How Do I Get Clean Paper Cuts?

Welcome to the W.E. forum, Mike.

Stropping your sharpened edges will smooth the snags.  I use at least a 4µ/2µ strop progression on every sharpened edge.

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Brewbear, disneymike

There are two reasons to strop.  First to smooth or refine the sharpened edges.  It remove the snags and therefore, improve sharpness.  Second, they polish the bevels through their burnishing effect to improve the mirrored polish.  I use the basic (cow) leather strops.  To smooth, refine and polish my edges they work well, for me.  They do what I need them to do.  I use additional finer grit compounds also on cow leather strops, when I want a more polished bevel.  They’re inexpensive and easy to replace.

The kangaroo are thinner, they’re less compressible, supposedly the leather itself is smoother then cow leather.  Also they’re more expensive.   I have not used them, yet.

The nanocloth are the smoothest of the strop mediums.  They are meant to be used with the ultra small micron stropping compounds where a more abrasive strop medium may add back scratches to the super mirror polished surfaces you’re looking to remove.

For utility and function, (i.e., enhanced sharpness),  and for enhanced polish and shine also, the cow leather works quite well.  They are also a better choice strop for the new W.E. user just learning the stropping technique.  Which is a whole different technique then sharpening,  all unto itself.  After you learn how to strop and see what it does for you, after you’ve slashed up a pair or two of strop strips which we all do while learning the stropping technique, then you may want to go for more refinement to your mirrored polish and go for the smoother stropping mediums.

Right now after only three knives, even with the good sharp results you shared you’re achieving, I doubt your sharpening stones are even broken in yet. After about 10-12 knives or so they’ll really start to get good.

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GJHM28, Brewbear, disneymike

“airscapes” advice is also just as valid an explanation for your paper slicing issue.  With more effort for edge refinement done with each and every stone in your sharpening progression, the end results should be sharper, smoother and shinier.

Also, by employing alternating side strokes, left-right-left-right, in the edge leading direction, down and onto the edge, you will remove any remnants of a burr or wire edge created with the grit you’re finishing up using.  This step repeated at the end of each grit used will leave an exposed sharpened edge with no burrs to cause edge snags.

I do still finish each sharpening job with strops.  It will make a snag free edge slip through paper markedly smoother.

The broken in stones right now is key.  It’s best to work with beater knives that need a lot of work that will require more stone work to help break in your sharpening stones, quickly.  Then there’s no worry about ruining anything while learning.  The learning/break-in period is the time to try the various sharpening strokes and to learn by mistakes.  That’s why it’s best to learn on crappy beater knives that you don’t care about.  Save you good knives for later.

This is a good video worth watching.  It explains the various sharpening strokes.  (It does discuss whetstones some at the start, also.)

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GJHM28, Brewbear, disneymike

Even the diamond lapping films, which are a great ultra fine sharpening and polishing medium, as fine a grit as they are, can produce a very tiny burr. The burrs can be seen with an experienced eye using a USB microscope on high power.  The lapping films are used strictly with edge trailing strokes, that is up and away from, or up and off of the knife edge, just like using the strops*.  This is due to the easily slashed nature of the medium’s plastic-like adhesive backed strips.

These resulting fine burrs are another reason I prefer to always finish sharpening with strops.

*Some experienced users may employ up-down scrubbing strokes and/or horizontal or back and forth sideways scrubbing strokes when using the lapping films.  Extreme care must be exercised  with a very light, gentle touch, to avoid slashing the films.  

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GJHM28, Brewbear, disneymike

Marc H wrote:

I strop at the end of sharpening as my last step with the W.E. while it’s still clamped. Afterwards, I use a hand strop as a quick and simple edge touch up between when I actually clamp it back up again for a true W.E. touch-up.

I do exactly the same thing as Marc does.