Thread: Backhoning?

I came across the following saved file (authored by David Uthe) on the Yahoo site today and was curious to hear some opinions from some of the more experienced here.

The last sentence in the two paragraphs from the message below is the one in question. It has been my understanding to get as close as possible to a wire edge without actually getting one, the information below advises this wire edge to be used as a honing guide.

Mr. Uthe to my understanding is considered a knowledgeable veteran to straight shaving. I'm just curious to hear some of your comments on this subject.

Miles

Message # 49209

From: "uthed1" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon May 2, 2005 2:53 am
Subject: Re: Wire edge Woes uthed1

Back-honing is just like it sounds. Keeping the same angle of the
razor horizontally on the stone as in regular (forward) honing, simply
reverse direction by moving the razor with the edge TRAILING, keeping
a v-e-r-y light touch. Three or four round-trips on the stone ought
to do it. Then a couple of light forward passes. The "wire" often
comes off in little thin hairs of metal you can see on the stone. At
the point the wire is removed is about as sharp as that razor will
ever be before moving to the plain-leather strop, which is the next
step.

As long as we're on the subject, a wire-edge is generally an
indication in honing that its time to move on to the next stage in
the procedure. If you are building a new edge on an outright dull or
dammaged razor, for instance, beginning with a coarse stone, wait
until a wire edge develops before moving to the next finer stone in
the sequence. In going from coarse stone to finer stone, there is no
need to first remove the wire. The next finer stone will do that for
you. Continue the procedure through your stones until your finest
stone. Removing the wire-edge is saved for the final stone, prior to
stropping. So, back-honing will always apply to finishing a final
edge on a stone before the strop.