sharpening question

[sudsy909]

hey everybody i have a quick question when sharpening a single beveled knife i understand that you follow the same angle that is on the front side but when sharpening the back(slightly hollow side) i think i am still slightly confused you are trying to keep that side of the knife slightly hollow because if it were to flatten out it would lose it's sharpness please correct any of this if it is wrong so you put the knife totally flat on the stone doesn't that scratch up the surface of the blade or am i missing something also i have read conflicting articles one says to just do one pass on the hollow side another says to sharpen just as you would the front but flat against the stone which is right somebody please help the more i read the more i get confused thanks everybody ryan

[Oded]

1 You keep the back flat on the stone. Due to the concave shape of the back only the areas near the spine and near the edge actually touch the stone.

2 I tend to just polish the back, maybe because I learned to sharpen chisels before I've learned to sharpen knives, and that’s the way I’ve learned.
So, I will hone the front until I get the burr on the back, continue polishing the front through the grits (I go up to 15,000) and then polish the back - I use the 6000 until I float the burr and then polish with the 15,000. I then use some old newspaper to fine-polish both front and back.