Different stroke for each side?

I solved the problem, but I picked up a sweet 6/8 W&B Full hollow with a bit of a smile. No hone wear, edge was great and the spine was true. I thought I had a slam dunk.

Well after the first couple of passes on a 4k I noticed that one side was setting much better/even than the other. Left side was perfect with a traditional x-stroke but I had to do a bit of the rolling-x to get the right side worked out.

The sharpie test confirmed this and after a progression thru to a C+/-12k I had some uneven sharpness dispite my different strokes, typical smiling blade stuff from my reading. So I thought a bit and decided to flip the home up use the narrow portion (something I had never done before) and it worked out well.

Is it common to use different strokes on each side?

I have used multiple strokes as you describe on razors that were uneven or had curves spines. The worst one I have honed ot date was a curved spine W&B that also was warped a little. But, once the bevel was set (took about 2 hours) it polished like a charm and turned out to be a nice shaver. Keep it even and take your time and you will get positive results.

When honing a razor, what you do is dependant on what the previous honer has done to the blade. If the wear/edge/bevel/spine/whatever is different on one side than the other, you can either choose to follow that pattern (which is what I usually do - it removes the least amount of steel and leaves the edge as good as can be), or you can take time on a coarse hone to try to even things up. To a greater or lesser extent, the two sides are going to be different, and you will have to modify your stroke at least minutely to get a great edge.