I wonder if you can get rid of all the scratches with just the stones and then stropping?
Seems like the really polished edges are comeing from the water stones, and then under high magnification there still seems to be scratches.
Lucky
Even with the finest Shaptons or Choseras, scratches are visible under the microscope. They should be very fine and uniform. Stropping helps to diminish them further, though they never go away completely. Once you think they’re gone, you can just up the magnification and see the finer ones. Still, you can get pretty far with the stock stones and strops. Here is a knife that I sharpened with stock Wicked Edge stones and then stropped to .25 microns:
