I find myself with an excess of free time, so I'm practicing honing like a fiend.

I have acquired a number of cheapo older hollow ground razors from eBay in order to practice honing. As far as I can tell none of them have any geometry issues. I also have the two stone set of Norton waterstones: a 220/1000 stone, and a 4000/8000 stone, and a flattening stone for keeping my stones in prime shape. I've flattened both sides of both stones using a pencil grid method and chamfered the edges.

I've gotten all of the razors to a shave ready state at some time or another but only if I manage to set the bevel properly (of course).

The problem I have is that I'm highly inconsistent about setting the bevel. Sometimes I faff and fumble with one razor for two hours on the 1k before throwing it into the corner and walking away in disgust. Sometimes I take the same razor, dull it down and can get a bevel set so it shaves arm hair in 6 minutes.

I'm keeping the method I use the same all the time: 1 layer of tape, X stroke.

Why am I so inconsistent? Should I just practice more? Should I practice less?