To me, Maybe if the Hone was being turned, But What I saw was the Rod being turned,That "hone" process you refer to is more commonly known as "lapping" and is quite acceptable for removing small amounts of metal, tenths of thous, provided the lap is soft enough to hold the abrasive and kept parallel.
Like Oexing so graphically demonstrated above.
By hand from the small end eye,
So a lot of leverage being used ?, And knowing how Vincent's suffer from Bigend screwing to one side,
Didn't look good to me, But I was only a Mechanic.
