Choosing a hone is much the same as picking a razor for me.
:OTThe first part of the decision depends on function. For a razor. How long is my beard? (mostly 1 or 2 day stubble) Am I shaving my wives legs? Is a friend sitting in my barber chair, waiting for a shave? What kind of beard has he? All those things influence my decision, in a way they rule out some and favor others. After that, the final choice is based on mood and atmosphere of the moment.
Something similar happens during honing. What does the razor need? How does he respond to the hone? How did he responded to the hone last time?
Apart from that I have my favorites.
But my honing is too intermixed with experimenting (which seems to have become a purpose on it's own) to really allow the choice of hones being determined by fondness alone.
Although I don't do it very often, one of my favorite honing methods is honing on one Coticule only. I get the bevel in good order with a decent slurry and then slowly, by adding two drops of water every 20 strokes or so, dilute the slurry till it's completely washed away. I takes well over 150 of my lightest laps, honing in utmost concentration, careful to not brake that wonderful spell between edge and hone. It's one of my favorite night time activities, zen-like honing, and, if I get lucky, a perfect shave on top. You never quite know what you're gonna get with that method. It turns honing into an elusive art. I like that.
More often, it gets way more technical than that. Soaking the Naniwa Choseras (5K and 10K). They produce a wicked edge that gives me some inexplicably bleeding specks on my skin, if I don't tone it with a few laps on a coticule with water first. That doesn't make the edge cut less effortlessly, only more comfortably.
I have a loom strop with Chromium oxide, that I hardly ever use anymore.
Pasted edges don't last on my beard.
I like this thread.
Best regards,
Bart.