wickededge wrote:


That is a good one. In my experiences the leather strops usually work a little better than the balsa strops for burnishing. However, I had one case in which the balsa worked better. That might be the reason.

I tried, by the way, to increase the stiction of a leather strop by making it wet. Not the slightest effect. Next up is stropping with chewing gum on balsa .

mark76 wrote:


Totally funny. I just redid some of the tests and the role of stiction seems to be huge. I'll post more below.

Man, that is really weird why the lapping films were so slow working and hardly did anything... I can't believe it! My assumptions were totally opposite... lol, it seems as if the only way you can get a fast cutting consistant edge at sub micron levels is with the shaptons... I just don't have a grand to drop on stones right now

* edit: keep the test coming Clay! lol, there's gotta be another answer! I haven't given up hope!

Slight tangent here - polishing tapes... I decided to retest the polishing tapes, starting from a polished bevel and counting strokes, so here goes, working backwards from 1 micron polish:


510x - 7000 grit polishing tapes after 1 micron polish - 100 passes


510x - 3000 grit polishing tapes after 7000 grit tapes - 100 passes

These look better than yesterday's results but not overwhelming.

Okay, back on track now... Returned to the 1000 grit stone, worked the stone until I reached the edge:


510x - 1000 grit diamond stone - 150 passes

Then I took the 1 micron strops and completed 300 passes:


510x - 1 micron diamond and leather strops after 1000 grit diamond stones - 300 passes

There was an extreme amount of stiction with this strop, much more so than with the others, most likely because it's the one seeing the most action. Pushing the strop against the blade was causing the Paperstone base to lift with each stroke.

Back again to the 1000 grit diamond stone for another 150 passes:


510 x - 1000 grit diamond stones - 150 passes


510 x - 10 micron diamond and leather strops after 1000 grit diamond stones - 100 passes


510 x - 3.5 micron diamond and leather strops after 10 micron diamond and leather strops - 100 passes


510 x - 1 micron diamond and leather strops after 3.5 micron diamond and leather strops - 100 passes

There was a very marked difference in resistance from the different strops with the resistance from the 1 micron set being by far the highest.

So, here are side by side the 1µ - 300 passes and the 10µ -100 passes> 3.5µ - 100 passes> 1µ - 100 passes:


510x - 1µ - 300 passes


510x - 10µ -100 passes> 3.5µ - 100 passes> 1µ - 100 passes

So far, it seems like we've confirmed that the best stropping effects come from burnishing, which happens when there is adequate 'stiction'. Learning how to get the strops properly seasoned so that they have the right amount of 'stiction' is something we should study next.

I deliberately did a few strokes at an angle in the last progression to help us visualize the scratches from the finer strops which opens up a whole line of inquiry: what density of diamonds at which grit provides the best teeth for which jobs?

I'm going to try adding some of Keith's 1 micron spray to my 1 micron pasted strops to see if I can keep the stiction but add more diamonds. More studies to come!

Thanks so much for this Clay! It would, in fact, seem as if the 10>5>3.5 progression yields better results in the end... wasn't so clear in the first one.

Still curious... which blade is this you are sharpening?

razoredgeknives wrote:


That's a blade I designed for hunting that we'll be releasing soon. AUS-8 steel at 57-58 RHC. It's nothing fancy, actually a very inexpensive knife that fills a particular need. Details to come soon...