Thread: I think I'm close but...

Continuing on with my honing journey and taking what I've learned from the advice I've been given here as well as the individual I know who taught me how to hone, I tried my hand at a NOS wedge blade this weekend.

This blade barely had a bevel to it, and it was effectively dull.

I spent two hours on this: 1 hour on the 1k King and then another hour on the 4k/8k Norton followed by pasted strop --> linen --> leather.

1k King:

I tried circles (clockwise/counter clockwise), followed by edge leading/trailing strokes with the blade at an angle, and finally finishing off with edge leading strokes with the blade straight. I was keeping an eye on the bevel using my Belomo loupe and I did see the bevel taking shape, however, I was quite distraught after the 1k as the blade couldn't shave any hair off my arm. I moved on to the 4k/8k.

4k/8k Norton

Similar technique on the 4k. I definitely noticed metal particles in the water as I was doing this. After about half an hour I got the blade to where I could shave arm hair, however one side was definitely sharper than the other side and unfortunately the bevel wasn't straight across, it was wavy (tried to capture this in pics). Bevel under the loupe had much finer striations however.

Spent maybe 15mins on the 8k with just edge leading/trailing strokes. Blade got a bit sharper and the bevel striations appeared smoother. At this point I figured I'd see what I kind of an edge I procured and then try again post shave.

After stropping, I was quite surprised to have received a decent shave from the blade. No tugging or pulling, but it also wasn't exactly a close shave either (this was WTG). Past attempts at honing gave me a very uncomfortable shave so I feel like I have finally made some progress but clearly I still have some issues.

How do I proceed from this point? Do I go back to the 1k or spend more time on the 4k/8k? How do I get a straight bevel rather than one that's wavy (I'm assuming this is an issue of pressure)? How do I fix the issue of one side of the blade being sharper than the other?