The typical instruction for sharpening a knife on a stone is to push the blade down the stone edge first.
I have also seen folks who drag the blade up the stone, spline toward the person sharpening.
Also encountered folks who use a circular motion, and one Japanese guy who used a short stroke back and forth on the stone, almost like a "scrubbing" motion.
For those of us who sharpen manually with stones, what is your preferred method?
