I have spent the last couple of weeks ratcheting down on the number of strokes I take on my hones, and think I have move up to another level of sharpness.

I had been taking 30 and 40 strokes on the various hones moving up through the grits, but this has apparently been excessive.

Now I am limiting it to 12 - 15 strokes and getting much better results.

The most amazing was this AM when I found my Genco Easy Aces has gotten a little dull, so I gave it 6 strokes with my Dixie barber's hone, then stropped it, and suddenly it is as smooth as glass and shaving effortlessly against the grain again.

It went from uncomfortable, raspy, not shaving, to wiping whiskers off my face again.


I don't know why this took so long to get to. I just didn't believe it was possible until I tried it. Perhaps in the past, I was getting there much faster than I thought and then going past the point of "overhoned" and causing a problem.

I'm just wondering if others have had this kind of epiphany.