Greetings all. I'm relatively new to honing...at it about 6 months, long enough to experience great satisfaction and disappointment alike!

After a few successes, I found my nemesis: an ebay acquired Bengall that lured me with its lovely bone scales. The seller never mentioned the horrible condition of the blade and it was not evident in the photos posted. Beside some small chips in the edge, there was a length, about 4mm that was "dished" as though someone ground out a chip. I knew I'd be spending considerable time on the heavier grits, so I put a layer of tape on the spine. Hours later, and having worked through the standard progressions of 200, 1k, 4k, 8k, coticule, 16k etc in various combos....I couldnt get a decent shave. Long story short, I added a layer of tape and damn if I didnt achieve, in short order, a very good edge and shave.

Now, I work by eye and I tend to take the least sophisticated approach. I'm sure that some of you would have mic'd the spine, measured the blade width and determined how much tape to apply. Would that have helped me or do you find trial and error better? What would you honemeisters have done? Dont be bashful there are a lot of you.

Thanks, Jim