Thread: Why use an X-pattern on a wide hone?

One thing that hasn't been brought up, which may help a few people, is that the angled striations on both sides of the edge supposedly work together to create a cutting edge. Its not so much that they are angled, its that both sides are angled and work together. You have to think a little 3Dimensionally to understand the theory.

You can sort of get a sense that the theory might be correct when you shave off a 4-6K hone directly. Big teeth, wicked cutting power, yet not quite as close a shave as you might desire.

I've had a few people lately working on convincing me that teeth have nothing to do with the cutting power of a straight razor, though, and they've made some really good arguments. I'm almost convinced, but not completely.

The other thing I find is that a lot of people sort of underestimate is the difficulty of honing without pressure, they look at the theory of moving the blade around and come up with all kinds of ideas about what would make sense, then fail consistently to achieve a sharp edge. You do not want to move your wrist at all when honing a razor. If you run the edge down the hone at an angle you can easily see the difficulty of not twisting your wrist as you go. And that makes it harder to keep consistent "pressure" (the lack there of actually), and angle during the stroke. In theory, it would be easier to walk down the street with one leg, instead of two, but in practice pulling the razor off the bottom of the hone is just an easier way to do it. But, given enough where-with-all it can be done, and angling the blade sometimes helps people get a more consistent edge when beginning, and before you attain really keen sharpness when perfect pressure strokes are less important. If I were forced to hone without an x pattern I would probably orient the stone at 12/6 and pull the blade toward me, because I know the importance of a pulling stroke when honing without pressure. Its not the blade manuevering on the stone that is the issue at all, its what it takes a human to produce the movement, without pressure, that is the challenge.

For me, I think the x pattern (or angling) is an easy way to hone the bevel into itself. You can get more thinness from the edge, I feel, if you cut the edge with the edge supporting itself as you go. I would need a picture to explain this but if you take any two spots on the edge that are next to each other. Spot one can get sharper because your using Spot two to support the edge of the edge against breaking. If you run the blade straight down the hone you break the edge into little crumbly sections because the grit breaks the edge up. It has no support from the direction your cutting into. The edge breaks in the vertical plan off the hone because its unsupported against the tearing action of the hone.