I've hand honed for years and am now using Global water stones of 240, 1000 and 5000 grit. I get pretty good results. I've tried hand honing a convex edge using the mouse pad/sandpaper method with mixed results. Like any hand honing method I guess that it takes practice and I'm not there yet. I recently purchased a 1x30 belt sander and will be trying that out as soon as the belts I ordered arrive. I figure that I'll experiment using my old Collins camp axe. It has a similar blade configuration to some of the larger Busse-kin blades. It's the only blade I own that I'm not too worried about screwing-up.