I use a strop for touch ups if needed and to deburr between diamond grits. I use a 14 micron on the rough side and 3 micron on the smooth side in a diamond emulsion usually. I also have a 40 micron/1 micron setup as well I have been playing with. My favorite waterstones are a Bester 1200 and Rika 5K, so I tried to replicate that in a strop. Bare rough side leather after the Rika 5K gave a nice sticky sharp edge on my kitchen knives. I wanted courser grits for the strop to try to keep the toothy feel and be able to be used for minor chip removal/repair as well.
I took the 14/3 strop and an AEB-L blade at 60 HRC with a visibly flattened edge with some tiny chips and stropped it back to shaving arm hair in a few minutes. Low pressure and letting the diamonds do their work is the key so the leather doesn't round the edge too much. It gives a decent convex edge if that is what you are looking for over time with more pressure, but the toothy and bitey feeling does go away.
I took a Magnacut kitchen knife (64 HRC) that was starting to get dull (wouldn't slice well across a Bounty paper towel held vertically, kinda tore it instead of slicing it) and with the 1 micron side of the 40/1 strop, 2 strokes on each side of the blade and it was back to sharp again, cleanly slicing paper towels horizontally a good bit into the paper towel when before, it wasn't cutting well and mostly tearing. I typically don't let the knives I use get dull and touch up on the finest side of the strop and can maintain a nice edge for the kitchen with the strop for a long time. With Japanese kitchen knives, the 14/3 will remove micro chipping and bring back a sticky sharp feeling edge in most of the steels they use (White, Blue, Aogami Super, VG-10, R2), but I haven't tried it with HAP40 or ZDP189 (don't have anything in those steels).
The 40 micron didn't leave a super toothy edge like I was expecting it to. I was kinda hoping it would be a way to keep the tooth a bit more, but it works fast and removes the toothiness pretty quickly. Nice for removing micro chips though, or reprofiling to a convex edge! I use my Sharpal 325/1200 and the best edges I seem to get are using the 1 micron side to deburr after the 1200 side. A few strokes, no pressure, is all it takes and it leaves a bit of tooth left to the edge. Feels similar to the off the stone Rika 5K/bare leather strop edge and feels nice and aggressive. Going with a diamond compound on the strop lets you use no pressure and still cut the super steels. I want to try some homemade micarta pieces and using the diamond compounds on those; they are softer than commercial micarta and will have a fuzzier feel at lower grits, so it will be similar to leather rough side, but hard and won't round out the edge as much.
