+1 again to center yourself first. Honing is a ghung-fu. A skill learnt over time, and is as much meditative, mental and harmonious as it is physical. Bread knifing is a very aggressive procedure and seems apropos to the current stress you're in, and indicative to the cause of your honing woes. Shaving is done with a very delicate edge, taking out stress on that edge isn't going to allow it to grow and develop. If you can't give it a rest, try some classical music and a glass of absinthe, or wine. Stay away from wagner, something very subdued, and pretend the orchestra is your hone and your conducting it with your razor, with as little weight as possible applied as you progress while being able to keep the razor attached to the hone. There should be no hand, and no honer. Just a razor passing over a stone without a pursuit for a goal- you will suddenly stop, and when you do- realize you're there. Oh, and this is a natural you should be spending 90% of the time on, so you don't over hone. You have an apache gila right? how do you like it?