Thread: Xs and rolling Xs

Originally Posted by Basset

Or is the spine flat on the hone, but the toe + heel of the blade are angled 45 degrees from the back of the hone like this: / ?

It means a 45 degree angle relative to the hone with the blade flat on the hone. If it were not a smiler or a warped or worn spine it would be at 90 degrees. There is some individual variation on that among honers but that is what Lynn describes here in Lynn Abrams On Honing in the SRP Wiki.