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Whether you do a slicing motion, like from heel to tip on one side, flip, repeat (the method I prefer to use because I've been doing it that way since Moses wore short pants), or you do a scrubbing motion (which is best when you need to remove a lot of material), or a circular motion (which I don't really care for, but it works)....all you are doing is removing material, hopefully evenly on both sides, so that a crisp apex (the edge of the edge) is formed. Scrubbing motions tend to form larger burrs, which need to be removed. The trick is to keep an eye on the light reflecting from the apex itself, looking straight at it. Once that "flat" gets smaller and smaller and smaller to where you can hardly see light reflecting, then whatever technique you were using, switch over to the 1st one you mentioned...slicing motion, edge leading, from heel to tip, once on one side, flip to the other side and then repeat. This will keep the burr formation to a minimum. Use your fingernail as a gauge to see if you apexed or not. If you did, the apex will bite into your thumbnail instantly. Check like this from tip down to heel. And on both sides. If a lot of material needs to be removed (thinning), then a scrubbing motion will work faster to get that steel removed. Just keep in mind that if you continue a scrubbing motion when are are at the apex, a larger burr will form that will need to be removed. Diamond plates are best used with light pressure. More pressure will strip the diamonds out of the nickel substrate. For actual apexing, making a very sharp edge of the edge, diamond plates work very well. For lots of material removal, a soft bonded silicon carbide stone with scrubbing motions works better, IMHO, as you can use more pressure, and not worry about stripping the stone. Actually the opposite is true for silicone carbide stones like Crystolon. You WANT to use decent pressure to release spent grit and bring up fresh grit particles.
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