Wow, I get busy for a few days and forget to look back at my post, and next thing I know there's a bunch of additional advice - fantastic, thanks! The 30X examination sounds like ideal advice, along with going back to the 1000 grit until it is sharp on the entire edge before stepping up to the finer grit. I do have soft and hard arkansas stones, but not sure if they fall in between the 1000 and 6000 grits...

Either way, I am doing a couple of things right now, along the lines of advice given here.
(1) looking for a few lower priced vintage straights that I can use to learn honing technique - ideally one with a completely straight edge and one with a smile similar to the gifted razor. I need to restrain myself from going spend-crazy with RAD on e-bay!
(2) setting aside the new razor until I know what I'm doing, so I don't wear the entire spine off via honing!
(3) buying a 30x microscope. The Radio Shack one seems like it gets a lot of mention on this forum, but I'm not scared to pay 2-3 times that price if there's something a bit easier to use (allowing a view of more length along the blade edge, or easier to get and keep focus on the edge, etc.)
(4) sending at least one razor off to a honemeister so I can experience a truly shave ready razor (and also for basis of comparison with my own honing efforts. I'm near Boston so I am thinking I should look up Howard - he can probably also hook me up with any additional hones I will need.

This forum is awesome! Unfortunately I'm still shaving with my Gillette DE...