Trailing or push stroke?

**Pauly** · 01-18-2011, 09:33 AM

My sharpening experience is based on my kitchen knives.

When sharpening my knives I use trailing strokes, i.e. the spine is leading in the direction of the stroke and the edge trails behind.

Watching Lynn and some other razor videos people seem to be be sharpening razors using push strokes, i.e. the edge leads with the spine following.

Is using a push stroke merely a sharpening idiosyncracy or is there some deeper meaning behind it?

**Maxi** · 01-18-2011, 11:57 AM

Other more experienced people will most likely respond as well, but here's my limited understanding.

When sharpening knives, some people like to create a burr with a push stroke, and then polish it off when you flip the knife. Myself, I'm all about equal honing on both sides. With razors, we use a pull stroke to remove a burr when a razor has been overhoned. The idea is to not get the burr in the first place, but to set the bevel, using push strokes, and then work up the stone grits, keeping the bevel the same angles for optimum shaving.

A spine leading pull stroke is used when stropping on pastes to touch up the edge, or when doing daily stropping on canvas/leather to re-align the razors teeth before a shave and after the shave (it also helps after to remove the residue of cream, gunk, etc, from the blade).

Hope this helps,
Maxi

**mainaman** · 01-18-2011, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by Pauly

My sharpening experience is based on my kitchen knives.

When sharpening my knives I use trailing strokes, i.e. the spine is leading in the direction of the stroke and the edge trails behind.

Watching Lynn and some other razor videos people seem to be be sharpening razors using push strokes, i.e. the edge leads with the spine following.

Is using a push stroke merely a sharpening idiosyncracy or is there some deeper meaning behind it?

I have never seen anyone use trailing stroke when sharpening knives. The usual motion is back and forth at ~45* to the stone with most pressure applied on the pull stroke which is edge leading stroke. Trailing stroke makes keeping consistent angles difficult, usually that type of stroke is used when stropping.

**Disburden** · 01-18-2011, 01:53 PM

When honing razors you always lead with the edge, I have never seen anyonehone a knife with the spine leading either, especially since knives are usually honed with the spine lifted off the stone since the bevel is usually steep.

Some people DO hone with the spine leading as a very light final touch on a finishing stone, maybe 3-5 laps. I have tried this and didn't see anything benefit, I didn't see the point. That is more like pre-stropping on a stone than honing, imo, with a razor.

**JimmyHAD** · 01-18-2011, 02:11 PM

Circles and X strokes seem to be the most effective IME. As Nick (Disburden) said, the spine leading back stroke is practiced by some as a light finishing stroke but not as a regular method of honing throughout the process. OTOH, if it seems to work for you let us know. No rules really, just whatever works.

**pinklather** · 01-18-2011, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Disburden

Some people DO hone with the spine leading as a very light final touch on a finishing stone, maybe 3-5 laps. I have tried this and didn't see anything benefit, I didn't see the point. That is more like pre-stropping on a stone than honing, imo, with a razor.

A knife sharpening vid I saw used spine-leading strokes as the final laps on a stone - and they were referred to a 'stropping' strokes.

**mainaman** · 01-18-2011, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by pinklather

A knife sharpening vid I saw used spine-leading strokes as the final laps on a stone - and they were referred to a 'stropping' strokes.

that us not how you put an edge on a knife.
Here a very good one that shows exactly how it is done.

YouTube - How to Sharpen a Knife

**Pauly** · 01-19-2011, 01:04 AM

Mainaman,

I'm sorry, but that video is about as useful as a handkerchief in a wetsuit.

Maybe if you had one knife you could lavish attention on you could use that technique, but you can't do that when you're going through your knife roll. I'll sharpen 4 to 8 knives each week and I'm not going to spend half an hour on each one.

**Disburden** · 01-19-2011, 02:09 AM

A half an hour to sharpen one knife is too long of a period of time? I don't sharpen knives, I am just wondering...

Razors may take more time than that, just letting you know, so when you get into the hobby more and have several razors to hone or more that may be even more time consuming than a half hour. I know some people that need to remove a lot of steel to restore an edge on a razor, it can take over an hour to remove the steel and set a bevel correctly.

**mainaman** · 01-19-2011, 03:20 AM

Originally Posted by Pauly

Mainaman,

I'm sorry, but that video is about as useful as a handkerchief in a wetsuit.

Maybe if you had one knife you could lavish attention on you could use that technique, but you can't do that when you're going through your knife roll. I'll sharpen 4 to 8 knives each week and I'm not going to spend half an hour on each one.

As far as the video is concerned I think you are missing he point here.

When using circles as strokes you would employ both edge trailing and edge leading motion.
The regular x-stroke is just as effective, I have never seen any discussion on trailing vs leading stroke, but I'll guess the edge leading stroke works a lot better.

In the end sharpening knives and razors is two very different things, razor edges are a lot more delicate and require more control to get best final results. IMO edge leading stroke allows for that level of control.

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