Thread: Smoothing out a flawed stroke

In learning a new finisher, I discovered some reasons for having chronic issues with the toe of a blade not being as keen as the rest. I can recover the keenness with some circle strokes, but that's compensating for a flawed stroke.

I found that I have trouble keeping the edge flat on the stone at the end of a return stroke where the majority of the edge has passed off the stone, leaving only 1/2-3/4" of edge left remaining at the end of the x-stroke. I don't know if this flaw is common or not.

I first helf a stone in one of the stone holding fixtures, and found an improvement when I began holding the stone in my hand. I'm currently experimenting with keeping my stroking elbow high - parallel to the floor - which is only comfortable for a short to medium length of time. A slow stone will take more strokes than I can keep the elbow up comfortably. I expect that practice with the high elbow will strengthen the arm in that position - which I'll continue working.

I don't know if there are any other techniques or tricks to keeping the blade flat at the end of the stroke. Any thoughts you can share would be appreciated. Many Thanks in advance.

Try two different things, the first is switch direction of the hone, if you were honing top to bottom or the stone oriented N/S then turn the stone side to side or E/W this will help you correct the stroke..
Now get it in your head that to do an X stroke the toe of the blade really never has to move more the 1/2 to 1 inch toward the heel side edge.. You do not have to bring the toe of the razor from one corner to the other. You really only need a slight distance to get the effect, this of course is dependent on the stone width also...

Keeping the elbow up during the honing stroke goes a long way toward ensuring the entire blade stays on the stone.

Glen & Lynn. Wow, do I appreciate that.

I've never imagined honing left to right & vice versa. Doggone, its invaluable to get outside help!

I've just been trying the raised elbow, having read a thread that described how to make a very slight adjustment to the angle/contact of the edge on a stone. This makes sense.

And you're totally right - I was thinking the corner of the toe had to stop near the corner of the stone.

Thank You both so much!

Keep an eye on the water displacement line as you work the razor up and down the stone. Many times when the line looses it's straightness across the full blade, the elbow is the culprit.

Have fun,

Lynn

Thank You Very Much Lynn & Glenn!

I have had the same problem as pinklather for some time now and I have been aiming to ask this question but just didn't get around to it. The only solution I could come up with was to do some extra strokes on the toe only then full strokes to even it out. I have been working on Lynn's suggestion about keeping the elbow level and it helped a lot but didn't completely fix the problem, guess I need to concentrate more.

I'm going to give Glenn's idea a shot too, maybe the combination will fix the problem completely. When regular honing I have been doing the N/S method but switch to the E/W on paddle strops. I don't have a problem on the paddle strop, I should have realized that and applied it to my regular honing.

Thanks again guys!

I'm an absolute honing newb, and am struggling with this same issue. Appreciate all the advise here