I have a practice razor that I have struggled with for a while.. It's a temperamental sort for sure.

I thought I had the bevel set.. about a dozen times. But for some reason, I couldn't cut a single arm hair. I was using a King 1k. Marked the blade with a sharpie toe to heel and with just a few x-strokes the black marker was gone. That's one test. Thumb nail test revealed an even gentle tug on the edge across the edge with no 'slippery' spots. That's two tests. Cut an arm hair? Nope. Back to the 1000, again.

I noticed that there was one section in the center of the blade where the transition just didn't look as crisp as the rest. Try as I might, the King couldn't clean up that spot. I know crisp and shiny doesn't mean the bevel is set, but maybe this section of blade wasn't making good contact, as in a belly or twist on one side of the blade. I am reluctant to torque the blade too much or use too much pressure, simply because.. well, I don't know why. I think it's still a matter of not knowing what I don't know or trying something I think I understand but really don't.

In any event, I have a 6x2 DMT, Extra Fine, Green that I use for clean-up lapping and slurry. From what I read, it rated at 1200. Out of desperation I changed the tape and did about ten x-strokes on the DMT and immediately the fuzzy transition was perfectly crisp and I was passing all three tests..

It seems counter-intuitive that the 1000 should be quicker to set the bevel than the 1200, but it wasn't. The DMT seemed to so easily set the bevel that I wonder why we don't use a diamond hone for this purpose.

What am I missing?