Well gents, I've got a Tosuke razor that came not quite shave ready. It was beveled but not quite sharp enough...So I finally got the nuggets to try my own hones.
I got out my Coticule/BBW combo stone and slurry stone, my primble barber hone and got to honing. I worked up a slurry on the coticule side, and started honing. I followed a rough 7/3 ratio and used some pressure. How much? some. :D
As I was honing, the slurry turned a dark grey, so I reckon I was taking some steel. I gradually added water, a couple drops at a time, until the slury was thinned. The edge by this time was feeling decidedly sticky to my thumb. I eventually went right on to water, and by this time I was using no pressure at all, just the weight of the blade. All in all, I think I must have made it to a good 80 passes. A few more on a dry coticule, and then on to the barber hone with water. I only did about 10 passes on the hone, and then went on to a CrO2 pasted strop for 10 passes and finally I stropped the ever loving heck out of it on linen then two different leather strops.
Results? A fairly good shave--though I got a couple of nasty nicks. I think I might need to smooth it out more. i know that I don't have a proper finisher--I'm getting a Shapton #12000 next month, so that should be better.
Now, the shaving went ok, but I know it could be sharper. I'm just not sure about how to make it better.
I wish I knew enough to ask the right questions...but anyway, I did make the edge better, so that's a bit of a triumph!!!