Novice Question
- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 11/17/2016 at 10:49 am by
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Actually, you can go directly from 600 grit to strops. You’ll never get the 600-grit scratches removed, but you will improve the performance of the edge. The stropping will tend to polish the high spots, thereby reducing friction between the media being cut and the bevel faces.
Before Wicked Edge expanded their range of offerings by adding ceramic stones and more strop choices, the common selection was 100 thru 1000 diamonds, and then the 5/3.5 paste on leather strops. It wasn’t the mirror edge that we zealots like to brag about these days, but it was pretty darn good. Back then (five years ago) the standard was the HHT (Hanging Hair Test) and some of us (not me) could get there with that same set of stones and strops.
If you’re looking for a recommendation for your next addition, I would go with the 800/1000-grit diamonds and 5/3.5 micro paste on leather strops. As you progress, you can fill in a few more strops or go to film on glass or aluminum. Film is currently the hot set-up. I have four pairs of handles for film, but could easily get by with two. The grits I use are 6, 3, 1.5 and 1.0 micron film. I also have handles for 15, 9, 0.5 and 0.1 micron film, but don’t use them much, if at all. Clay found that one can step from 1000-grit diamonds directly to 6 micron film without problems, so this eliminated the need for my ceramic stones. The diamond film lasts reasonably long and is far more consistent than the ceramic stones. If you don’t do much sharpening, you can use the much-less expensive non-diamond PSA film. 8.5″ X 11″ sheets will yield about 22 strips, or 11 changes of film and only cost a few dollars per sheet.
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Thank you sir for the reply. I am definitely licking the WE system and can’t wait to graduate from novice to a more advanced knife sharpening ‘zealot’!
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