Thread: Question on Murray Carter's honing technique

Originally Posted by kevint

I dont think I could fix a bevel one handed on 220 paper.

Do you in any way index your body position so that you can feel the constancy of the angle throughout the strokes?

I've been practicing this quite a lot. I put the stone on the counter (with a towel under it so it doesn't slide around), wet it with water, and lay the knife across the stone at about a 45 degree angle so I can pretend the stone is wider than it really is. I am left-handed, and I do both sides with my left hand. Suppose I were holding the knife straight out in front of me, edge down: I will call these the left and right sides of the knife.

When I'm doing the left side of the knife, I lay my index finger along the spine. When I do the right side of the knife, I lay my index finger on the upward-facing left side of the knife. This is for stability.

I place the knife on the stone and initially find the angle by looking and feeling with the fingers of my right hand. Then I make circles on the stone, slowly drawing the knife from heel to tip. (I don't bend my wrist, I use my whole arm). When the angle is just right, I can feel a suction effect like there's honey smeared on the stone, from the two wet, flat surfaces rubbing together. This is exactly the same feeling I get from arazor on a wet Swaty.

I finish the Murray Carter way. I backhone a couple of strokes to put in a tiny primary bevel & remove the burr. Then I lightly draw the edge through soft wood to remove any burr remnants. Then I backhone a couple more strokes. That's it.

From Dwarven Chef's picture, it looks like the secondary bevel is very uneven and is not meant to be used as an angle guide a la Mora knife. So Murray really is freehanding it with both hands, back & forth. Well, his way may be better than mine, but I can't do it the way he does it. My grip might be weird but I'm used to it, for good or ill.

Hope that was comprehensible.