Thanks Randy. I have one big hone and am not looking to acquire anymore unless it's really needed - I'm not a collector. Minimalism is my muse and economy is my reality. I want to understand all this razor paraphernalia – not own it.

But here I guess I'm just looking for general advice on how to maintain a smiley. In the pdf of the Swaty instructions it talks about putting pressure at the beginning and end of the x-pattern, going light in the middle. Makes sense; hard to do effectively though on a 3" hone.

And then I've heard talk about 'rocking,' which I just plain don't understand. If you lift or rotate a razor on an axis perpendicular to your hone while honing, such that the razor edge and spine aren't flat on the face of it, then by definition the razor will at every moment during that movement only be touching the bevelled edge of one side of your hone or another. No? I must be missing something, unless that's the point of rocking – to sharpen your razor along the bevelled edges of your hone.