Ended up sharpening some of my friends knives . Eye opening experience.

One was Forschner that was mine during my culinary apprenticeship, another a Asian style thinner/ vegetable cleaver. He wanted me to do more but the other ones were so horrible I refused . Cheap steel, bent wavy knives.....
It was an eye opening experience after leaning to hone straight razors.
I was hyper critical.. sloppy, uneven bevel, unpolished......
I did get them to cut arm hair, and they tore up tomato skin....

I have become an honing snob.... I’ll only work on decent knives.....

I learned to sharpen kitchen knives spine leading.
Of course there was the opposing school of thought spine trailing .... never did any research was too busy cooking..... none of the other apprentices could justify one or the other
And none of the senior chefs had any decent explanation either

But with these I started with circles and edge leading.
The cleaver got some attention from a cheap 4 way diamond hone.
Did spend a bit of time on Norton #1 Washita, And Coe medium/ Bethesda
Never made to my nicer stones I didn’t feel they need it.
Spent 90% of time “setting bevel”
I finished on an (estimated) 1000-2000 grit stone, spine leading which I always felt gave better edge, and finally a few passes on a steel.

What is theory for spine leading vs spine trailing, Kitchen knife and Razor?