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It's the rounded bevel which confuses people.All the old books quite rightly warn against "rounding over" i.e increasing the edge angle progressively in search of the burr.This has wrongly been interpreted by beginners as meaning bevels must be flat.But in fact "rounding under" is perfectly OK. The edge stays at about 30º but with the bevel behind rounded. This is what you get if you do easy, fast and energetic freehand honing, but without going over 30º. You start the movement at 30º and dip the handle slightly as you go. It means you are also backing off at the same time and on narrow or thin blades avoids having to grind on a coarser stone.In fact keeping a bevel flat is quite difficult freehand - hence the attraction of the jig.I do seem to have to explain this very often (100s of times! ) but if you stop and think about it a bit it's not that difficult to grasp.
It's the rounded bevel which confuses people.
All the old books quite rightly warn against "rounding over" i.e increasing the edge angle progressively in search of the burr.
This has wrongly been interpreted by beginners as meaning bevels must be flat.
But in fact "rounding under" is perfectly OK. The edge stays at about 30º but with the bevel behind rounded. This is what you get if you do easy, fast and energetic freehand honing, but without going over 30º. You start the movement at 30º and dip the handle slightly as you go. It means you are also backing off at the same time and on narrow or thin blades avoids having to grind on a coarser stone.
In fact keeping a bevel flat is quite difficult freehand - hence the attraction of the jig.
I do seem to have to explain this very often (100s of times! ) but if you stop and think about it a bit it's not that difficult to grasp.