Quote Originally Posted by Scipio View Post
To be honest, touching up is the best way to learn honing IMO. Remember that touching up and honing are really two completely different things. All you are doing is polishing an already sharp edge. You could buy a barber hone for under 50 dollars and use 4-6 strokes which I doubt you'd go wrong. Or a Naniwa 12K and do 10-20 strokes, if you want to purchase from SRD.

I personally dislike pastes and while I don't discourage them, you will need to use a hone at some point as pastes are only a quick fix at best - they will round an edge eventually.

Good stuff here...thanks!