Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
It doesn't seem like you're visualizing the heel leading honing correctly. It is done on a wide hone and is exactly the same as straight across honing, in that the entire edge is hone at one time. The only difference is that the heel leads. Pressure is still uniform amd the entie edge spends the same amount of time on the hone. The spine and bevel are taken down uniformly, and to the naked eye, the blade looks the same whether you use the x-pattern, straight across, or heel leading. The difference is that heel leading also looks the same as the x-pattern microscopically, whereas straight across has scratch lines that are perpendicular to th edge. There is no problem moving back and forth between honing styles. With heel leading you don't even change the scratch pattern.