Try this Wiki for some tips and tricks to honing. Tons of good info here:

Category:Straight Razor Maintenance - Honing & Stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Light pressure with more strokes on the stone seems to perform better and be more forgiving than say firm pressure and fewer strokes. Also there is a forum thread on here somewhere (can't find it at the moment) that is about using the 1k stone to shave off of for beginners. Once you can do that, it's all about riding the gravy train to a polished edge!