Is it necessary?

[Ten4leader]

Do you guys feel a difference between 1000 grit and 2000 grit? What about stropping? Do you think its necessary or just a waste of time.. Curious on what you guys think!

 

[stitchawl]

There is a big difference between 1000 grit and 2000... Whether or not 'you' need to sharpen to 2000 grit is up to you and your personal requirements. Same with stropping. There are certain knives that I have that I take to 15,000 grit and then strop beyond that. There are other knives that I have that I only sharpen to 600 grit. It depends on the cutting job each will be asked to perform.


Stitchawl

 

[HuntBomb]

Not necessary...but fun to compare the differences considering all the variables.
I usually like to sharpen to around 4k on my pocket knives and I almost always use a strop.

 

[Scarface48]

I sharpen to the level needed for the blade. All my pocket knives get stoned to at least 1,000 grit, usually on a Spyderco fine ceramic. My kitchen knives get the Ultra Fine stone (my chicken picatta is to die for).

Everything gets stropped, with green chromium oxide and bare leather. I usually restrop just before I use a kitchen knife. They are not expensive knives, but they have very sharp edges.

 

[Bob6794]

1k to 2k will probably be a pretty big difference. I notice a good difference between my DMT C/F/EF and a difference between all the grits in both of my norton economy stones (silicon carbide and india). Stropping is not required but helps bring out the last bit of sharpness out of a blade in my experience and if you want you can make it a more refined toothy edge if you wish to do so. Finishing off on the fine side of my silicon carbide economy stone and than taking it to some cheap green compound applied to paper as a strop I can get a blade which has a good toothy edge and just refined enough to have some decent push cutting abilities as well.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Do you guys feel a difference between 1000 grit and 2000 grit? What about stropping? Do you think its necessary or just a waste of time.. Curious on what you guys think!

If talking ANSI or FEPA-P grit (like wet/dry sandpaper), the difference is basically ranging between a 'foggy mirror' (at most) at 1000, to a clean mirror or very near-mirror at 2000. Sometimes the higher grit (2000) is very useful for quickly cleaning up tenacious burrs by 'stropping' on 2k sandpaper. If you're not concerned about mirrored bevels, there's not much reason to go above maybe ~600/800 grit or so, for good/great utility edges.

If using it for refinishing bolsters in brass/nickel, using both 1000 and 2000 in sequence is more important (and better, if using a sequence like 1000 > 1200 > 1500 > 2000), to clean up as much of the scratch pattern as possible, from coarser grits. 2000 is usually the transition level from almost polished at 1000, to a fully-reflective shine at 2000 (with follow-up using polishing pastes and such). If attempting to mirror polish with pastes alone (like Flitz/Simichrome/etc), coarser scratches from earlier grit stages will stand out like a sore thumb, if not sanding above 1000 before using the pastes. That's when you'll see how important it is to finish with a tighter grit sequence to at least 2000, and beyond if desired.


David

 

[ksskss]

I think stitchawl said it as well as it needs to be said. The jump from 1 to 2k is as big as the jump from 4 to 8 k or 32k to 64k A doubling in grit is appreciable. Jumping 4x like a 1k to 4k is something I do on low abrasion resistant steels, but not if I'm really trying to achieve a great edge.

Edges should be finished in an appropriate task specific manner.

Ken