I have a double question about ears. Firstly, if you look at the pictures, why are my ears so rough? I never seem to get "classic" ears that are smooth and a bit like a wave. Is it scoring or something else? Secondly, how can I promote a double ear? Usually one side is large and the other side has little or no ear. Thank you. (In the pictures below I used a simple, sharp straight razor blade with a straight perpendicular cut about 5 mm deep the whole length of the bread. The dough had been chilled so the score was reasonably neat).
This might help. I'd guess it was related to the angle of your cut, (perpendicular rather than angled) and more like 1/4" is normal.
https://challengerbreadware.com/bread-techniques/spotting-scoring-mistakes/
See: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71202/clean-effortless-bread-scoring
Thank you for these replies. It's a good point about the perpendicular cut, and returning to a more angled blade has indeed made the ears smoother. The butter tip is an interesting one too, which I will try. I think I have had smoother ears with rougher scores than these in the past, but everything helps!