First go at a bevel set with a warped razor

[MisterMoo]

Not my razor but a friends - a pretty nice Geo. Butler. After being unable to set a bevel I shifted from practice to theory, theory being, something must be wrong cause this blade wasn't pushing water or slurry evenly. Employing an LED and a flat marble slab I felt some flippy-flop and saw light where there ought not be light:



Bit of a warp on a blade without much hone wear. A search didn't bring up a lot but I did find some @gssixgun advice that suggested, either become adept at 45* heel-leading rollling-x's to create an even bevel; or start grinding circles, x-strokes and whatever else seems to work to effectively flatten the edge with what will probaby be an irregular looking bevel (or so I paraphrase). I went with tape and startd grinding the snot out of the blade. I didn't think it would ever end but it did and for the best.

I did some chip-free heavy lifting on a King 250 then graduated to the 1000 side. I passed on a newly-smoothed DMT325 having seen how fast it eats big chisels. Here, for me, is the beauty of the King 1000 stone many criticize for being too slow. It was slow and, as such, I had a chance to carefully observe changes in the shape of the edge as the blade went from useless to hair popping. Slow, especially for a novice, is not a bad thing. After what seemed like forever it became obvious a bevel had been set after which I took the blade to coticule/dilucot.

I really like the feedback from a coticule. It is true that the sound, feel and appearane of the blade on a coticule speaks volumes about what's happening or not happening. When I started working on a slurry a residual problem with the bevel was quick to appear in a failure to undercut grit from end to end; this was, then, easily remedied with some long strokes, a bit of pressure and some selective x-rolling. The end result was a slightly broad bevel (just toe-side of center) on one side balanced out with a little bit of missing meat on the flipside heel. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first warped bevel set.




From slurry to water to stropping and it's popping arm hairs like a madman. Test drive Sunday night. Open to your comments, suggestions, critcisms.