The Importance of Flattening

So last night I broke out my Mastro Livi new grind to see how it marries to my recently purchased Yaginoshima stone. When i got the stone, it sure seemd as flat as you could get, and was smooth like a polished countertop. I wet the top a few times, letting it start to dry, then wet it again, until it appeared that it was holding a good amount of water. I laid the razor on the stone, and, well, this flat-appearing stone was not flat at all. it had a hump in the middle, that allowed the razor to rock slightly. I laid the razor gently on my granit countertop, which I know to be flat, to see if it wasn't the razor. It wasn't. I turned the stone over on the countertop to see if it rocked a bit -- it did. There's the slightest hump in the stone, and will need to be flattened. I didn't feel like breaking out my whole kit, so I put everything away, and just gave the razor a good stropping. I just thought there might be some cautionary value in the telling of this episode.

Cheers,

Jack

Natural stones are just that. When they cut them often times they do the minimum they have to in order to preserve the largest size of the stone and let the end user figure out how to dial in the geometry.