I noticed at least at two occasions, where I had to seriously hone a razor from a completely dull stage (after breadkniving the edge) on a stone slimmer than the length of the edge with x-strokes, that there's a risk producing a frown. Which is kind of logic since the medium portion of the blade gets the most contact. To prevent this I now use some form of swaying strokes or oblique/diagonal strokes where the whole of the blade stays in complete contact with the stone unless I use my Zulu that is large enough (but not suitable for heavy work). What's your view on this?
Honing on slim stones.
- Thread starter Thomas Martin
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I tend to do more circles on thinner stones. I can control the amount of time each part of the edge gets on the hone.
- Thread starter
- #4
that's what I figured too but also with circles there is a risk of overlapping and over honing central parts of the blade.
- Thread starter
- #5
That's what I meant with diagonal strokes.
I'm a bit weird. WhenI have small stones, I flip the whole process over.
Blade on the bottom stone on top.
There is a real risk of messing up the edge doing this, but I do a lot of file work in general, and the result of flipping everything over is very much like fileing.
I do use a circular motion with the stone. I don't know if others do it this way, but it just seems like a more natural method for me. I actually sharpen all of my knives this way now.
Blade on the bottom stone on top.
There is a real risk of messing up the edge doing this, but I do a lot of file work in general, and the result of flipping everything over is very much like fileing.
I do use a circular motion with the stone. I don't know if others do it this way, but it just seems like a more natural method for me. I actually sharpen all of my knives this way now.
I wouldn't recommend doing this for any lower grit work however, as it will throw the spine out of alignment with the edge, forcing you to repair the spine before you could hone without using the extreme heel-forward angle
In my opinion frowns aren't often if EVER caused by additional time spent honing the center of a blade due to narrow hones. Toe-heavy wear is the usual consequence of this, and that's obviously not from the toe being on the hone the most, but rather from it being isolated on the hone at the end of a poorly executed X-stroke. Most of the frowns I've seen appear to have been caused by people running the edge off the corner of a hone (In other words, inadvertently lifting the toe (or heel though that seems less likely) of the razors during the stroke, this runs the blade along the corner of the hone rather than the flat and would cause a great deal more pressure during the stroke, and quite appropriately, the most pressure would be exerted at the center of the stroke and it would decrease moving in each direction... being the perfect explanation for a frown forming. Another likely cause is people who steady the razor by resting their offhand on the center of the spine developing a habit of using that hand to drive the razor, which would cause significant increased abrasion at the center of the edge.
Of course a seriously warped blade can cause a frown as well.
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