The Law of Diminishing Returns
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 05/22/2018 at 10:27 am by
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I’ve read several posts where people claim they strop their edges for eternity to get that get Wicked Edge that every knife enthusiast dreams about. Here’s the problem: over stropping a knife will eventually roll the edge and dull it to a point where you may have to start over again. Strops are designed to put a mirror edge on your knife and and take the edge down a few microns. The leather and diamond emulsion will only go so far before you start defeating the purpose of stropping in the first place. You have to know when to fold them, know when to hold them, and know when to call it a day.
I usually test my edge with a very small piece of paper to see how cleanly it cuts as I progress through the stropping process, but then all my knifes are made from CPM s90v, CPM s30v, and M390. Super steels require patience, but I never over strop my knifes.
I’ll agree that over-stropping is a waste of time and effort, but Wicked Edge stropping is a bit different from other stropping techniques. We teach that you reduce your angle by one or two degrees for stropping, so as not to “round over” the edge. Ideally, you polish the bevel and just barely work the very edge – hopefully to clean up any residual roughness left by coarser grits. The amount by which you reduce the angle depends on the compliance of the media you use. Cow leather is quite soft and would very likely require two degrees; balsa is somewhat harder and might require only one degree. I’ve used hardwood, which required little, if any reduction in angle.
I think that almost all of our fellow forum members would agree that stropping produces a sharper edge. We also agree that failing to reduce the angle will likely round over your edge and that the longer you strop like this, the duller the edge will get.
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When it comes to sharpening you always have to decide when to stop because there is no definitive end point. I think it makes this decision much easier if you have a particular purpose in mind for the knife you’re working on. If the knife is a user, then it only needs to be refined enough for the intended types of cutting that it will be used for. If you’re going for a show stopping mirror edge then it gets a little harder to decide when you’re truly done because more passes will almost always improve the appearance a little. As far as stropping goes, if you end up rounding that edge over you can always add a micro bevel.
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