A circle stroke for smiles

As i was finishing up my first smiling blade i found a stroke that works for me, and might for some of you.

Of course i watched the applicable vids first.

And I didn't quite get the edge there the first time. This was "go back" second honing that got me to this stroke. I'm shave testing today.

Holding the blade 45 degrees to the direction of travel, I use my fingers to keep me on track of where the pressure needs to be such that:

Start with finger/thumb on heel end of blade traveling 1/3 length of stone,

Adding other hand (finger) to toe such that two fingers are on blade (emphasis in middle of blade) where i do a middle 1/3 circle (a big one).

Then removing finger from Heel and finishing the stroke across last 1/3 of stone with finger only on Toe in an X stroke fashion.

Did anybody follow? Takes some slow practice, but this gets all the convex blade and keeps the bevel even.

It's my Rolling Circle X. :chapeau HNY!



(yes i'm sure it's been done before everything has.)

From the description it sounds like a Swooping Stroke.. This is a much stylized version here

Strokes for honing a razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki


You can see it in action on Alex/Philadelph's Vid on smiling blades, Charlie/Spazola's and mine take a look and see if that is similar to what you are describing, if not then we need a Vid :) Vids are fun :p

nah. Swooping is optional on the last 1/3.

I just had to do something to get the blade end-to-end without grinding out the smile. This works for me to keep it flat and pressure _moving_ along the smile.

It's the 45-degree stroke with a big circle in the middle and finger placements changing every 1/3 of stroke.

Until i added the circle, i was getting too much heel/toe emphasis and not-consistent at that. The circle slows me down and makes me think through all pressure transfers.

too bad i only have one smiler to play with...

I might try a vid--someday (you will know, at that point in time). :p


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[some time later]
You might remember the cat jumping through the "9" on Eveready batteries from a long time ago, if you are old enough. That "9" or "6" looks like 2/3 of this stroke. That's what keeps popping into my head. Novice Honer, long time d-cell user!

For me, and maybe it helps somebuddy else, this notion helps me manage the pressure transitions across the convex edge--whilst keep the spine on the stone. I have to be careful not to lean on the edge too much--like Japanese single-bevel sharpening.

(yes i've moved on to 3-volt batts).

The smiling blade shaved great. Must be the loops. It may be as sharp as my best blade, but i've not half/half shave compared them yet.

It's quite fine that no one gets it, but that it worked for me and was a development that suited my hands-and gave great results.

Just Sharon;)

What the above described circling did was make a very clear shifting of the pressure on the blade and also makes the rock "play" as if it were longer. IOW more "inches" per pass.

The main thing is that one end or the other has pressure but never both at the same time. Always "honing toward a smile" as Glen says in his last video (tape/no tape bevels).

Gettum sharp boys there's whiskers to whack!


(and i do have more curved blades now)

Personally I only use the circles on a smiler to set the bevel and then maybe on the 3k and go to x stroke on 5k and above. That with the choseras. I just tilt the blade as I circle, to and fro. Seems to be working for me.