Glen..awesome, this is the kind of discussion I came here for. SO...when you say "smooth" do you mean "polished" as in "shiny"? Or 'smooth' as in 'no tooth' on the edge?

I can tell you that prior to putting blades under the microscope, all my 'sharp' edges had 'tooth' despite being 'polished'. And by 'polished' I mean that under 500x mag, you can see no scratches at all, the surface is just an even grey, and mirror bright to the naked eye.

I am now using the microscope as a tool to help change the way I hold, press, stroke in order to elminate "tooth". But I'm not yet consistently there.