It took lots of repetition honing, stropping, going through setup, realizing the chip breaker was right on the edge of the blade, repeat, new error. The first picture is progress: small and crunchy, long and crinkley, long and papery.
Sharpening using Atoma 400/600/1200 diamond plates + a strop I had around. I found Wood By Wright’s setup video helpful and have been enjoying Rex Kreuger’s videos on sharpening and other things.
I worked so hard for these shavings, surely there’s something fun to do with them.
I save my wood chips from carving to use as kindling, and to wrap them in tin foil to use for smoking meat on the grill.