Stropping Angle

[Tom Whittington]

It’s amazing to see how “plastic” metal can be. This is an incredible learning tool

Agreed! It really moves around quite easily.[/quote]

The first time I saw this sort of thing was a still shot from a high speed video on a gun blog, which showed some metal bar stock being cut by a lathe and how it “bunched up” in front of the cutter as it turned. Here’s the link to the article about it: Sliding Metals Show Fluid-Like Behavior[/url]

Metallurgy is some fascinating stuff! And keep up the good work Clay, from what we’ve seen so far it looks like that microscope is worth the work and the wait!

[wickededge]

Oh yeah, this is a great video! I saw it a while back and it sort of transformed the way I look at metal. Thanks for the feedback. It’s really fun to do these studies and share them with you guys.

-Clay

[wickededge]

Here is a shot of the same blade after I’ve restored it to basically super polished:

There are a few little marks that I haven’t bothered to remove; enough of the surface is smooth that we can easily isolate whichever grit we’re trying to study. The process to restore the edge was as follows:

Set the angle to 20 degrees> Sharpen with the 1200# ceramic stones until I almost reached the edge (verified by 60x handheld, lighted loupe), flattening out the bevel again> Sharpen with the 1600# ceramic stones until I do reach the edge> Strop with cow and diamond at 14um> 10um> 5um> 3.5um> 1.0um> 0.5um> I then used kangaroo leather and diamond at 1.0um> 0.5um> 0.25um and then 0.125um CBN on nano-cloth and then back to 0.25um diamond on kangaroo.

Attachments:

• Clean-Edge.jpg

-Clay

[Wayne Nicklin]

Do I dare ask how long did it take you to bring this all off restoring this incredible bevel?

[wickededge]

Do I dare ask how long did it take you to bring this all off restoring this incredible bevel?

I’m guessing about 1/2 hour give or take. I was doing about 50 strokes per side with each grit but my cycle rate is very fast, usually 100+ per minute. Cleaning between grits and switching grits takes the longest.

-Clay

[Wayne Nicklin]

Your technique is getting down right scary. We can only hope to achieve a small bit of your knowledge oh Zen Master. Great work

[Tom Whittington]

Scary indeed! Clay, since we’re talking about number of strokes per grit, this is on topic… What do you think the point of diminishing returns is for general use, in regards to number of strokes per side? You mentioned 50 just now, and some other info I’ve seen (perhaps your results, I don’t recall) ranged from there to several times that. I know from some of the recent pictures that even ten whacks with a strop can have a pretty huge effect on the steel.

Mind you this is venturing into technical non-answer territory since it depends a lot on how big the jump between grits is. Stepping from 3000 grit to 5um diamond paste isn’t a huge gap, whereas a plain 1000 grit diamond stone on the other hand leaves much larger scratches that take longer to strop out. Just another “sharpening 101” sort of tidbit, I guess 🙂

[wickededge]

Scary indeed! Clay, since we’re talking about number of strokes per grit, this is on topic… What do you think the point of diminishing returns is for general use, in regards to number of strokes per side? You mentioned 50 just now, and some other info I’ve seen (perhaps your results, I don’t recall) ranged from there to several times that. I know from some of the recent pictures that even ten whacks with a strop can have a pretty huge effect on the steel.

Mind you this is venturing into technical non-answer territory since it depends a lot on how big the jump between grits is. Stepping from 3000 grit to 5um diamond paste isn’t a huge gap, whereas a plain 1000 grit diamond stone on the other hand leaves much larger scratches that take longer to strop out. Just another “sharpening 101” sort of tidbit, I guess 🙂

Great question Tom, it always reminds me of this commercial:
.
I guess it depends on the steel, both hardness and abrasion resistance, width of the bevel either due to angle or thickness of the blade and the jump between grits. That said, I think 50 strokes from each strop is a good place to start. From there, I check with a little 60x, handheld, lighted loupe to see how I’m doing.

-Clay

[Alejandro Ortega]

Hmmm. Sure sounds like a lot of smarty talk to me. I am new to this forum and I would love to be able follow along. Is there someplace in the forums I can read up on the basics so I can understand? Thanks.

[Wayne Nicklin]

Yes, check the index for the various topics

[wickededge]

Welcome Alejandro, thanks for joining in. The guys are right that the index is a great place to start. It’s also helpful to just ask any old question that comes up, there is no such thing as a stupid one. What you’ll find is that one or many people will answer it pretty quickly with a great deal of friendliness and lots of experience. It’s a wonderful community.

Hmmm. Sure sounds like a lot of smarty talk to me. I am new to this forum and I would love to be able follow along. Is there someplace in the forums I can read up on the basics so I can understand? Thanks.

-Clay

[Mark76]

Thanks Clay! These photographs are awesome! The best edge photo’s I’ve seen in my life! (And the best ones I’d seen before that were yours, too 😉 .)

And very revealing. No more guessing and dubious interpretation. Now we can see without a doubt how effective stropping is. Man, I didn’t know it was *that* effective.

Finally towards a scratch size comparison chart? . Based on the objective effect stones/strops have on the edge rather than on some “specfications” by manufacturers according to different standards that are hard to verify?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[wickededge]

Definitely! My goal is to do a comparison chart with photos of the results of each grit like we already have but at the new, higher resolution and starting with a completely clean slate. The current chart shows the grits progressing from one to the next, getting finer as it goes, but the potential problem is that we might still be seeing scratches from a previous stone. If I start with a totally polished sample for each grit, then we’ll know for sure that we’re only seeing the scratches of that particular grit. Of course such a chart won’t teach much about the effects of the strops after the stones, so maybe I’ll create a library of different grit jumps and put it in a permanent place so it doesn’t just get buried in the forum.

Thanks Clay! These photographs are awesome! The best edge photo’s I’ve seen in my life! (And the best ones I’d seen before that were yours, too 😉 .)

And very revealing. No more guessing and dubious interpretation. Now we can see without a doubt how effective stropping is. Man, I didn’t know it was *that* effective.

Finally towards a scratch size comparison chart? . Based on the objective effect stones/strops have on the edge rather than on some “specfications” by manufacturers according to different standards that are hard to verify?

-Clay

[Mark76]

Definitely! My goal is to do a comparison chart with photos of the results of each grit like we already have but at the new, higher resolution and starting with a completely clean slate.

Great!! 😀

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mikedoh]

Alejandro

In the forum index about sharpening techniques.
http://www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=showcat&catid=6&Itemid=63

At the bottom of the home page there are some sharpening videos also under “Demos”

If only interested in stropping, search on it.

[Author]

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