Originally Posted by mparker762
When I do this on my smiling 8/8 W&B frameback, the razor leaves a pencil-thin black swarf trail that starts at the edge of the hone where the heel touches at the beginning of the stroke, then arcs out and across the hone to the other side where the toe touches at the end of the stroke. A full pass leaves a black 'X' on my hone from the metal swarf. If I do the X pattern then I get the same result only it's confined to the near side of the hone because the toe winds up near the middle of the hone by the time the blade rocks around to it -- this is why you can hone a smiling blade on a narrow hone.