Quote Originally Posted by kelbro View Post
None that I've been able to discern as long as the hone is flat.

Still do it out of habit since I learned to hone on a 1 7/8" hone.

The two questions that need to be answered are:

1. "How straight is straight for the razor edge?"
2. "How flat is flat for the surface of the stone?"

We are trying to generate a razor edge that is uniform at the submicron level. A DMT Diaflat lapping plate is certified to be flat to +/-0.0005". While that seems impressive, 0.0005" (1/2 mil) is 12.5 microns. We are unlikely to get our stones much flatter than that.

Thus, to create a uniform edge on a razor that is not quite straight using a stone that is not quite flat, we need to use a combination of circles, straight strokes, and x-strokes. Another thing that I do is to rotate the stone 180 degrees mid-way through the honing on each stone to help compensate for variations in the flatness of the stone side to side.