Never one to let a good music reference pass me by (in this case one of my favorite McCartney songs), it is none the less how I felt earlier today.

I am by no means an experienced honer, much less a honemeister, but I have been here for nearly 3 years and have absorbed much info on honing by osmosis. I've played with my coticule with some success, and have done many great touchups. I have an old Boker that I had tapped for the hones someday, and I had some time so I went to it with my new Norton set.

Started off with some bevel work on the 1k, wanting to try out the "20 circles to sharp" routine. Then I saw the blade was warped! One side sat perfectly on the hone, the other didn't, which made circles very difficult. BTW, how are you suppose to do circles under those circumstances? Anyway, I got to the point where the razor would shave arm hair, maybe not as effortlessly as I would have liked, but that warp had me thinking it may be as good as it gets.

I plowed ahead with a pyramid on the 4k/8k, starting with 25, having to do a rolling-x stroke on the one side. TPT felt okay, with the toe feeling a little less sharp than the rest. A couple more strokes and I called it a day with the hones. Then I got the itch to test shave....

I stropped 60 linen/60 leather (a process Bart used to advocate, which has worked for me before) and proceeded to shave my 3 days growth. The result? A very smooth, comfortable and irritation free shave with a blade that was somehow sharp equally heel to toe! I was simply not expecting that result, and that was directly off the 8k with no pastes, just stropping.

I think I will give it one more shave before I take it to my Naniwa 12k and chrome ox and see what that does for this old Boker. In the meantime, I know I got this far with my honing knowledge, but I can't help but think I somehow got lucky with this one considering the warp and all. Any thoughts?

Ryan