O.K., my only excuse is I am BRAND-new to this.

I had a couple of small dings (largest about halfway through the bevel, seen at 60X) on a fifteen-shave old Bismarck. Still don't know how they happend, but I think maybe my angle was too steep, and my beard is pretty coarse.

So I reviewed Lynn's DVD. At one point he states he has a ding (seen with naked eye) he is going to remove with some circles on a Norton 4K. He does two sets of 20 circles (both sides), looks at the blade, declares all is well, and startes a pyramid.

I tried this. After five sets of 20, there was no change I could see. Also, oddly, I could see none of the tell-tale particles of steel that were obvious on his stone after just a couple of circles.

So I dropped down to the 1K. Same result. No change in the blade after five sets of 20, nothing in the water I could see.

So this is where I screwed up. I started doing circles on the 220K It took at least another 5X 20 to get the largest ding out, but when I looked at the rest of the edge, it looked like a microscopic mouse had been nibbling away at it. Jagged, peaks, valleys, etc., again viewed at 60X The edge had been compromised in large areas, again roughly halfway up the bevel in the worst areas.

I called Lynn's shop and Don was extremely kind and helpful. He advised going back to the 4K for a couple more sets of circles, then a couple of pyramids and on up through the 12K, pastes, strop, shave test, and repeat as necessary.

Having spent already a lot of time on the 4K doing circles without seeing ANY results, I'm doubtful that this will resolve my problem. I recognize that Don knows more about the process than I ever will, but my experience tells me that I will be spending hours and hours repeating this process before I get a good edge. I am, of course, willing to do it this way is it is the best way to do it, but my inclination is to start on the 1K and do circles until I've eliminated most of the roughness on micro exam, and getting a good TNT, then moving up the grit hierarchy. Of course, thinking this way (circles on a rougher stone is the answer!) is what got me into trouble the first time.

So my question is: Is there anything wrong with doing circles on the 1K? Looking through the stickys and other info here and on B&B, it seems most folks set bevels doing regular honing strokes on the 1K OR circles on the 4K. Again, I will be happy to do either if that is what I should do. Are circles on the 1K an option though? Again, I've looked at honing advice on several posts and stickys, and maybe I'm not reading careefully enough or something, but I'm not sure if this is an option.

Any suggestions gratefully received.