X honing versus heel leading

[bluefoxicy]

Most of the stuff I read about how to hone razors involves a 2 inch wide stone honing a 3 inch long blade using one of two techniques: X honing or heel leading.

The X honing method works simply enough: the razor's edge moves along an axis perpendicular to itself, but this only allows contact with 2/3 of the blade during honing. To deal with this, we alter the axis of movement such that it now contains a horizontal component, and stroke the blade across the hone.

Source: http://www.coticule.be/strokes.html

Usually in youtube videos, the honemeister flips the blade and then resets the position of the razor such that the path of the grit on the hone is the same on each side. So all wear pattern goes from the heel to the tip, or the tip to the heel, on both sides.

With the heel leading method, the honemeister would instead lead with the heel. More of the length of the blade remains on the stone, either the entire length or the blade can be moved a little as with X honing. See the below diagram:

Source: http://artofmanliness.com/2009/10/06/how-to-straight-razor-shave/

Are there any merits to one over the other?

 

[Chimensch]

I prefer the X-stroke and narrow hones because it's the best way to sharpen a warped or smiling blade. Otherwise, there's not much difference between honing perpendicular on a wide hone or heel-leading on a narrow hone.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Depends on the razor.

Most razors have shoulders, that have some amount of edge (a mm or so usually) which is ROUNDED.

By far the majority of vintage straights I've found have had that rounded section of the shoulder sharpened to extend the edge. This is fine. But.

If they honed heel leading, that means the shoulder (near the spine) did not get ground down with honing. So I either have to grind a large amount of steel off there, or else continue honing with the heal leading. I make this decision on a case by case basis. But I usually wind up just honing with the heal leading (doesn't cause any problems in my experience).



For razors where this issue does not exist, I prefer to X, because I find that motion is easier to do well than maintaining a consistent stroke with heel leading after every flip.


When I use barber hones (swaty) in my hand, I do both. I lead a little with the heal and do a little less of an X than I'd do if I was bench honing without heel leading. This increases the stability of the blade on the stone (by increasing the amount of blade on the stone at any given time) which is nice to have when honing on a barber hone, since I'm using one hand, going VERY VERY fast, and making very short strokes with a lot of flips. I also tend to perform the flip along the corner of the hone with just the heel end of the spine (sort of a rotational flip then dropping the toe back to the stone)... all this about triples my speed on a barber hone versus on a bench hone.

 

[huntmol]

In this diagram, there's still an X-stroke being used.
You can vary the X stroke by angling the razor, or by applying pressure at different points in the stroke. Here's an example:
http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Strokes_for_honing_a_razor