Hello again,

You can see how far out of flat your stone is by drawing a grid across it with a pencil, then grinding it against a flat stone. You can see where the grid is rubbed away and where it stays.

You're lucky you have friends who can mill stones--that'll help you.

I remember from an earlier post that you are stropping on a belt. If you want to use a pasted strop, I'd recommend putting the paste on balsa wood. If you do a lot of stropping with abrasive, you can put some strange wear on the blade. I think having the abrasive on a nonflexible surface helps reduce that wear. It's kind of like you've built your own hone. Google "Balsa Hone" or search for it here on SRP.

Good luck!