I've posted many threads in the past about my steel-eating beard. I just discovered that instead of touching up on a hone, I can bring the edge back from the dead by doing more strokes on linen than I normally would (say, 35 or 50 instead of the usual 20). I assume this trick will only work a finite number of times. But for you chaps with heavy beards, try doing extra linen when you would normally touch up & let me know what happens..