I've been using straight razors for a little over a year now and I have a lot left to learn. But I wonder if sometimes we over-think things a bit. There seem to be a lot of people around the world who manage to get good shaves with an 80-year old razor stropped back to life an old belt.

When I started using a straight, the need for a really sharp tool became instantly apparent. Pretty quickly I started sharpening and honing my razors using the careful guidance provided by experienced people here: carefull X-patterns using a pyramid or even stroke count, etc.

This advice worked and was very helpful.

Today though, I realized that I have slipped into a much more casual form of honing. I used a 4K water stone to rework the edge a bit, not counting strokes, just following the bead of water formed by the cutting motion of the razor and getting a "feel" for the edge. Then I moved over to a 12K water stone and repeated the process: working the blade back and forth, watching the edge, turning it over when it felt right. Even my stropping seems to have become a bit unstructured with multiple passe on one side, then flipping to the other. Occasionally, I stop and test the edge on free standing hair on my arm. At some point it just seems right and I'm done.

I can't say that I have the sharpest razor out there, but I've come to enjoy the honing process a lot more and I'm getting great shaves. Honing has become more of a meditation, it's more relaxing. Today I stated wondering if other people are sticking to a formula for honing, or are there other free-form honers out there, other honing anarchists?