Honing jig method

[David Ragan]

The long awaited day when I would be motivated to sharpen blades arrived this week. I'm on staycation.

Using the entire surface of my stone-or lack of, has bothered me for some time.....

So, I stumbled upon a method with my MkII guide whereby I use the jig with the blade toward me (I have always 'pushed' it away toward the far end of the stone) bringing the whole apparatus to the very end of the stone, and over to the edge on each side.

In this way, I'm able to observe the interface better, etc.

My friend is a psychotherapist, and she often mentions "mindfulness", ie, simply being aware, and present mentally with what we are doing. Sounds simple, right? Seems like seeing the blade/stone interface contributes to the Zen of the process.

It is curious that this method is never seen in pictures. Much like the Japanese way of pulling the plane toward you-which I had to do this week also:eek:

[Mike Brady]

What you are describing seems fine if you are comfortable with it. Here is what I see as different from the more common method: It may be more difficult to apply even pressure downward on the stone using just your thumbs. When standing "behind" the jig, you have six fingers plus the strength of you forearms to bear downward on the jig. Also when using the jig by your new method, it may be difficult when the roller is at the far end of the stone. A plus is that you are moving the blade backwards, which probably keeps the wire edge more intact. My guess is that your new method would be best used when the edge is just being honed, as opposed to reshaping a new bevel that requires more lapping on coarser stones.

[ian maybury]

It's possible you could get some 'digging in' if moving the blade towards you while pressing down - at least on steeper bevel angles, narrower blades and softer stones. Should be fine if you hone/press down on the backstroke.

Another way to getting max use out of the area of the stone may be to use one of the several 'off stone' types that are around. e.g. the Fritsch Ultimate about half way down the page here: https://www.fine-tools.com/hilf.html It wouldn't be my first choice though - it'd introduce a risk of alignment issues as a result of height and side to side tilt variations in the surface. No big deal if sharpening wider blades hollow bevel, but probably not so good in the case of narrow blades where the honing guide requires a cylindrical or equivalent roller to control the alignment of the blade.

[Kyle DuPont]

I have used it both directions and apply downward force on the push when the iron is facing me. I like the feel of pushing down and back with my thumbs as opposed to forward and down. It just seemed more natural that way.

[Ron Brese]

I think a better approach would be to just alternate which end of the stone is used between flattening. My fear would be trying to use the area of the stone that the wheel had been on previously. This may be an unwarranted concern but I don't think I want the edge of my iron to be worked on the area of the stone where the wheel has been running back and forth. I can't imagine that the wheel wouldn't effect some kind of wear on the stone. On the Shapton Pro stones either side can be flattened and used so there are plenty of surfaces available for use that haven't been exposed to the wheel and as I mentioned you can alternate which end is used after it is once again flattened. Sharpening is really simple, don't over think it.

Ron