Ok the overdue update…
I found a 60 – 100X loupe and when I looked at the edges it seemed like it came to an apex but it looked serrated. So, I figure I just didn’t work it near enough. I decided to start back at 400 diamonds and progress from there. The one thing I did that I’ve never tried before is I alternated patterns like, up and away, up and toward, and down and toward, I did each in sets of 100 strokes. I may have gone overkill on the # of strokes but it seemed to help a lot. On the diamonds I did 800 strokes per each grit then on the ceramics I did 1000. I also slowed down and made sure I was consistant with my pressure and completely flat with the paddles. At the end of each progression I cut newspaper and with each progression the cut would get noticibly smoother. I also used my angle cube and measured each stone on each side throughout the process, it varried from 8.10° – 8.50° on the left and 8.10° – 8.45° on the right (i’m not sure how to compensate for this). It now shaves the hair on my arms effortlessly and splits a hanging chest hair at any spot on the blade from both sides, it is also the best polish i’ve done so far!
Thank you all for your input!!
Chris
Re the number of strokes: I’ve been watching my bevels for removal of every scratch from the previous grit stones and have settled in at about five strokes for each inch of blade length. Especially above 600 grit. It would seem that going over about ten strokes per inch would be unnecessary removal of steel and wear on the stones. I can see where deep scratches at the apex caused by <200 grit stones would require quite a bit of work to refine the edge in later grits, (scratches at the apex can be much deeper than on the face of the bevel) but is there a consensus that high numbers of strokes produce sharper edges in the higher grits?
