This was my first hone. As part of an experiment I took a e-bay special which was in good shape (but very dull) and got shave worthy off of lapping film. I set the bevel on 9 micron (1800 grit) and progressed through 5/3/1/0.3. I stropped on Larry's 0.1 Iron Ox balsa, then to linen & leather. I'm still striving for good shaving technique so I tested on the right side of my face (WTG & XTG). This was because I'm the bomb diggity at shaving that piece of skin. To bad my technique is still lagging everywhere else. It was very clean and smooth cutting. The whole point of this experiment was to put together a travel kit for emergency hones while on the road. Thanks Seraphim for the great posts that lead me down this path.