Is it just my imagination, or is it easier to hone a razor with a slight smile than it is to hone a straight edge?
I picked up a Wade & Butcher 8/8 frameback on ebay a few days ago that had that curve to the blade that you see so often on old framebacks. I cleaned out the nicks and honed it up and got a beautiful edge on it with very little trouble (verified with a test shave). Unfortunately, I managed to destroy that edge while scrubbing off some of the crud. Tried and failed to correct it with a paddle strop, then put it back on the norton tonight and promptly brought that poppin-sharp edge back (and verified again with a test shave).
Prior to this I've only been able to get nearly shave-sharp on the norton, and always had to finish on the 3 micron, 1 micron, and 0.5 micron pasted paddles, and even then never got quite this sharp, much less twice like this.
Maybe it just that the rock-and-roll motion is similar to the motion I use when sharpening a knife?