I am hoping this will help to illustrate what we mean when we say 'The bevel must be fully set from heel to toe" This edge and another much like it just got here for evaluation, I figured some of you might want to see what I look for on the edge before I even try a test shave.. The owner honed this and as you can see the bevels to the outsides of the black marks are nicely formed and polished to a shave ready condition.. These are two spots on the edge where the bevel fades out, there are two spots on one side and one spot on the other like this, I have not figured out the reason yet, but I will when I get the razor on the 1k to re-set the bevel.. Sometimes if the edge is just a touch better then this, it can really make you crazy because the razor will pass tests and actually shave ok, it might start pulling after one pass or only pull in one spot, and often this is the reason why.. You really really want to take the time to make sure that the bevel is fully formed from heel to toe, sometimes that even means you have to give it a little push to get the edge to do what you want it too... I will try and get pics of the Bevel after I re-set it... I hope that gives you a good visual of where the bevel is faded out...
I think I'd better go give another very careful look to my Dovo 6/8 best. After you described of "ok in one spot and pulls in another" it kinda rings a bell. Thanks very much for the pics and words Glen!
Here are the MM test pics too, same spot there in the middle you can see the MM to the edge, These did not come out as good as I hoped, I caught a shadow there, but you should be able to see the area still This is as close to the same spot as I could manage, I used the same set up for the pic also I started with a MM test to confirm what I already suspected.. When I was taking the first pics the light was coming across the face of the blade, which showed me some imperfections, this lead me to suspect slight variations in the grind thickness rather then a warped blade which is always the first thing that people think.. The thickness variations are actually more common but they should be eliminated during the first couple of honing sessions.. This Hayashi is NOS so they were still present.. Looking at the blade face across a bright light or a bright window can be very revealing for many problems... The MM test confirmed this, so I did 10 Swooping Japanese X strokes per side to even up the bevel, I killed the edge lightly on the corner of the Chosera 1k and repeated the same operation, then switched to 20 standard X strokes, and ended with 5 finishing strokes on the 1k... The edge is now ready to move on up the honing ladder
