Can a knife be sharpened with small circle motions instead of long strokes?

[drail]

When I was growing up back in the 50s and 60s this is how most of my Uncles and Grandpas did it. I supposed if all you have are small hand held stones you would inevitably try going circular. Finding and working an edge is all about maintaining a consistent angle which I think for most people is much easier on a bench stone with long strokes. But if someone has the eye hand coordination to move in circles and keep an even angle then it will work fine. I was taught as a boy by old men and country boys and they have some weird ideas about honing. They use figure 8 strokes and circles usually on a big bench stone that bellied out 40 years ago but their Grandpa gave it to them and they're not going to give up on Grandpa's stone. After studying on the Japanese sharpening methods I get the best results using that method. It's all in the hands and wrists.

 

[drphillipt]

I find that if I need to remove a lot of steel to grind out nicks or resetting a bevel, the job goes faster with a circular motion, but it draws out a large bur. I remove it by lightly drawing the edge across a cutting board. Then I finish up with that grit edge 1st, alternating sides, before moving on to a finer grit. I'm sure my methods are only one of many that work equally as well, but they've served me well in over 50 years of sharpening. Learned a lot when I started using an sharpening straight razors.

 

[Bo T]

All we ever had growing up was a 2 sided puck. My dad always used a circular motion to sharpen the knives. He called it a 'spit' stone cause he never used oil on it.