Question

[vlad8]

After the micro fine do you go to 5, 3.5, 1 , .5 or just go to 1, .5 strop?

[Robert Nash]

Hi – and welcome to the forum!
Not to be a smart*&& but Yes – and yes. It depends. Going “backwards” in the grits when you move to the stops IMO can help with removing scratches – improving your polish – so is not detrimental, but it is not necessary. At the published grits for the MF ceramics, even at 1 micron you are making a slight step backwards. Generally if I use the MF ceramics, I just follow them with the 1 and 0.5 as I like finishing with leather (bovine or kangaroo). If I am polishing, I may go back to 14 micron or larger on the leather (and or balsa) and work my way back down again. I’m sure other folks will have their preferred methods and good suggestions – best advice I suppose I could offer is to try it out and see what you like best – and share your results when you decide. 🙂

[Mark76]

It matters less than the micron sizes suggest. The great thing about the pastes is that they provide a “stiction” that aids in wiping out scratches. If you do it properly, all of them will give you a mirror edge. But if you’re concerned about micron sizes, go with the 3.5 paste after the ceramics.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Phil Pasteur]

I think that the 5 /3.5 and 1/0.5 after the Microfine ceramics will be fine. I am not sure how the Ceramics got their grit size designation, but they behave differently than other abrasives that I have with similar grit sizes. They seem to leave more visible scratches. Don’t get me wrong, I bought a set of the four grits of ceramics a couple fo months ago and use them quite a bit.

Mark aluded to this, the absolute grit size rating of different medai does not tell you what they do at the edge. The concentration of abrasives in the paste is far less than what you have in a stone. The leather is a cushion and does not let the grit dig as deeply into the metal. They just act differently.

I often go to a stone with about 0.9 micron grit (12K superstone) after the ceramics, then go to my 6 and 3 micron DMT paste strops, then 1/0.5 micron spray on leather. They do not add scratches and do add visibly to the reflectivity of the bevel. I would not count on the strops with these abrasives removing anything more than the finest of visible scratches though. They are good, but there is no magic in them and almost certainly stiction has nothing to do with how they work.

Phil

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