Thread: Hone x stroke?

I have never honed but have watched a few videos and am very interested.
One thing that has always confused me, when watching it seems while the toe end of the razor is in constant contact with the stone, the heel end seems to spend little to no time in contact with the stone by comparison. Wouldn't this lead to a sharper towards the toe of the edge than at the heel creating an imbalance? Is there any reason you can't just keep the entire edge in contact instead?


Please excuse my ignorance.

Comes up quite often

Going straight up and down the hone WILL cause a frown

The X stroke when done correctly isn't quite as exaggerated as you think, really the edge moves evenly and equally across the hone,, honest it really does if it doesn't then the edge will have issues..

There are MANY different strokes, the only thing they all have in common is that they are all designed to keep the edge in even and equal contact with the hone...

Now I'm REALLY confused. If the toe is in contact 100% of the time and the heel is less than 10% of the time then this is not equal????? UGGHHH maybe the videos I'm watching they are doing it wrong?? Or I'm not seeing it at the right angle?

As soon as steel meets hone this will not be as confusing, you are making a ton of assumptions that are simply in error...


above:

The Toe is NOT in contact 100% of the time nor is the Heel 10%

The entire edge must move across the hone evenly and equally,,, this is not making sense because you haven't watched the ripple of water move across the hone

Ok I'll take your word for it Thanks

RedGladiator;

I had a lot of trouble understanding this also. I did quite a lot of thinking about it and it finally clicked for me.

"I could explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" It's good that you are questioning it. When you get it, you will really get it.

Glen explained this to me in person and it was still many months before it really made sense to me.

Once when I asked a very experienced hone master about this he replied that I was making an age old argument that comes up over and over again. I responded; "Well, I'm carrying on a great tradition then". I will say that the explanations that I got were not very satisfying to me, but after a lot of thought combined with time on the rocks, I turned into a confirmed X stroker.

Is the blade not held completly flat against the hone then?