A question I often get is if I have ever experienced a problem getting both sides of the knife to have perfectly even bevels. Yes I have and it is a common problem, that is not really a problem and I have learnt to correct it.
TO CLARIFY: By uneven bevels I mean one side having a larger surface area than the other. Both bevels can run perfectly parallel to the edge, I am not talking about one spot on the bevel being a little higher than the rest.
I found that as I sharpened starting on the right side of the knife that when I was finished, either that side or the left side seemed to have a wider bevel and it was often the left side. Regardless of how careful I paid attention to my angles, it seemed to happen often.
Now I have seen Japanese knives come and they look like this out of the box so this isn't something that novices do and it just disappears. I have also noticed that it is an aesthetics issue, not something that prevents the knife from being sharp.
I think that the cause of this is caused by one or all of three things:
* Different Angles
* Different levels of Pressure
* Unequal amount of time spent sharpening on each side.
I found that as I worked to raise a burr, if it was a lengthy process, i.e. more that three minutes, I noticed the problem more. So I would grind away on the right side of the knife to get the burr to flip over to the left side, as we know, the burr always forms on the opposite side of where we are sharpening. Then, when I flipped the knife, if I didn't have to spend as much time on the left side, there is case of not balancing the timing. Also, it is possible that my pressure was different on my right side than the left.
To prevent this from happening, I am very aware now of how much time I spend on each side so if I have not raised the burr when I start the sharpening process within 2-3 minutes, I flip the knife anyway and start grinding on the other side, then I flip and start over again until the burr forms. Once it does form, it is a quick process I find. This action alone seems to have solved the problem for me.
However, just being aware of it caused me to be more vigilant as I sharpen, to continuously look at the edge/bevels to ensure that everything looks even, on 50?50 grinds of course.
If this is something you are experiencing, try managing your time as evenly as possible and of course your pressure. I don't know if it as much of an angle issue though. I have seen this on knives sharpened on an Edge Pro where the angles do match perfectly so this left me with time and pressure.
It is not a big deal and as I have said, I have seen world class knives with uneven bevels but still beyond razor sharp, not very often but it can happen, we are human after all and not perfect . All we can do as a freehand sharpener is our best to duplicate our efforts on both sides of the knife and to acknowledge that mistakes happen for a reason, they make us better at what we do.
AND
IT COULD ALWAYS BE WORSE
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