Another stone sharpening ?

[rebAL]

Do you sharpen with circular motion, whitteling motion, or something else?   I just can't seem to get the same edge on my knives as I used to with my Smith's tri-hone set of stones.  (This originally came with oil as mentioned on previous post)  Perhaps I will break down & purchase the Lansky sticks but for now this is what I have.  Thanks;  Al

[Joel]

Back when I used stones for sharpening  knives with regular bevels, as oppposed to convex edges, I used a whittling motion.  For convex edges I stropped the knife backwards on the stone like you would a razor on a leather strop. The only time I ever used a circular motion was with those round stones used to sharpen axes.

[Totenkopf]

 I rarely use stones anymore. On the coarse I use circular to remove as much material in as short of a time as possible. On med slicing motion. Repeat again on fine. Then a razor hone stone backwards slicing to bevel and polish to fine edge. The tri stone has never had oil on it. The razor hone is probably 100 years old or more. It has years of gunk and oil. I use it dry knowing the pores have to be impregnated with metal, just to give it a finer grit. You could use 1000 grit sandpaper for the final hone.