I've bought a lot of knives that had crazy grind angles. I bought a Spyderco Sharpmaker a long time ago, the older model that does only 20 degrees, and found that I had a lot of knives with steeper angles. This year I bought a DMT Aligner so I could put new bevels on them. I sharpened several of my knives through the 1200 grit diamond stone and they were pretty sharp, probably sharp enough for me. I had some thin paper and I could barely slice it along the grain but not across the grain.
After reading about strops I thought I would give it a try. I cut a piece of scrap 1/8" balsa wood to match the size of the DMT stones, glued a thin piece of leather to it, and put some polishing compound on it that I had leftover from a past project. The new thing fit on the DMT holder just like a stone and the DMT clamp would hold the angles the same way. I put a dozen passes on each side of the blade and lo and behold that knife was significantly sharper. It would easily slice the paper both directions.
I want to add that the guided sharpened with diamond stones was a great addition to me because so many knives have angles that are not compatible with the Sharpmaker, but the strop is the absolute best thing I have added to my sharpening sytem and very easy to do.
After reading about strops I thought I would give it a try. I cut a piece of scrap 1/8" balsa wood to match the size of the DMT stones, glued a thin piece of leather to it, and put some polishing compound on it that I had leftover from a past project. The new thing fit on the DMT holder just like a stone and the DMT clamp would hold the angles the same way. I put a dozen passes on each side of the blade and lo and behold that knife was significantly sharper. It would easily slice the paper both directions.
I want to add that the guided sharpened with diamond stones was a great addition to me because so many knives have angles that are not compatible with the Sharpmaker, but the strop is the absolute best thing I have added to my sharpening sytem and very easy to do.
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