Reply To: Paul's hammer trick for flattening irons / blades
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@etmo I just realized this blade is marked, “hand forged,” so I wonder if that supports your theory of stresses from manufacturing?
I finally have this beast flat. More properly, I should say I have the final 1/4″ flat and polished and you can support the final 1/2″ to work the final 1/4″. I used Garrett Hack’s trick of mounting a grinding wheel in a drill and then going after the high spots. So, the blade is now a bit like a Japanese blade and has a 1/2″ rectangular hollow across most of the width of the blade about 1/4″ back from the edge.
One thing that I noticed is that my strop is causing scratches. It’s not revealing scratches from early stages, but is causing them. I wonder if it’s the compound itself (Lee Valley), crud in the compound from sitting on the shelf, or crud in the strop from sitting on the shelf. I always thought I was revealing scratches missed by earlier stages of polishing, but now I’m sure it’s the strop. I’m not sure it affects the iron. I’ve always just ignored it (but been annoyed).