Does stropping with diamond after low grit sharpening, change the edge's grit finish?

[Steel130]

Ok so long title. Basically here is the question. If I finish my sharpening on Spyderco's medium stone. Using ultra light pressure I can get very very sharp edges. So lets say I am trying to achieve hair whittling edges off the medium stone. I sharpen a knife on the medium stone, then use .25 micron diamond spray on a strop, have I cheated it technically? Would it be a huge difference if I tried to whittle hair off the stones. Than if I stropped after coming off the stones and then tried to whittle hari? Since the .25 micron diamonds are a much much finer grit, can it really change the micro serrations that much to say it is no longer a 14-15 micron edge finish? Weird question, so thanks for the help.

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

Yes. Normal micro serration after Spyderco medium is a lot smaller than 14um, more like 3-4um. Using lateral movement light strokes, you should able to get sub-micron edge.

Yes. 0.25um (+- 0.25um distribution) is 100% capable of smooth out the edge in less than 100 strokes/side.

Shhh!!! I cheat too

 

[Jason B.]

Your not going to remove/refine the scratch pattern to any great extent but you will reduce the height of the peaks and polish the apex so its cleaner.

 

[HeavyHanded]

In my experience, the only way to really refine the edge down as a shortcut would be to use your diamond spray on a well-sanded piece of hardwood. At this point, the diamonds become a lapping compound instead of a stropping compound. You can use a regular back and forth scrubbing motion, or just use a backhoning method (stropping), as long as you finish with a number of backhoning passes. This can be a bit tricky relative to the surface of the wood you're using, and how thick or thin the diamonds are in whatever vehicle they ride in. Too thin or the wood too polished, and the abrasives slide around too much for good stock removal, too thick or the wood too rough and the edge won't develop nicely (tho still pretty nice for lapping on a piece of wood). Also, the slurry will quickly become loaded with metal swarf, greatly limiting its future usefulness. This will genuinely refine the scratch pattern and make the apex far more uniform. I've successfully used a similar technique with a progression of black emery and Flexcut Gold alumox compound. Actually raised a burr/re-established the apex with the black compound and refined it with the Flexcut. Finished it off with some light stropping using Flexcut on newspaper and it would tree-top leg hair in large quantities and whittle a hair off my head. These compounds are cheap and easily replaceable, using diamond spray might be cost prohibitive.