A History of Honing??

So my coworker was with me while I was browsing the site after I bought a microscope from RadioShack.
He found it silly that any scope would be necessary. He said that for over a thousand years, knives, swords, and even shaving razors were sharpened with the minimum of stones and no microscopes and that I didn’t need one. I told him that honing back then was something that required mastery and dedicated YEARS under a master to learn.
So I’d like to increase my historical knowledge and bring the topic of honing in its early stages in history.

Thanks

I think Step One looked something like this.