Quote Originally Posted by thebigspendur
If I've said it once I'll say it a hundred times the old X pattern we all love came about because the old razor hones were small and you had to use it. The newer larger hones don't require it. If I on rare occassion use a barbers hone I use the X pattern but most of the time I use either a 3 inch coticule or the Norton and I use a straight push pattern with the heel leading. It works fine for me so X fans put that in your pipe and smoke it!
You got it backwards. The smaller stones were made to force X pattern on all blades, giving them slight curve on the blade, or "smile" which is more desired than straight edge for comortable shaving. You cannot maintain a, let's say nice old W&B meatchopper, or that purty TI Pierres hand forged, just pushing it straight along the 3" wide Norton... Just think, there was no problem for old barber's hones manufacturers to just add another inch lenght and width wise, and up the price for 1/3rd.

Nenad