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It's always interesting to read about those that feel that their time is free and judge others by the same standard.

David

It's always interesting to hear from those that are convinced that no matter what you can do they can do it better.

My strops are by FLEXX. I use compounds, White, Black, Green, from Stropman. Robert, the owner of that outfit died last year, and the business was closed. I still have enough compound for the rest of my life though.
Bear in mind that stropping tends to not only deburr the blade, but convex it. You can over do stropping if you are not careful.

Read in FB it’s be reopened by two brothers in the Brandon ,MS area. StropBros.

You provided the evidence for your inferior edges, not me...

Curious, when you you use your mouse pad and sand paper do you attach them to your flexible leather strop or do you lay them on a surface that provides a hard backer?

You are working over time to get offended in this thread, while easy answers are provided that might make you change your mind about how sharp a convex edge can be.

Speaking of leading a horse to water...

Carry on...

David

For stropping, I use large (2"x8"x12") basswood blocks that I have sanded flat, and impregnated with diamond past in 9 micron, 6 micron, 3 micron, 1 micron, and 0.5 micron grits. I use basswood, rather than a softer material, specifically to minimizing apex convexing. I use these after honing the blade with diamond hones and a Buck Honemaster to maintain the angle. Stropping is done freehand by feel. With this system, I can get a blade hair-whittling sharp.


Elmax at RH 61+ after being finished on the 0.5 micron strop

Agreed, it's one of the most effective ways to get a bevelled edge up to that level of sharpness. I find myself somewhat lazy these days and usually just use the 6000 grit polish tapes on my edge pro then swap to my 0.5 micron cbn maple strop.

For convex edges I switch from my 7000 grit sand paper to the knives plus white compound strop, then a 0.5 micron cbn suede strop.

Interestingly, I have experimented with the 0.5 micron CBN suede strop on my bevelled edges and it seems to work as well as the wood strop. I tell myself the minor convexing is strengthing the bevelled edge, but I would be hard pressed to prove that!

David

I, too, believe a tiny bit of convexing actually achieves a sharper blade than an apex with perfectly flat sides.

But, when using an angle guide to re-sharpen a blade on a hard surface, such as a diamond or ceramic plate , the less convexing the blade previously experienced, the less metal must be removed to get the blade sharp again.

Accordingly, I aim for some but not too much convexing, thus the basswoood strops.

JMHO, and there is more than one way to skin the cat.

Can't disagree with that. Mainly played w/ it on the pocket knives that don't see much hard use, a little stropping keeps them sharp mostly. I'll see if I notice any difference next time one of them needs to be reprofiled.

David

Unless dealing with convex edges where you want a soft surface, a good way I have found to strop is to simply wrap a piece of newspaper or copy paper around a sharpening stone. You can charge the paper with compound if you want, but paper like leather has natural abrasive properties. Then when finished, you simply throw the paper away and you don't ever have to clean or replace a real strop and its going to be more forgiving because you won't be able to round off your apex by pressing down too hard.

Have you used this technique successfully with the newer higher alloy steels like CPM S30V, S110V, M4, 390, Elmax, etc? I haven't found plain leather will accomplish much with these steels & I really need diamond/CBN compunds to finish in a timely fashion.

I have not tried the paper around a stone wor w/o compound.

David

1.) There are many of us here on this subforum who are REALLY into this stuff - makers, heat treaters, materials engineers, metallurgists, users of all types... While our "time" may not be "free", THIS is what we DO with our "free time"...

2.) You'd come across as a bit more knowledgeable if you spent just a bit more of the time you allocate to posting on knife fora to actually posting about knives. Maybe detailing the testing you've done to reach your conclusions rather than just attacking guys who REALLY know what they are talking about and some make a living doing it.

3.) Example, the comments below; what knives? Factory? Custom? Heat treat? Cuz it doesn't jive with most of the rest of us...



Honestly looking forward to the input...

The paper thingie will not work with high carbide steels.
CBN/Diamond is not necessary

.

You evidently have a lot more free time than I do to dumpster dive for scraps to make strops, not to mention the 3 year study on strop compounds! This knife sharpening is really hard!

You're telling me that you find CPM M4 more difficult to sharpen than S110V, M390 & Elmax, while having poorer edge retention? Perhaps it was your strop compound that was at fault, better commision a new study.

David

3.) Example, the comments below; what knives? Factory? Custom? Heat treat? Cuz it doesn't jive with most of the rest of us...


I don't know how to debate vapor...

Journeyman

Again, you seem to have more free time than I do. If you have a specific question or concern, state it. You want to throw out vague "it just doesn't jive with most of the rest of us" and then expect me to write a book,it ain't going to happen.

What doesn't jive to you exactly?

David

What knives do you own, and have tested, in the steels you listed?

What doesn't jive for you?

That's where you started, let's get that answered first.

David

I didn't start. You did. You made the statement above...