Ooops, I did mean 59-60 RHC! I'll stitch the 1 micron paste image to the 1 micron paste + spray so we can compare them side by side.

Yeah Mark, you may be right... I guess I'm a little confused about which pictures were the right ones? These are the side-by-side comparisons that you posted Clay...

wickededge wrote:


But then in the post above this one, you had another pic of a the same progression it seemed, ending with 100 passes on the 1m leather strops...


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

Unless I missing something, there is a noticeable difference in the first two pictures, but a HUGE difference in smoothness in the last one...

I am referencing post # 2463 & 2464.

In your post above, you've got images from two sets of tests, two on the AUS-8 knife and one on the CPM-154 blade.

Here are three from the CPM-154 knife:

3.5 Micron strops - 100 strokes:

The bevel is very smooth after the 3.5 strops.

1 Micron Strops - both paste and spray - 100 strokes:

There were many, more obvious scratches after adding the spray to the 1 micron strops. I had lost the 'stiction' here and seemed to be getting more abrasion and less burnishing.

1 Micron Strops - both paste and spary - 200 strokes:

I did another 100 strokes with the 1 micron strops after the spray had dried. The stiction returned and the surface smoothed out immediately. I believe that once the spray dried, burnishing resumed and abrasion was minimized.

mark76 wrote:


Well, the whole subject of sub-micron particle stropping has me baffled in more was than one.. I question if it is even possible. See the following chart for a reality check on what worlds of size we are talking about then ask yourself. "what exactly is it am doing or trying to accomplish by putting this size particle on a sample of cow hide and hand applying that to a knife edge".., Hummmm.

Thanks to www.standridgegranite.com/calibration.htm#19 Standridge Granite company for the chart .. There are very few people in the world that know more about "flat" than these folks/. It would be interesting if we could get one of their engineer to participate on this thread !

well that chart did not take here on the forum board software, so let me try it again as a JPG..

BassLakeDan wrote:


Thanks for jumping in and for your feedback and healthy skepticism. I took a photo last night of the CPM-154 blade after polishing with the .5 micron strops with a hair from my nephew's head for comparison:





You can just barely see the faint scratches on the surface and it seems possible to imagine fitting quite a lot of them into the width of that hair.