'Morning fellows,

Thanks for so many helpful replies. I should formally enter a thank you reply to each of you. I'm pretty awed by how much you all know, and your generosity in helping me out here.

I'm determined to stick with this.

In response to a number of items that come up, I'm at work now, so can't recall which DMT thing I have, but it has a continuous surface. When Scott (local hone guy, and member of the forum) helped me out before he showed me he had a DMT like mine, and another one that had slots or grooves in it so as to remove material from the stone faster, iirc.

The razor is a 5/8 T-I with a smile shaped blade edge. The razor is truly a thing of beauty. It was supposed to be shave ready, according to info T-I told the vendor, but he warned me not to believe it.

I found it really pulled when I shaved with it (maybe the razor, maybe the technique?), but had Scott sharpen it for me and it was better. He said it was pretty close, but not shave ready.

So, I assumed the bevel was probably good from the start, even though it wasn't shave ready.

I'm interested and surprised to hear T-I razors can be difficult like this.

I do have an old beater of a razor bought from another member, so I think I really need to take all your advice and work with this one, because it's certainly accurate to say that I have not yet ever successfully honed a razor.