Well, I don't intend to answer your question but I'll give you some food for thought since I'm one of the few that backhone. Generally, backhoning on high grit and pasted strops are pretty similar in my opinion. There are some that post that "backhoning is bad because it nullifies all your work and you have to start from scratch". I absolutely disagree with that statement. I disagree because in my personal experience its untrue. It is stated in a few documents though, but I don't care. And I don't believe in repeating what someone else wrote just because . . . without ever having tried it. Anyone that thinks that backhoning takes you back to the beginning, has probably never honed a razor off Ebay. Maybe their definition of beginning is different from mine.

It may take you back a step, but your not "starting over" in any way, shape, or form.

Sometimes I think you want to go back a step, and overhoning accomplishes going back a step, better than any other technique. So, when would that be? Well, when you screw up I suppose.

Now, on the other hand, I have found backhoning to help an edge only on occasion and assumed I was making mild corrections to the edge and not really helping it any. There have been a few times when an edge just won't take and I'll back hone to reset the edge and perhaps try sharpening the very edge with a few ultra light touches. But I find now that I don't need to do the backhoning and that its kind of, well....pointless.

At this point I think backhoning is best reserved for removing an overhoned edge, keeping in mind that the higher grits used on strops are less likely to create damage to the edge from the back end, essentially grinding the base, or support for the edge. The lower grit, if your willing to use it to backhone, would create greater and greater susceptability to bevel base damage. The initial contact point of hone and razor is probably the point that recieves the most "tear" on the hone and thus creates the most "cut". You want that to be the edge not at the base. Perhaps, with backhoning on 50K grit on the strop is actually a form of "lessening" the effect of the honing even more since the most action would be at the base and the least action is at the edge, thus the honing speed is a little slower. Which is kind of what your looking for at that point, since its already pretty darn sharp.

I think of forward honing as creating a sharp bevel, nothing more. Pretty simple. But forward honing is the better method for all grits. Maintaining striation angles is also a key to honing.

Ultimately, I think, honing a bevel, is honing a bevel, and makes no difference in the direction you go with the exception that backhoning may push material out onto the edge (as well as tearing off an overhoned edge) and simply add to the "junk" at the edge of the bevel. The very edge your trying to get smooth and sharp. Unlikely at 50K or 100K grit as little would be moved at all, in either direction. Perhaps, anything pushed out at that grit would be pushed OFF by the strop itself.

On those rare occasions when I thought it was helping, perhaps the bevel needed more steel up front to be forward honed in subsequent passes. For example if you lift the spine on a pass on the hone it'll get rolled. Forward honing wouldn't solve the problem for many passes, but backhoning would "help" with only one stroke on each side.

So, I think its a similar action, but should be reserved for the higher grits when you want to create a shaveable edge.

So, I think generally, its the same action, but less effective, unless your actually trying to move steel in that direction for some purpose, otherwise I'd say . . . don't bother.