Kyle

[Kyle]

If you can only get one I would suggest 14/10 micron. I did a test on a knife and jumped from the ceramics to 5/3.5, bypassing the 14/10 and while it was extremely sharp I wasn’t that satisfied so I jumped back to the 14/10 micron and the knife was CRAZY sharp after stropping with those. I then progressed to the 5/3.5 microns and had an insane edge.

[Kyle]

I’ve had excellent result with this technique:

Make a burr with the stone you start with wether it be 100 or 400. Use scrubbing motions with very light pressure with all of the diamond stone no sweeping motions. On the 1000 diamonds use the scrubbing motion starting on one side starting with 5 passes. One pass is starting at the heel going to the tip and back to the heel, that’s one. Once you do five switch to the other side and do 5. Then back to the other side 4 passes. 3,2,1 until the last scrubbing is only from the heel to the tip. Then move onto the micro or superfine stones (I have the microfine) and only do the classic bicycle motion. At the end of this process I will have an edge so fine it’s scary to touch and is so sharp I don’t even have to test its cutting ability on paper because it will literally fly through paper with zero resistance.

[Kyle]

Looks real good. You do not need hardly any paste. Find a little spray bottle and fill it with alcohol. Spray down the strop and rub the paste into the leather. Sometimes if the strops are new it is good to rough them up a little with some sandpaper so the diamonds can roost nice and comfy in the leather.

Ok perfect going to give that a try right now. I just got some 400 grit sandpaper the other day so I think I’ll just lightly rub the top of the stops to fluff them up a bit.

[Kyle]

Ok guys the knife is finished. I got out all the the small chips and the edge is beautiful :kiss: . My progression was the diamonds 100-1000 > micro fine coarse> 2500 grit sandpaper> microfine fine> 14/10 leather strops> 5/3.5 leather strops. Attached some pics of the finished product as well as my injury while cleaning up and trying to rush off to the gym after I finished the knife. The knife was still mounted and I was cleaning the area in front of the WE and BAM swung my wrist into the blade. The worst part is when I hit the knife tip I flinched and that cause the knife to twist while in my skin. Needless to say I was bleeding for a good while haha. This is my 3rd knife sharpened with the WE and the first to be sharpened with the leather stops. Right now they are “ice skating” over the bevel instead of “sticking” and trying to pick up the base like clay has mentioned in the strop forum. I think I might have too much paste on them so I will try to clean them off and go from there. Thanks for the replies guys have a good one!

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[Kyle]

It looks like the damage is just at the tip area? If so after removing the chips as Josh explained above, then Id personally try to match the existing bevel angle allowing you to focus just on the damaged area to minimize work time and conserve steel. B)

Welcome to the forum and hope to see pics of your results!!!

Ok cool! Yea it’s just 3 small chips at the tip area. Going to work on it tonight and post pics of my finished results thanks guys!

[Kyle]

Hey and welcome to the forum! I take my 400 grit stones and grind it perpendicular into the edge until the chips are gone, then sharpen at the desired angle!

Thanks for the reply! Didn’t think of that! Seems to be way faster than grinding away waiting for the chips to disappear at a low angle.

[Kyle]

I think the first question is why do you think you need them? The 1000 grit diamond stones take you to the finest edge required for practical sharpening. For all the blathering we do here on the forum about achieving the most spectacular, mirror-like edges, it’s all for show. The fact is that there is little to be gained by continuing past 1000-grit. We don’t do it because we need to. We do it because we can.

That said, I vote for the micro-fines. They’ll give you a strop-like edge in no time.

I think I just stepped on my dick. Be gentle, guys.

Hahha thanks for the reply. Yea I’m basically just looking to acheive that high polish mirrored bevels on my knives for show off purposes and to cure my OCD. I have extreme sharpening OCD and although I can get my knives crazy sharp on my sharp maker they just are not perfectly beveled mirrored edges and knowing that I can acheive that I have to go ahead and cure my itch. Thank you for your insight. God speed.

[Kyle]

Would you get the 14/10 in leather or balsa?

I wonder this as well as I haven’t purchased any strops yet and have been doing some research before I purchase them. I see that people state that the leather brings of the polish but balsa brings out crazy sharpness so I was thinking of 14/10 and 5/3.5 on leather to bring out the shine and then the 1/.6 micron on balsa to bring out that final edge and insane sharpness.

[Author]

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