Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
Hi Pam

In my opinion, with just one exception, honing guides are best suited to sharpening via micro secondary bevels. It is inefficient - with non-laminated blades - to hone the full face of a bevel.

Only the Sharp Skate is designed to hone full faces. And this was really developed with laminated Japanese blades in mind, an alternative to side-to-side freehand sharpening.

When one freehand sharpens a non-laminated blade, either one creates a hollow grind and uses this as a template to hone, or one lifts the blade when honing. Both methods create a microbevel. The first method does so without a secondary bevel, while the second method relies on it.

All these methods have one thing in common: reduce the amount of steel that needs to be removed in sharpening. The reason that this is not considered necessary with laminated blades is that the layer of hard steel is thin already, and the soft backing layer abrades relatively easily. The point is, here too one is only honing a small section of the bevel.

Regards from Perth

Derek