Quote Originally Posted by BeJay View Post
Utopian. You say that most of the time it's not necessary, implying that it sometimes is necessary. In what situation would you use this technique? it's not a toothy edge that I'm trying to address. It's a malleable foil edge that just bends out of the way when it's laid on a stone. I'm sure we have all seen this under magnification. I'm hoping to address this at a level that I can't see with my 60x loupe.
That was my attempt at diplomacy, nothing more. I do not see anything in the geometry involved in honing to merit joining or jointing ever. I don't do a lot of back-honing , so I don't tend to create foil edges. I look at every edge I hone and and I just don't see foil edges except very small fins on crappy steel. Even then, such fins are removed with honing.

Because it has been pushed here so frequently, I have experimented with it many times. I have tried it more often when honing chippy edges, like gold dollars, and I do not find any improvement over normal proper honing.

The straightening of an edge occurs during the normal honing process, so I see no need to attempt to preemptively straighten the edge. That is my opinion, nothing more.