Synonyms: sharpen, whet
Sentence: He will have to hone his skills if he wants to be considered as a good artist.
Under The Lens: Honing A Knife
A knife gets dull when the edge of the blade is pushed out of alignment. Working with a dull knife can be tedious. To keep your knife sharp you should hone it regularly with honing steel. To hone a knife you need to run the blade along the honing steel at the same angle as the knife edge, usually 20 degrees.
Don’t confuse honing with sharpening. Sharpening a knife involves shaving of the metal to make a new edge while honing just realigns the edge of the knife. Honing is recommended immediately before or after using the knife. By contrast, knives are generally sharpened much less frequently. Also honing is of no use if the edge is blunt, because it removes no material.