Thread: Width of Hone/strop and angle of stroke

Hi all,

I've been gone for quite some time, but I'm back . . .

Question about honing/stroping angle and widths. . .

My 4000/8000 stone is 3" wide, my coticule and pasted strop are 2" and my leather strop is 3" wide.

So, the 2" items require an angled stroke, but the 3" can be used with a straight stroke.

Can I mix the type of strokes or should all be strokes the same?

Is one stroke better than the other?

Tom

Welcome back Tom!

like you i have a variety of hones in varying widths and on all of them i find a x-stroke that i vary between toe and heal leading works best for me... it just feels natural.

when hand sanding a blade you get smoother, quicker results if you change the sanding direction between grits and i think it works the same in honing... you smooth the striations form the lower grit quicker if you change patterns.

this is of course, my opinion, YMMV and some of the more prolific honers will be by shortly to correct me !