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Any discernable benefit in stropping below .5µ?

Y

yepimonfire

Joined
Nov 7, 2013
Messages
466
I've noticed going from plain white compound or green compound down to .5µ paste definitely brings it from a scary sharp to near straight razor sharp, cutting paper with barely any effort or noise. Would taking it lower (say .25 or even .1µ) continue to add even small gains in sharpness?
 
yepimonfire said:
I've noticed going from plain white compound or green compound down to .5µ paste definitely brings it from a scary sharp to near straight razor sharp, cutting paper with barely any effort or noise. Would taking it lower (say .25 or even .1µ) continue to add even small gains in sharpness?
Click to expand...

it could add small gains... however, I would venture to guess that you probably haven't reached a true .5um edge yet unless you have viewed it under decent magnification (something like a 200+ power USB microscope). what progression are you using and what method?

According to Tom at Jende industries a true .125um shave is truly incredible, although i haven't experienced such yet.
 
I'm going thru waterstones from 14µ (1k norton) to 6µ (4k norton) to 3µ (8k norton) then to white rouge, which is considerably finer than the 8k but not as fine as the diamond and 1 and .5µ. I spend plenty of time at the 4k stone removing any trace of the 1k scratches. I probably do about 30-50 total swipes on the white rouge and 50-70 on the diamonds. Long enough until the finish changes. Can usually see my face afterwards.
 
yepimonfire said:
I'm going thru waterstones from 14µ (1k norton) to 6µ (4k norton) to 3µ (8k norton) then to white rouge, which is considerably finer than the 8k but not as fine as the diamond and 1 and .5µ. I spend plenty of time at the 4k stone removing any trace of the 1k scratches. I probably do about 30-50 total swipes on the white rouge and 50-70 on the diamonds. Long enough until the finish changes. Can usually see my face afterwards.
Click to expand...

Yeah I bet it has a nice mirror to it! A few notes...

1. the micron rating on the compound/pasted strops is completely different than the stones which have no give to them. For instance, When I am going for a complete mirror finish I go from my Chosera 10k waterstones (~2um) to 14um pasted strops and then progress back down. This is needed to get rid of the scratches from the 10k's.

2. You may want to try alternating your grind directions so you can see when all of the previous scratches have been removed. 50-100 passes/side w/ the strops does not sound like near enough. i.e. edge leading heel to tip, then with the next grit up edge leading from tip to heel.

I don't think it will be a huge difference though ;)
 
Do you notice the edge looking finer when using starting off on the 14µ? Also my strop doesn't have much give in the sense it's denim against the hard backing of an arkansas stone. I did notice going from the 8k to the 1µ was too much and failed to polish out the edge well enough from the 8k, which is why I start with the white compound. It cuts much faster then the 1µ diamond paste. If you think there's more that I can do to achieve an even finer finish by starting at coarser paste I'm definitely for that. I'm going for the sharpest I can squeeze out of it.
 
yepimonfire said:
Do you notice the edge looking finer when using starting off on the 14µ? Also my strop doesn't have much give in the sense it's denim against the hard backing of an arkansas stone. I did notice going from the 8k to the 1µ was too much and failed to polish out the edge well enough from the 8k, which is why I start with the white compound. It cuts much faster then the 1µ diamond paste. If you think there's more that I can do to achieve an even finer finish by starting at coarser paste I'm definitely for that. I'm going for the sharpest I can squeeze out of it.
Click to expand...

No, it looks hazy until you get down to around the 5um mark. But it is needed if you want to make relatively quick time polishing your edge. But like I said, if you want to truly make sure the scratches are all out for a perfect mirror then you need a loupe and need to alternate the grind directions... that should tell you if your compound is getting the scratches all the way out =) Also may want to try a better strop or at least mount the denim to some type of flat board...
 
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