How to understand stropping compound?

[NeedItCheaper]

Was led to believe stropping compounds should be chosen based on the last grit you used on a stone. Because I finish with an 8,000 grit stone, I chose DMT 1 micron (22k grit) compound. It seems to have worked, but wondering if DMT compounds should be viewed with different grits in mind.

Edit; Venev compound.

 

[Ourorboros]

If you were using a water stone - and 8K should be - 1 micron is about 15K on the same (JIS) scale.
There is a grit chart floating around. That will help clarify which diamond stropping compound to use. The problem when jumping around different types of abrasives, different scales can be used. Now normally that isn't a problem - you could go oil stone - water stone - diamond from coarse - medium - fine. But when you go to different levels of fineness it gets messy.

Though after 8K, a bare strop would be fine.

Grit Chart

 

[Wandering_About]

Depends more on what kind of finish you want than anything else. I finish my knives with a strop loaded with 1 micron diamond straight from a 1000 grit stone. It works to remove any remaining burr and refines the apex while leaving some tooth to the edge.

If you are trying for a mirror polish, grit selection/progression matters more. I don't go for that kind of edge so don't have any good advice if that's what you're going for.

 

[Greggy]

The grit rating systems are a mess and there is generally a lack of uniformity, and also misunderstanding regarding the distribution of micron sizes in even a single grit category (e.g. 8000 grit). For example, according to my charts an 8000 JIS stone will have an "average" micron size of 1.2 microns. But abrasive particles will vary from 3.5 to 0.6 microns at the 25th and 75th percentiles of the range. And at the extremes the largest particles may be as large as 6 microns. So the "average" micron size at 8000 grit is almost equivalent to the grit size in the diamond paste you use. Could be redundant. Maybe not. In the end, let your trial and error and real world feedback from the knife's edge be the ultimate determining factor.