Thread: Half stroke heaven

The half stroke has recently become my favorite stroke. It is a super quick way to zip through the strokes necessary on slow hones (I'm eyeballing you Zulu Grey). I use circles intermittently but prefer the half stroke since I feel my pressure is more consistent, I get more lateral movement, it's easy on narrow hone, and works well on all blade types for me. I'm sure this has been gone over a million times, but I really encourage everyone out there to try all the different strokes; some are always gonna be more natural to you. You can cut way down time wise when you find your stroke of choice for speed work. It's funny how each stroke is such a tool and the way they can be arranged to make your honing more efficient. Explore, explore, explore!!!!

I find it to be a very good grinding stroke and it is my go to for metal removal on a damaged blade. It is way easier to manage on a smiling edge than circles for metal removal. It took me a long time before I found out that it is called a half stroke though, it doesn't seem like an appropriate name for it.

Yeah I like that too for the lower grits...

I find I can get success with the half stroke even on a finisher. For example I usually do 100 strokes on the ZG; the first 75 are half strokes followed by 25 perfect x strokes.

I really am looking forward to receiving my zulu grey !

It's a great stone! I actually ended up with two... The day after I bought my first ZG I was able to get an 8x3 at the same price as the first. I know I should sell one but it's hard to part with hones. One day I'm gonna build a vault like Scrooge Mcduck and swim in a pile of hones.

At the risk of sounding dumb. What is a half stroke?

A single stroke in one direction. Imagine never flipping the razor at the end of your stroke but pulling it back like a stropping stroke. Do that twenty times then flip over and repeat for the other side. You can change the count to fit your needs. You can also think of half strokes as giant circles/ellipses.

Ah ok. Just hadnt heard it called that. Thanks

Originally Posted by aa1192

A single stroke in one direction. Imagine never flipping the razor at the end of your stroke but pulling it back like a stropping stroke. Do that twenty times then flip over and repeat for the other side. You can change the count to fit your needs. You can also think of half strokes as giant circles/ellipses.

Good description. I was lost for words and couldn't find a video