razoredgeknives wrote:


I'm building up to this though am waiting for the crew to get a break to mount them. In the meantime, doing more comparative studies with the things I already have made up.

razoredgeknives wrote:


I just want to chime in here and vote YES on experiments with substrate materials as it relates to "stropping" .. I suspect, that if we gather enough information about all this, that leather is going to drop way down on the list of a materials of choice. But we shall see. As I mentioned elsewhere in other posts and other topic threads I have been experimenting for years with various types of woods. I have found some that give excellent results, and really do not use leather strops at all any more.

Also, I want to say to you guys just excellent photographs.. keep them coming !

This is a fast growing thread! And an interesting topic!

I just posted my stropping pictures of the 5 micron and 3.5 micron diamond pastes on my blog. Basically, these pastes seem to work as the 14 micron and 10 micron pastes: a lot of burnishing and little abrasion. And they work both on leather and balsa.

I also wanted to know how wide the scratches are made by the 3.5 micron diamond paste. To do so, I did what I proposed to Clay in another thread. (I'm faster .)

I borrowed a better photograph from Clay (hope you don't me using you pictures, Clay) and I cut out a picture of a 25 micron x 25 micron piece of the edge from the photograph. I then counted the number scratches: about 25 on a 25x25 micron area. That makes these scratches about 1 micron wide.

Now I don't feel like going through the entire thread again, but I thought Tom already coined this width somewhere. Tom, if you did, you really have a straight eye! By the way, where are you? Come back!

I'm still here! Things have gotten busy in a good way, and unfortunately it cuts into my forum time I'd like to say just how impressed I am with the level of informative discussion being generated in my absence, though!

Josh- your pictures are excellent!

I particularly like Picture #10 off the 10K Chosera - that's about what I get.

I know you kept reversing the strokes after that, and I really think that the crossed scratches in picture #29 is the result of .5 HA diamond spray enhancing all the left over scratches from all the changing directions, and not contamination. Look closely at pictures #14 through #17 with the 3.5 micron paste, and you see those 3.5 scratches throughout the rest of the progression. By the .5 HA, you can see consistent scratches - errant scratches would more likely be contamination.

In the discussion of diminishing returns, I generally don't change the scratch directions after 8K-10K. I employ the sub-micron pastes/sprays in a stropping direction solely to "polish the grooves" just as the .5 HA diamond did, and not to establish that grit in full.

I'll be putting up a WEPS Chosera stone video soon that shows what I mean.

jendeindustries wrote:


Can't wait to see the video! Yeah, I can't really tell from my photos... lol, not that great of quality. I will be playing around with it more soon. I re-leathered all my strops w/ top grain out, and re-charged them. Have to see what diff. that makes... I'm also curious if I still need the ceramics since I have the 5k/10k choseras... they seem to be very quick cutting (for that high of a polish) and consitant... will try to post pics of the progression straight from 1k to 5k choseras soon =)