The Contour method is a powerful residual stress measurement method, that is still under development. A limitation of the technique is that the component must be cut into two mirror-symmetric parts. A new approach is being developed at the Open University allowing arbitrary cuts giving asymmetric cut parts (and stress fields). Residual stress measurements on a laser welded plate using Engin-X are proposed to validate the newly developed contour method and demonstrate its ability to deal with large shear stresses.