After honing my ownb blades for the past yearI came to a point were I thought some honing days are good (handful of strokes gives me a + TPT) and some not so good (many strokes required for a +TPT).

After a particularly bad night when my blade seemed as dull as ever after honing I was on the verge of giving up. I stropped it a few times on a towel to take clean off the blade and then for kicks tested the edge one last time. To my surprise it was very very sharp.

It must seem pretty basic to all you honers out there, but to me it was a eureka moment. I was always trying to pass the TPT directly from honing, without stropping afterwards. This would lead to countless extra (and quite unnecessary) laps.

From now on after several laps on the norton 8k, I'm going to strop it a little bit before I do the TPT.
I am curious what the more experienced honemeisters have to say.

Diego