Do I dare ask how long did it take you to bring this all off restoring this incredible bevel?

WayneNicklin wrote:


I'm guessing about 1/2 hour give or take. I was doing about 50 strokes per side with each grit but my cycle rate is very fast, usually 100+ per minute. Cleaning between grits and switching grits takes the longest.

Your technique is getting down right scary. We can only hope to achieve a small bit of your knowledge oh Zen Master. Great work

Scary indeed! Clay, since we're talking about number of strokes per grit, this is on topic... What do you think the point of diminishing returns is for general use, in regards to number of strokes per side? You mentioned 50 just now, and some other info I've seen (perhaps your results, I don't recall) ranged from there to several times that. I know from some of the recent pictures that even ten whacks with a strop can have a pretty huge effect on the steel.

Mind you this is venturing into technical non-answer territory since it depends a lot on how big the jump between grits is. Stepping from 3000 grit to 5um diamond paste isn't a huge gap, whereas a plain 1000 grit diamond stone on the other hand leaves much larger scratches that take longer to strop out. Just another "sharpening 101" sort of tidbit, I guess

ApexGS wrote:


Great question Tom, it always reminds me of this commercial:
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I guess it depends on the steel, both hardness and abrasion resistance, width of the bevel either due to angle or thickness of the blade and the jump between grits. That said, I think 50 strokes from each strop is a good place to start. From there, I check with a little 60x, handheld, lighted loupe to see how I'm doing.

Hmmm. Sure sounds like a lot of smarty talk to me. I am new to this forum and I would love to be able follow along. Is there someplace in the forums I can read up on the basics so I can understand? Thanks.