Thread: Free handing a second bevel.

So I just got some .25 micron diamond spray in from hand american, and I was playing with it a bit. Not wanting to fully commit it to a leather bench hone, I grabbed a spare piece of 11x3 balsa and sprayed a few squirts on the surface.

I went to the bathroom and got one of my experimentation razors, a morley and sons clover 5/8 full hollow, and put a piece of tape on the spine. (Since it's an experimentation razor I goof around with it quite a bit and don't want to add more hone wear than necessary).

After a few strokes on the diamond I decided to give a microbevel a shot, too. I know that's really unscientific of me as you would ideally want to change only one variable at a time, but it's my experiement and I'm not sending this in to any peer reviewed journal, so whatever.

A bit of background: I've been freehand knife sharpening for quite a while now, and I've got knives that shave better than some of my razors. Sometimes I freehand a microbevel onto my knives and it's always worked out great. So I take the Morley and Sons and raise the taped spine off of the balsa a bit (maybe the height of a penny.... pretty stiff angle for a straight razor microbevel) and did four or five very careful strokes along the edge.

I went to the bathroom and stropped it up, grabbed the tabac and did a quick and dirty beard prep (I'd say 70% of my preps are quick and dirty...) and the shave was GREAT. Supasharp. And reasonably smooth. I'm sure it would've been smoother had I stropped more (only 40 or so strokes this time), but it wasn't uncomfortable in the least.

Had this been a leather bench hone or hanging strop, I wouldn't have gone for the microbevel, but on the balsa it worked great. If anyone is feeling daring and can freehand sharpen decently, give it a shot and let me know how it went for you.

Until I have bad experiences with it, I'll do it again some time.