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Edge leading tries to push the blade away from the belt. Edge trailing the opposite. Both require some technique and a bit of practice to maintain even blade to belt pressure while pulling the blade across the belt.
With the Kallyrest this is accomplished by placing a finger on the spine of the blade and maintaining slight upward pressure against the finger while pulling the blade across the rest. In some of Brian’s videos, he starts with his finger on the opposite side of the rest from the knife handle, stops part way through and moves his finger to the knife handle side of the rest and continues on. This is matter of personal preference, but not necessary. By starting with your finger on the side of the rest next to the knife handle switching sides is not necessary and the blade can be pulled across the rest in one smooth motion.
That said and IMHO, starting and stopping part way through has no effect on the final result. In fact, that is one of the advantages of a narrow 1” belt when knife sharpening. Many times it is handy to focus on a small area along the bevel. I’ve used 2” wide systems and they prevent working on small areas along the knife edge which can be very frustrating. As an example, burr never forms evenly along the edge, so it’s advantageous to be able to work on areas along the edge where burr has not yet formed. Continued grinding in areas where a burr has already formed is not necessary and only creates a larger burr.
Another example might be if the edge does not lie flat against the cutting board and light shines under part of the edge. It might be that a small area of the edge next to the heel needs additional grinding so the blade evenly contacts the cutting board. In that case, working on that small area solves the problem.
One consideration when looking at rest systems is does the rest allow sharpening right up the handle of the knife. With some rests the handle of the knife hits the rest preventing the last part of the edge next to the heel from being sharpened. This is not an issue on all knives but is on many. At least for me, trying to perfectly match an existing bevel free hand is difficult.
Brian has a Youtube channel! You can view his videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-cxhr...26Q/videos
Edge leading tries to push the blade away from the belt. Edge trailing the opposite. Both require some technique and a bit of practice to maintain even blade to belt pressure while pulling the blade across the belt.
With the Kallyrest this is accomplished by placing a finger on the spine of the blade and maintaining slight upward pressure against the finger while pulling the blade across the rest. In some of Brian’s videos, he starts with his finger on the opposite side of the rest from the knife handle, stops part way through and moves his finger to the knife handle side of the rest and continues on. This is matter of personal preference, but not necessary. By starting with your finger on the side of the rest next to the knife handle switching sides is not necessary and the blade can be pulled across the rest in one smooth motion.
That said and IMHO, starting and stopping part way through has no effect on the final result. In fact, that is one of the advantages of a narrow 1” belt when knife sharpening. Many times it is handy to focus on a small area along the bevel. I’ve used 2” wide systems and they prevent working on small areas along the knife edge which can be very frustrating. As an example, burr never forms evenly along the edge, so it’s advantageous to be able to work on areas along the edge where burr has not yet formed. Continued grinding in areas where a burr has already formed is not necessary and only creates a larger burr.
Another example might be if the edge does not lie flat against the cutting board and light shines under part of the edge. It might be that a small area of the edge next to the heel needs additional grinding so the blade evenly contacts the cutting board. In that case, working on that small area solves the problem.
One consideration when looking at rest systems is does the rest allow sharpening right up the handle of the knife. With some rests the handle of the knife hits the rest preventing the last part of the edge next to the heel from being sharpened. This is not an issue on all knives but is on many. At least for me, trying to perfectly match an existing bevel free hand is difficult.
Brian has a Youtube channel! You can view his videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-cxhr...26Q/videos