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1

New to this system but not new to sharpening theory being able to sharpen on Arkansas stones for many years. This is a major investment. Just starting out and reading a lot. Found airscapes strop covers, they were great.

I was looking for a place to store all this stuff, saw some recommendations and home made things for the stones. Maybe this helps someone. Its a Nanuk 918, good sales on Black Friday, almost 33% off. Stones fit nicely standing up. Massive overkill. No need to transport that heavy granite base, its not going anywhere. Just looking for organization of the stones with overkill protection.

 

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Welcome to the W.E. forum Sharpnew.

Here’s another option for stone storage when portability and an enclosed box aren’t necessary:

https://knife.wickededgeusa.com/forums/topic/we-stone-racks-for-sale/page/13/

 

3

Couple of questions for the experts. Thank you for all the great information here.

If the angle is 15 degrees, do you do the cow leather strops at 17 degrees?

Second question. I tried practice knives, did about 8 attempts, made the mistakes, cut up some leather strops. Then I started to go through the sequences. I dont care about microscope pictures. I only care about like in Forged in Fires, “Will it cut?”

After practicing on a cheap paring knife, no idea what steel it was, I bought a Bess and got it down to 125 - 145. The small knife adapter is necessary, only going to the 4/2 leather cow.

Then I started on the powdered steel.

Bugout 20CV, Started at 395 trying to sharpen on a bench. That didn’t work. After the WE, Bess 80, all diamond lapping films to .1, No cow leather, No ceramics, kangaroo to .025

945, S30V, From the factory at 285. Use the same sequence, bess 80 - 105. It varies. Same sequence, no cow leather

Of course I got no idea how many strokes to do per side. So I practiced on my cheap buck 110 lite, which is 420HC? Everything down to .025 Jende on kangaroo. NO cow leather. But more strokes. Since it was factory fresh, I started at 800 grit to get the burr. Brand new it ran 145 - 165. Afterwards? Pics below

And 75 on a different part of the blade

So its safe to assume that using cow leather really isn’t necessary and more important is the number of strokes?

I ask because its a pain to move those arms from the set angle. In this case 15 degrees, to say 17 degrees, then back to 15 degrees for the kangaroo. I feel it NEVER is exact while at least if it is all 15 degrees, it only moves slightly between handles requiring minute adjustments.

Its also the law of diminishing returns. Way to much work to get a tiny bit more “sharper” which you will quickly lose anyway. It maybe makes pretty pictures but I’m not sure of the value IRL getting low numbers around 50.

If I go back to the 20CV and S30V steel, I’ll need to take a lot more time to get from 80 to 50.

 

 

 

 

 

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The recommendation to reduce the angle setting by 2º is based on the compressibility of the cow leather. The intent is to help new strop users to not round over their sharpened edges while getting the hang of the stropping technique. The softer, thicker, more compressible cow leather can wrap down around the apex with the edge trailing stropping strokes, sometimes diminishing the sharpness. Thus the term rounded over edges.

After strop users develop their stropping technique they can adjust the angle back-off accordingly. I no longer need to back my angle settings off for cow leather strops. I strop at the same setting as I finished my sharpening regimen with.

You could also simply use the stiffer, less compressible kangaroo leather strops for your 4µ/2µ strop pair instead of the cow leather strops. The more expensive kangaroo leather is generally reserved for the finer grit size abrasives because the kangaroo leather itself is smoother, cleaner, more uniform leather and it’s less apt to impart any extraneous, unwanted visible surface blemishes while working with such fine size abrasive particle grits. That doesn’t preclude you from using the higher grits with the Kangaroo so you don’t need to be concerned with the angle setting recommendations. The Nanocloth srops are smoother still than the kangaroo. Any grit stropping particles can be used with any of the strop mediums. This is user’s choice.

I recognize the benefits of stropping in the feel of the cutting edge as I use the knife. I do not see much of an improvement in my Bess scores between a finished sharpened edge test and the same edge stropped then tested, again. I believe this may be because the Bess test is a straight down vertical push cut test. The difference in how a stropped edge feels cutting is felt in the slicing motion. Where the bite or the grab of the unstropped edge is more apparent. A lightly stropped edge, for me, removes the grab or snag I feel and not helpful toothiness I want.

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Thank you, why did I not think of that?

So what is a source to buy replacement roo strops in lieu of cow? I i know the cow is $3 but see no replacements for the roo other than buying complete handles.

 

or, I could just get 2 nano handles for 4/2 and 1/.5 and forget about roo?

 

or, just lapping film handles 6, 3, 1.5, and 1 micron, whats the point of 4/2 and 1/.5 cow when I can also do .5, .25, .1, on roo, .1 lapping, and .025 on roo?

Seems like cow isnt necessary?

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I did a little internet searching some time back and saw there are some sources for tanned Kangaroo hide. I never got further than that.

The nano is an interesting alternative because it can be rinsed out when dirty.

What you want to use for polishing your sharpened edges depends on what you’re trying to do. What you choose to use and in what order is results driven by seeing what you like after doing it. The grits don’t necessarily follow in linear fashion when you transition from one medium to the next. The different mediums don’t necessarily work the same way. A step back up to a coarser grit or two is common practice to yield better blended and visually cleaner results.

My sharpening is more about function and utility. With diamonds I usually go through 1500 grit. For whetstones, depending on the type of stone and the steel hardness, I go through anywhere from 4K to 8K. Then, I’m just finishing with the 4µ/2µ strop pair on cow leather to remove the wire edge, the edge bite and drag left from sharpening. This results in just a little better slide through. It gives me the sharp working edges I like for my knives. There’s still plenty of polish doing it this way.