Originally Posted by
Stubear
There have been cases in the past where people have tried honing just going up and down the hone and have had no luck getting an edge sharp, or have ended up with an irregular edge with dull spots. I remember very clearly not long after I joined a guy saying that as soon as he started doing X strokes the problems went away.
Another guy religiously stuck to the "No X strokes" ethos and eventually gave up on straight razors, convinced that both the hones and the razor were low quality which is why they wouldnt sharpen. Heaven forbid that he was doing something wrong on the hones..! :)