Hi, all. This is my first post here, but I've been lurking for some time as I've been considering entering the world of straight razor shaving.

Santa was kind to me this Christmas, and got me a Dovo "Special" 5/8, a Norton 4000/8000 waterstone, an inexpensive Dovo strop, and the various other shaving paraphernalia to get me started. Santa was on a budget, however, so we decided against the sharpening service at classicshaving (though I understand it's excellent), and I figured I'd have to learn to hone the blade myself eventually, so why not now?

I soaked my waterstone for a good 15-20 minutes, and went over the honing info (again) here at straightrazorplace and in The Art of The Straight Razor Shave while it was soaking.

In my excitement to get honing, I neglected to test the sharpness of the blade before I began, and I realized in retrospect that that would have been smart to do, since it would have given some indication of how much I needed to hone (doh!). I started on the 8000 grit side, but after a couple minutes on that side, my razor didn't seem any sharper, so I flipped it around to the 4000, worked on that side for a bit, then switched back to the 8000 for what I hoped was the finisher. It would appear that my blade is now probably duller than it was out of the box. I tried the falling hair test, and that didn't work. I believe the hair may have even laughed at me. When I draw the blade across a wetted thumbnail, the blade slides smoothly across, so I assume I'm dealing with a dull, and not overhoned, blade.

My first questions relate to the stone. First, should there be water pooling on the honing surface, or will that cause problems? The stone was fairly wet coming out of the water, and I would also rinse the stone with a bit of extra water when I saw a dirty-looking bulidup (presumably steel particles and/or some dirt). As a result, there was a layer of sitting water on the hone while I was working it.

My second question is exactly how long should I hone the blade? The answer, I assume, is "until it's sharp (test it frequently), but not overhoned", but I'd appreciate any reasonable ballpark figure just as a reality check. I don't know if I'm just being impatient, but it seems as though I'm not making any progress, and I need to get an idea whether my technique is a lot worse than I think, or I just need to be more patient.

Finally, I'm honing as gently as I reasonably can (whilst keeping the blade flat on the stone), and I believe I'm using proper technique, but on the off chance that I'm not, I'm not going to bugger up my blade as long as I'm not doing anything outlandish with it, right? (I hope!)

Any additional tips or advice would be appreciated!

Ah, one other thing. I'm using the X pattern hone as demonstrated here and elsewhere, but The Art of Straight Razor Shaving seems to imply that if your stone is wide enough to accomodate the entire cutting edge of the blade, then you do not need to use the X pattern. My stone happens to be wide enough; should I maintain the X pattern anyway?