Sweeping stroke and stone size

[pinklather]

I've grown fond of blades that have at least a minimal smile. Those with a moderate or pronounced smile are said to benefit from a 'sweeping' or 'swooping' (arc) stroke. My existing finisher is an asagi that's about 6.5" long. It seems there's not much longitudinal stroke before the arc must be completed. This, along with it being a very slow cutter, means either ALOT of circles/elipses and a few sweeping strokes, or even more sweeping strokes.

Those of you that like smiling blades, have you found the smaller stones to be a similar constraint - making you prefer the long (200mm) lengths? Or does that make you seek a faster cutting stone to make up for the short longitudinal travel?

Many Thx

 

[Bart]

I prefer hones with a length in between 6" (15 cm) and 8" (20 cm), with a sweet spot right in the middle of that.
But I can get by with considerably shorter.
What I do on short hones (and occasionally also on longer ones), is to not hone all the blade at once. There is no objection to doing strokes that start out only favoring the heel and slowly shift the attention over the middle to the tip and all the way back. It works great for dealing with smiling blades, because you don't have to put the entire arc in every stroke, on gradually shift the arc together with shifting the stroke.
I hope this explanation somehow makes sense.

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[pinklather]

Bart, that's really helpful! Thank You!

 

[Bart]

You're most welcome, mate.

Glad you could make something out of it. I wasn't sure my explanation made sense.

Kind regards,
Bart