Sharpening stroke - edge trailing vs edge leading

[bluntcut]

Some thing that comes to mind....Edge trailing leaves the burr folded outwards (away from the edge) and shows better whereas edge leading pushes/folds the burr over to the opposite side and doesn't show well. It's been my experience that if both edges are stropped lightly (on both sides) edge trailing they will look the same with regards to burr formation. I will say that creating an edge on belts by edge leading does produce a slightly smaller burr than edge trailing.

Good insights

Continuing with my non-pro speak... High velocity abrasives (belt, wheel, disc) is more complicated because effective grit & momentum vectors can easily exceed steel properties. Analogy - high pressure water can cut steel. However the final resultant impact is the same for moving or static abrasive: which is away from the apex for edge-trailing, and 'into' bevel for edge-leading.

btw - my language skills is sub-par, so please over-look dull (or so sure or if construe as un-respectful) statements

[keithsaltydog]

Edge trailing when sharpening on whetstones certainly works.

Burr removal on the stones I've seen some Japanese sharpeners use edge lead & others use edge trail,of coarse burr removal is a very lite touch.