Thread: Can anyone explain the reason behind the X strokes?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Gotta love the Esoteric discussions on SRP sometimes


One thread discussing the Flatness of the hones and the X stroke being needed and the one next to it discussing using Rounded and Convex hones


http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ed-stones.html



Maybe I should just Merge the two and watch the fun

Evil genius...I like it!

Originally Posted by Euclid440

The flatness of the stone, does not matter that much, because we are not honing on the exact same point with each stroke, that it is smooth, is more important.

A flatter stone is a bit more efficient, as more grit is in contact with the razor, but nothing that an extra stroke or two would not compensate for.

The age-old question, how did the old guys get their stones flat, before dial indicators and diamond plates? And how flat is a grinding wheel or a spinning sanding belt?

+1 My dads hones were dished and it never bothered him.

As for the old guys- Emery powder on concrete and then green paint (CrOx) on wood for a balsa strop :-)

I had also heard / read that ideally you wanted the striations to be uniform on the bevel at more or less a diagonal pattern, i.e., 45 degrees, lined up from toe to heel along the edge of the bevel and meeting at the apex from both sides.

///////\\\\\\\ diagonal striations as opposed to ||| ||| straight striations...doubt it matters, whatever floats your boat, but the X stroke ensures you're getting the uniform creation of the bevel and produces these consistent type of striations.

Mind you, I'm basically at the place where honing gymnastics, i.e., do what it takes to pass the shave test...or do what works to try and get as uniform a bevel as you can will do me just fine.

That, and a tantrum or three I find helps immensely in setting the bevel, yelling at the razor encourages the bevel to set as well....think I saw that in one of Glen's videos....

Yelling at bevels. That's more for advanced honing techniques section of SRP.

Sometimes you just have to give the razor a little bit of verbal encouragement and moral support. Let the rusty little know that if it doesn't get it's together and shave right, there's gonna be a reckoning.

I do that when i repair two strokes outboards. It must work on razors. :-)


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I figure colorful language help when fixing houses, cars, and just about everything else. So the tradition might as well carry forward to razors. Also helpful: holding your tongue right, and using the correct squinky eye.