Quote Originally Posted by threeputt
This is more in line with the original post. I guess I've known it for awhile, but never really payed that close of attention. Bear with my teminology here, and keep your smirks and elbows to yourselves. I don't know any other term to use besides this. It's common knowledge that when you are approaching optimum on a wet stone, the blade will begin to "suck" to the hone. With 8000 it does somewhat, and with even finer stones it does more so. The edge is becoming so perfectly flat on the stone that it seems to create a sort of suction. My point is this....as it begins to suck, it seems to suck in certain spots and then release in others. If you keep going until the suck is consistent and uniform down the stone, then you're there. (OK one joke wouldn't hurt anybody). This is all assuming your hone is perfectly true and flat. Trueness is of utmost importance at this point I believe. Last night I had a razor sucking so hard on the Chinese 12k+ (OK one more joke and that's it) that I could actually let it go and it would stay there for a second with the handle hanging over in mid-air. Before I reached that point, it started to stick to the stone in spots, but gradually spread to the entire honing surface. At this point, a few very light strokes, then to the strop. I'm enjoying this. Experts chime in.... is it possible to overhone with the Chinese stone? I don't mean 5000 strokes, but could, say, a few hundred at very light pressure do any harm? It took my about 75 round trips to get to this point, so I figure if less than a few hundred, lightly of course, is safe, then it would never become an issue. It is so smooth it can't be removing much steel.

Your arm will fall off, first .....