Diamond stropping compound grade thoughts

Bearzilla911

Bearzilla911

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Nov 3, 2018
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For a number of years now I have been stropping (leather on wood) with 50,000 to 200,000 grit diamond polishing paste grits, typically Diamond Tech Tools high concentration. I just tried a 3,000 grit diamond paste, and haven't stropped that many knives with it at this point, but I don't see a huge difference in performance, yet. I would think the much coarser grit would maybe remove the burr quicker, even if I don't see much difference in appearance. Is this reasoning sound?
 
3,000 grit anything is polishing. Try 300 - 600 grit to clean off a burr. On straight razors, 12,000 - 20,000 grit usually is the stopping point. Hard to imagine 200,000 grit doing anything to most steels.
 
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In my experience, if you have more than a trace of diamond on your strop, it will create a foil burr, with higher BESS scores. If you have enough to do a good job at polishing the bevel, you have too much for deburring. Aluminum oxide works much better at deburring and increasing the keenness, but doesn't do much for polishing. Just my observations.

Recently, I sharpened a Maxamet blade finishing with a 4k Matrix stone, and it was in the low 70s BESS. I then stropped it with 1 micron diamond and got it into the 140s BESS, but the bevel was polished very nicely. This is from burrs, not from convexing the apex. I then stropped it with a .5 micron soft white aluminum oxide and got it back to the high 70s, low 80s BESS. Right now, I think the only way to get diamond emulsions to work how we want them to is to not use enough for them to do much.
 
I'm also of the opinion that using very much compound for polishing on a strop will tend to thin the apex too much for it to be stable. This is why I no longer try to polish my edges on strops, as taking it very far always left the edge very weak and not durable at all for anything but shaving hairs.

I do as much deburring as possible on the stone first, using edge-leading passes at a very, very light touch, leaving any burr remnants as thin and weak as possible. I follow with minimal stropping, using no compound, on the rough side of a leather belt. If the burr is taken as thin as is possible on the stone, then it's usually weak enough that simple leather, paper, cardboard or wood will be abrasive enough to strip it away, while NOT doing any additional polishing or thinning of the apex. It leaves the apex keen and much more durable, done this way.

I DID like using a dense layer of aluminum oxide (white rouge) compound on a denim strop for quickly thinning and minimizing very heavy, thick burrs on ductile stainless steels. That combination also polishes very fast. But again, taking it too far will thin the apex to an extreme, beyond anything that will be durable. I always followed with finishing on bare leather, paper or wood, or fabric, to strip away any flimsy remnants left by the polishing strop. I don't use a denim strop with compound for deburring anymore, as minimizing the burrs on a stone is now my favored method over using a compounded strop for this.

Stropping becomes much more effective, showing improvement in just a few passes, when most of the deburring and refining is done on the stones first.
 
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I don't strop until I can't feel a burr anymore, but I assume a microscopic one is still present. Last few days I've stropped 1st with the 3,000 grit diamond and then finish on the other side of the paddle strop with green chromium oxide compound, with very good results. Of course it is somewhat difficult to describe results when the knives are always hair popping sharp after the stropping. Lately I've been using a medium Spyderco ceramic stone the has been used so much that it surprisingly puts a consistent mirror on the bevels, and that is prior to stropping. I probably need to run it over some coarse sandpaper as it is intended for medium sharpening, ha. That's just a side note though.
 
Diemaker said:
In my experience, if you have more than a trace of diamond on your strop, it will create a foil burr, with higher BESS scores. If you have enough to do a good job at polishing the bevel, you have too much for deburring. Aluminum oxide works much better at deburring and increasing the keenness, but doesn't do much for polishing. Just my observations.

Recently, I sharpened a Maxamet blade finishing with a 4k Matrix stone, and it was in the low 70s BESS. I then stropped it with 1 micron diamond and got it into the 140s BESS, but the bevel was polished very nicely. This is from burrs, not from convexing the apex. I then stropped it with a .5 micron soft white aluminum oxide and got it back to the high 70s, low 80s BESS. Right now, I think the only way to get diamond emulsions to work how we want them to is to not use enough for them to do much.
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When I use a diamond loaded strop for polishing or on super steels, I almost always have to make a pass or two with aluminum oxide to finish. Usually the 1mu diamond strop increases the Bess score. The Alox gets the score back down. Not sure why, but that's usually the way it works for me. It could just be me...
I use 3 to 6 micron diamond or aluminum oxide for primary stropping, only sometimes moving to 1mu diamonds, depending.
I strop on a Rikon 1x30 variable speed sander with a leather belt.
 
To me substrate matters more for burr removal than diamond vs not diamond. Balsa wood created nothinh but burrs for me. Denim and cheap leather with diamond = zero burrs ever. On s30v, k390, 15v. Im not aware of the conversion but I use two strops. 3 micron and a .5 micron. Both loaded decently. Not skimpy by any means. The 3 followed by the .5 results in a burr free edge that can cut free hanging hair. Beard hair without fail. Arm hair if I wasnt rushing when I sharpened/stropped. I think around that 6 to .5 micron range is very effective. Although you may have to convert that to grit
 
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