5-8 razors a week for 6 months trying different things and techniques in order to get an edge I was consistently happy with. I don't have a mentor locally and only had a razor from Lynn to use as a benchmark, I believe a local mentor would have accelerated my learning curve exponentially, but alas all I had was obsession for sharp things to help me. I think my perseverance and insatiable want for a perfect edge helped push me, and even now as good as I feel my honing is I know that I can do better. I still practice new things on my hand tools as well and I've been sharpening those with great success for 15+ years.