I certainly like to check out the bevel as I go, but I don't get too technical. Generally I just use my naked eye, at times a simple magnifying glass.
Last time I honed I did this, then finished with 20 laps on the Shapton 16k. I lot of it's probably illogical and a downright waste of time, esp considering it took about two hours. Testing along the way was shaving leg hair (I don't really have any arm hair). No thumb nail test, no thumb pad test, no hanging hairs to be found anywhere). Funny thing was it worked, superbly so, on two Swedish framebacks...
Glen's videos are what taught me, as well as asking questions. I read a bit of the Wiki, but it's amazing how little of the Wiki I've actually read. I like the interaction I get when I actually ask questions, it's a social thing. Also, REALLY getting in to it and watching the wave, etc helped me a lot. It's interesting how much you can concentrate when you really try; it's also a meditation thing for me, driving everything else away apart from me moving that razor up and back, actually feeling it, actually contemplating and experiencing it...Entering in to a relationship with it, as Buber the philosopher would say...
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