Little background first. I've been having trouble learning to hone. It just hasnt been working for me. Ive watched the videos read the threads but it just didnt seem to work. Using a loop everything looked good but I just couldnt shave with anything I honed myself. So I took the advice ive seen and decided to just focus on the 1k as several people said you could shave off a 1k.
Out came my Bengal and off to work I went only I didnt really seem to be getting anywhere so I kinda put it aside for a bit.

Then Outback sent me back my gradfathers razor that he restored (He did an awesome job BTW). Well of course I'm eager to try it out and much to my surprise it sucked I mean really sucked! I even had visible stubble, it was worse than anything I tried to hone myself. First thought was that I rolled the edge stropping. But after inspecting under the loop it was fine. This had me perplexed as I was sure there was no way he sent me a dull razor. Then I remembered he said that it required a different angle than the other razor he sent me. So I tried again playing around with the angle and the clouds parted, the heavens opened up and my world was transformed.

What does Outback giving me a great razor have to do with me learning to hone you may ask.
I'll tell you.

The other day I decided that maybe my honing wasnt so bad that maybe it was just my shaving tecnique. So I pulled out the Bengal stropped it and started to shave. And I mean shave, not just scratch my face. It wasnt the best shave or the most comfortable but it wasnt the worst or even that bad. I did give up around my chin and pulled out my grandfathers to finish off. Still this was off a 1k hone and I really am not very good around my chin yet anyway.
Only visible difference to me is that the Bengal and my grandfathers are both square tips. Not sure how/why or if this affects the angle but playing with the angle made all the difference in the world. I plan on doing a progression 4/8/12k to see if I can make it more comfortable now that I know I can shave with it.