Quote Originally Posted by Warchild281 View Post
This make total sense though, the head of the blade is basically on the stone twice as long as the foot; so of course its sharper.
I've watched several very experienced people using the X stroke and made similar comments. The last time was at the Kansas City meet. The person to whom I made the comment to said "This is the age old argument that comes up over and over. How can the heel get sharp if it is off the stone so much of the time?" To which I replied "Well, I'm carrying on the tradition then". The explanation that I received from the people I've asked was not very satisfying to me, so I did a lot of thinking about it on my own. It makes perfect sense to me now and I use X strokes almost exclusively. Done correctly the whole blade gets sharp.