I bought a DMT from Howard as well, and it took quite some time to see any effect on the razor, so I asked him what could be wrong. Aside from a discussion of details on what I was doing exactly, he asked me whether I had broken the DMT in. I hadn't even heard that before, so I asked what it meant and how to do it. He explained that out of the factory the hones had a thin layer of nickel plating for protection which had to be worn out by rubbing a piece of steel. After I did that, the process of honing indeed did speed up.

These point to the contrary of the purpose being removing excessive harshness. Intuitively, I feel if such a small time of abrasion could perceivably reduce the harshness of these hones, then they wouldn't last very long under professional use, which honing a razor every other month or so isn't. As far as I know they are very durable. Also we are talking steel vs. diamond.

What am I getting wrong here?