I recently sacrificed a ram to the sharpening god, but all to no avail.
Sacraficial lamb. That’s lamb, not ram. There’s your problem right there…
The blade looks to be 1.25″ deep. You could try setting it deeper in the jaws since you aren’t putting a 15° angle on it (are you?). Also, some have seen their jaws diverge near the tips. Make sure yours are parallel. I think cardboard would be too slippery, so would the wrong cloth. This is a long blade, too. The angle will change from front to back relative to a fixed clamping point. You might have to clamp in two spots. But the angle change isn’t that critical. What’s critical is that the edge is part of the same ‘line’ from front to rear. Still gonna be sharp. And since the angle changes are slow and not abrupt, not a problem that I see.
