Creating a Burr Using Just the Strops

[wickededge]

I had a great time sharpening this Rigotti knife that Robert Huffman sent in. I mounted the blade in the clamp so that the grind line was at the top of the clamp. I set the angle on the right to 23 degrees and the one on the left to 21 degrees. I used an Angle Cube to verify the angles. I quickly made sure the bevels reached the edge with the 600# Diamond Stones. After that, I switched to the 2k/3k Chosera stones and began to refine the edge. I checked my work routinely with a 60x handheld loupe. Once the edge was even, I switched to the 1um Diamond on Leather Strops. Before I began stropping, I lowered the angle by 1.5 degrees per side so that the leather wouldn’t round over the edge and increase the angle. Once I was convinced that I’d stropped enough, I focused on the right side and did 20 firm strokes with the strop. Here is the edge at 800x, clearly showing the burr:

Attachments:

• Chudnow-3k-Chosera-then-1um-Strop-with-Burr-sm.jpg

-Clay

[wickededge]

Here is the knife just as it came to the office before being sharpened on the Wicked Edge:

Here is the knife after sharpening with the 2k/3k Choseras and then removing the burr by stropping it equally on both sides for 20 strokes:

Attachments:

• Chudnow-Unsharpened-sm.jpg
• Chudnow-3k-Chosera-then-1um-Strop-no-Burr-sm.jpg

-Clay

[cbwx34]

Those require a burr / wire edge to work with, right? Is that enough of one?

Looks like it had a crazy edge before you sharpened it.

[wickededge]

I’m waiting to hear back from Robert and some of the other guys as to how much of a burr is needed. I only worked at it for a second and got that one. Another option would be to drop to a stone for 20 passes on just the one side and the do the strops on the one side as well.

Those require a burr / wire edge to work with, right? Is that enough of one?

Looks like it had a crazy edge before you sharpened it.

-Clay

[cbwx34]

Cool. I’d be curious,,, I corresponded with someone once about these knives, sounded like they need to be pretty specific in the results.

[Robert Huffman]

Clay,

This looks beautiful. Am looking forward to trying this out.

rh

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