Well… I would hope this guy is a professional:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...vi-videos.html
In the video, after he “sharpens” with first stone (I believe he may have already set the bevel before the camera started rolling) he then passes the razor’s edge in a sawing motion on the edge of the same hone before going on to another hone. If there is a “wire edge” or any uneven-ness it will fold over under the weight of the blade leaving a “straight” and level edge… the bulk of the edge is not affected… but the edge is for all practical purposes… dull.
So now that the edge is dull, but smooth and level, he then progressively builds the edge on higher grit hones… (I only have one question though… why not wash the razor before going to higher grit hone?).
So I did the same thing with a few razors and different hones, doesn’t take much, only the weight of the blade, and it does smooth a jagged edge. This is confirmed by a before TPT that failed with a jagged sensation, and after TPT with a slick sensation (also a fail).
Note: It may seem like swapping one failure for another, but the advantage is… now you know where the edge is.
Another confirmation… after “dulling” the edge in this way, the first stroke, on each side of the blade you can feel more drag as the hone removes the fold-over, this happens even with a high grit hone and it only takes a few strokes to get the edge keen, pass the TPT and cut arm hair (tried it with a barber hone too… but needed quite a few more strokes).
In my opinion, it’s a great way to test the cutting speed of a hone by noting the number of strokes it takes to get the edge to pass the TPT after dulling in this way. I think it’s also fun and good practice to dull a blade in this way and get it keen again within a few strokes… it is probably the least destructive to the life of the razor.
Of course one would only do this on a razor with a PROPERLY SET BEVEL.
One of our members had an interesting sig line that said “"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!" R. Kipling”… There may or may not be nine and sixty ways to get a razor shaving sharp, but this is one technique that does help.