I have sharp but I want sharper.

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bitter1

Joined
Mar 3, 2008
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I have the sharpmaker ultrafine rods and they make my Military razor sharp (goes through magazine pages like butter) but I have seen some mirror edges on some knives around here and I understand that is done with strops and diamond compounds. What exactly do some of you use. I could send it to someone and get it done but you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or you can teach him to fish and he will be set. Than you for any advice and tips that you will give.
 
You can spray diamond spray on a Home Depot paint stirring stick (free) I hear from a good source, or you could get a piece of mdf (multi density fiber board). I have not proven it, but I trust the sources that say a hard surface i.e. paint stirring stick or mdf with diamond spray works great. I have used it on compressed leather, and I can pop hairs off my arm like a razor blade when done. However, some can do better. Welcome to the quest of edginess. You are in a good place.
 
I bought the KSF leather strop with the black and green compounds and after watching many videos and much practice i can get a very keen edge on my knives. Its amazing the difference it makes. Once you learn the technique its extremely easy to maintain. Ive found its all about pressure. if you think youve got it right go a tad lighter;)
 
I use a strop and diamond compound.









:D

I would go to the maintenance subform and read up. There is quite a bit on stropping just on the first page alone. I bought hand american diamond spray in 1 and 0.5 micron and it works great. One of the biggest jumps in sharpness yet. You can probably get away with just 1 micron or you can go down to 0.25 or 0.1 (some other places besides hand american sell it) if you are truly sick. I might try out the smaller grit stuff one day just to see what it does.

I also suggest diamonds over say green chromium oxide if you are using the latest stainless steels. They have very hard carbides so you need the harder diamonds to cut efficiently.
 
While I am not really sick as of this moment, the ultrafine rods for the Sharpmaker made me wonder how sharp I can really get a knife. and the paint stick idea would be good if I do not want to drop any money of a stropping surface and spend the money on trying different diamond compounds.
 
I strop with a leather covered board - the strop leather came from HandAmerican. I use 1200 grit silicon carbide paste on one side, and a finer diamond paste on the other. I have tried lots of strop compounds, and usually use these for knives.
Chromium compound works fine, but I am allergic to something in the compound that I got from Lee Valley. The diamond paste is a Norton water based diamond paste. I have gotten lots of woodworking stuff from toolsforwoodworking.com/.
I usually strop after using the fine Spyderco ceramic stone. I use this sort of stone if the steel is hard. For typical tool steels (not D2), I might use India and Arkansas stones.
 
is that bark river strop kit pretty good?? I couldnt get any of my knives that sharp on a sharpmaker so i got rid of it., now im looking for something else...
 
cj65 said:
You can spray diamond spray on a Home Depot paint stirring stick (free) I hear from a good source, or you could get a piece of mdf (multi density fiber board). I have not proven it, but I trust the sources that say a hard surface i.e. paint stirring stick or mdf with diamond spray works great. I have used it on compressed leather, and I can pop hairs off my arm like a razor blade when done. However, some can do better. Welcome to the quest of edginess. You are in a good place.
Click to expand...

Medium Density Fiberboard, actually:). If it were multi density it wouldn't work for beans. And that is precisely my issue with using paint stir sticks with compound on it. It is such poor quality wood that it is, in some spots on some sticks, multi density. It is not consistently hard, smooth, or flat enough to work as well as MDF, leather, rock hard felt, or legal pad cardboard backing. From what I've seen (but not actually used), large size tongue depressors would be better suited to taking compound, as they are of a better and more consistent finished surface. Afterall, they end up on people's tongues, whereas paint sticks only need to be finished enough so that splinters don't break off into the paint it's stirring.
 
I still strop in my own way. I take a used wet/dry sandpaper and flip it over and strop the knife on the back of it...with a book or mousepad as the backing. It works very well with no compound at all.

One of these days, I'm going to get the Barkie setup or the spray diamonds.

Question: Can you strop a blade that is not convexed to start with? My guess would be that your edge would still profit, but I'm not sure.
 
You guys are suggesting the wrong tools for the job. Though the kfs kit will work its meant for convex, it makes stropping a V bevel much harder.

You want sharper? get some MDF or leather and some 1 micron diamond compound, if you can't make fuzz sticks of hair after that look at you technique.
 
What am I missing about the KSF kit that makes it for convex? It is just compound (or sandpaper) on leather. What is different about the diamond spray you suggested on leather... for the purposes of determining approriateness for either convex or V-grind? The only thing I can think of would be if the leather was very soft with a lot of draw, or if it were mounted on a soft pad.

Just curious, not looking to butt heads.:)
 
Last I saw the ksf kit used a soft backing on top. That works great for convex but makes stropping a V bevel difficult. Having your leather mounted makes a big difference for the V bevel.
 
