We got the new 3 micron stones in yesterday. I mounted up a pair and started some testing. At first they were pretty coarse and needed breaking in so I gently rubbed them together a few times. Next I sharpened my EDC, just touched it up really, to see how it would change the finish and the cutting ability. I’d had it pretty well polished already from the Micro-Fine stones and a little stropping. After using the fairly new 3 micron stones, the edge was till shiny but not as polished as it was before I started. It cut very aggressively though didn’t shave impressively.
Today I started a progression from 800# diamond to 3um diamond and then strops from 3.5um> 1um> .5um on cow leather and then .25um on kangaroo. Under the microscope, there was an obvious difference between the 800# and the 3um diamond plates – just about exactly what you’d expect in terms of scratch size. I wish now that I’d taken an image of the junction between the 800# and 3um bevels to illustrate the difference. I did take photos of the rest of the phases though. Here is the blade after the first sharpening with the 3um plates:
3um Diamond Stone – 2000x
I measured a fair sample of the scratches under the scope. The largest were just under 3 microns and the average was approximately 1.5 microns which makes sense – you’re almost never getting the full diameter of the particle in contact with blade at any given time, usually just a corner or facet.
3.5um Diamond and Cow Leather Strops – 2000x. 20 Strokes per side.
3.5um Diamond and Cow Leather Strops – 2000x. 70 Strokes per side.
I lowered the angle by two degrees prior to stropping.
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