I am up to my 5th knife sharpened, with a couple done twice, and am seeing a difference in sharpness. My question is will the 1000 grit diamond eventually result in a hair shaving edge? The last 2 knives I did will cut a few hairs but not cut a bare spot, but the edge going by feeling it feels like it should pop the hairs. I am hoping my stones just need a bit more break in as I like a bit of a toothy edge but still fine enough to shave my arm hair.

It should, especially if you do a little stropping. I've always stropped even if I only went to 1000 so I'm not sure how comfortable it would be for shaving arm hair without stropping, but it should still work...
Of course, broken in stones will go a long way to help, as well.

There are those that have reported that they get arm hair shaving edges with the 600 grit stones...
But then I am not sure that I trust those reports..


When I got my WEPS, I could not get anything finer than the 600 grit stones. I was never satisfied with the edge, though I am sure that this edge is very good for many cutting tasks. Push cutting paper and shaving arm hair just were not happening. The edge would cut rope and cardboard very well though!!

Now I have more stones and strops than I usually use..

I can, and do for most folks that want more than the belt grinder, but are not willing to pay for the "full boat" on the WEPS, is go through the progression to the 1000 grit diamonds and strop with 6 and 3 micron (I have used the DMT paste lately, because that is what I have) on leather. This edge will definitely easily shave arm hair, and is a great utlility edge. The strops DO make a difference in the push cutting and shaving categories.

I have to tell you, I have never pulled a blade out of the vice and tested it after the 1K diamonds, without stropping. It must be a great edge.... last time I looked at the database, lots of folks don't even bother to go past 1K.

If you want more, try stropping.

Phil

I think I picked it up from Clay when he discussed his usual maintained edge on hunting knives but my go-to for EDC is a 1000 grit edge stropped with at least the 5um WEPS paste on leather (from the Pro Pack I) and sometimes the finer 3.5um as well. At just 1000 it's a bit TOO toothy for a lot of tasks, while the stropped edge can glide through tape or paper cleanly. It makes an easy cycle for maintenance as well since you can usually just strop to straighten out any little dulled spots unless it rolls really badly.

It's pretty much become my go-to standard unless I want to go all out polishing something

I haven't broken out my strops yet, I want to see what I get with just the diamonds once they start to break in. I also can't decide which knife to use the strops on, I have D2, 154cm, and 440c griptilians. Would any of those steels benefit more than the others if I used the strops and sharpened them to about the same sharpness?

JamesBare wrote:


I can't remember the last knife that I sharpened that I did not strop. Any of those knives will likely show significant improvement using the leather.

Phil

I used a 154CM Hogue EX01 as a test bed for lots of finishes, and plain 1000 grit diamond was one that I tried. It worked very well, but as I noted it seemed really toothy for a lot of the cutting I do around the shop so I stuck with at least one strop pass on the leather to get that extra bit of keenness for smooth cutting. All three of those steels take great edges, though from what I've read and experienced the 440C won't hold it as long as the other two.

I think unless you're specifically looking for that extra toothy edge for chopping up cardboard or something along those lines, you're going to want to bust out the strops and get cracking

My favorite edge is the 1k diamond edge straight off the stone it is very toothy but it will (after being well broken in) almost tree top hairs on my arm, and I can cut "S" shapes in newspaper lengthwise. I can get the 600 to shave arm hair... But it's not as keen as the 1k. I don't like to strop my 1k edge because it seems to remove some of the tooth I like so much.

Ok, sounds like I'll have to strop the edges until I get my 1k stone broken in enough. Thanks for the help. I am sure I'll have more questions as time goes on.