I'm thinking of getting into using a strop. However, I can only use one hand, fortunately my right, as my left side is paralyzed (some movement and ability to grip with my left, limited). Should I go with the Blue Otter Box cited above, or a paddle strop like this:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=J444

or this:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=J45

The Jemco looks particularly interesting.

What do you think, and if I went with the Jemco or the Thiers, what compound should I use.

My thanks to all for your knowledge and experience.
 
To get the edge sharper you need to grind the bevels to a more acute angle. Stropping is a method for polishing the bevels. While polishing does reduce friction during the cut, the angle of the edge is the major contributor to performance.
 
bitter1 said:
I have the sharpmaker ultrafine rods and they make my Military razor sharp (goes through magazine pages like butter) but I have seen some mirror edges on some knives around here and I understand that is done with strops and diamond compounds. What exactly do some of you use. I could send it to someone and get it done but you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or you can teach him to fish and he will be set. Than you for any advice and tips that you will give.
Click to expand...

The suggestions for a strop are pretty solid, but I will go against the grain here a bit and suggest that you can get a knife really really sharp with what you have.

I heard a suggestion from a well esteemed blade sharpener that stated that a strop is often used as a correction for poor honing skills. That got me thinking and as a challenge, I put my strops away and refused to use them for a bit over a month now.

Strops will give you a highly polished edge, but unless you are using magnification, it is really hard to see the difference in polish (without magnification) between the results from a Spyderco UF and a strop. Additionally, you can also achieve many of the impressive cutting feats (such as whittling hair) with a final polish on the UF (no strop).

The strop can not be discounted...it will work well. But if you are just looking to build your skill set and get a very high polish on your edges...you already have the tools you need.

Have fun!
 
ASBOB said:
I'm thinking of getting into using a strop. However, I can only use one hand, fortunately my right, as my left side is paralyzed (some movement and ability to grip with my left, limited). Should I go with the Blue Otter Box cited above, or a paddle strop like this:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=J444

or this:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=J45

The Jemco looks particularly interesting.

What do you think, and if I went with the Jemco or the Thiers, what compound should I use.

My thanks to all for your knowledge and experience.
Click to expand...

I have the Jemico 4-sided paddle strop shown in your 2nd link. I've used it with the handle mounted in a hobby-type vise (PanaVise) which allows the vise head to move or rotate in virtually any axis. This is very handy in setting up the paddle at an angle which is comfortable for you. You can mount the paddle at an angle, with the handle in the vise, and the paddle portion angled down to your bench/countertop. I've found this to be very comfortable for stropping. My PanaVise is actually mounted to a 16" x 16" scrap of laminated countertop (3/4" thick), which I've used in my lap while sitting in my easy chair (watching TV or whatever). Something like this setup might work well for you, if you're limited mostly to one hand.

With regard to compound, I've just recently begun experimenting with the green compound (chromium oxide), and I'm impressed with the results. The Jemico 4-sided paddle is pre-loaded with some soft (clay-like consistency) red and black compound which Knifecenter 'recommends' for it (primarily for stropping straight razors). However, I think if you're interested in trying different compounds with it, it's not too difficult to clean off the pre-loaded compound using automotive-type hand cleaner or perhaps a paper towel or rag or cottonball moistened with WD-40 (use as little as possible, just enough to get the job done). I've already cleaned off two of the 3 leather sides on my paddle, and am currently experimenting with using either bare leather or different compound on them. I haven't yet tried diamond paste/spray, primarily just because of the cost of it. But, eventually, I'll probably get around to it.

The 4th side of the Jemico paddle is a slate-like stone (relatively soft), which comes in handy for detecting & removing any burrs you might have on your edge. Even the smallest of burrs will leave a light 'scratch' mark on the stone, making them easy to detect and remove. Use it just like the leather sides, with a stropping (edge trailing) motion.
 
The suggestions for a strop are pretty solid, but I will go against the grain here a bit and suggest that you can get a knife really really sharp with what you have.

I heard a suggestion from a well esteemed blade sharpener that stated that a strop is often used as a correction for poor honing skills. That got me thinking and as a challenge, I put my strops away and refused to use them for a bit over a month now.

Strops will give you a highly polished edge, but unless you are using magnification, it is really hard to see the difference in polish (without magnification) between the results from a Spyderco UF and a strop. Additionally, you can also achieve many of the impressive cutting feats (such as whittling hair) with a final polish on the UF (no strop).

The strop can not be discounted...it will work well. But if you are just looking to build your skill set and get a very high polish on your edges...you already have the tools you need.

Have fun!
Click to expand...

Thank you Unit I have experience with the Sharpmaker and other systems like it and that is all that I have used and I just might take your advice and try using the Sharpmaker as I have all along. But I am still going to look at strops because I have always kind of wanted one.
 
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