I'm new to all this so willing to try anything.
Ii have a scottish hone and a chinese 12k in the post but was fed up with not getting a good enough edge from teh Norton 8k and then to linen /leather strop.
So I found myself eyeing up the smoothly sanded edge of the glass shower door and thinkning "Hoe different can that be from one of those Shapton hones they keep singing about?"
Well it worked a treat. I was pretty rough on the skin and needed a few good passes on linen and leather to smooth it out but it gave me pergaps the best edge I have found yet.
So my question is this:
Why all the fuss about wide, flat hones, why not just a thin strip of one about 1/4 inch wide that will touch the entire edge of the blade regardless of smile?
I'll be making a thin strip of glass hone for travelling with.
Well I'm sure I will answer my own question when teh finishing stones arrive, but until then, it's teh shower door for me, and then raid my fathers ashtray for some cigar ash.
necessity is the mother of invention!