"Mark Fitzsimmons" wrote in message
ups.com...

mac davis wrote:
Honing is only effective if the tool is pretty sharp already.. otherwise,
you're
not honing an edge, you're polishing it and it looks pretty, but is also
pretty
dull...

Yeah, what he said. When you look at the edge in with light shining
from behind your head, and you can see a shiny metal line where the
edge is, that means it's dull, because the light is reflecting off a
radius. When it's really sharp, the edge is so fine you should be hard
pressed to see any line of reflected light on the edge.


Hmm- this pertains to non-hollow ground edges? A hollow ground edge always
shows a shiny line at edge and heel. Of course even a non-hollow ground
edge can shine if you've changed the sharpness angle. They call it a
"microbevel."