More newbie qestions.

I have use the system on several knifes and I like it a lot. But I have some problem with the 120-stone. A lot of the knifes I've sharpened did have a really bad edge and many was chipped. So I needed to re-do the edge with the 120-stone. Now the stone isn't straight anymore and I feel that I haven't sharpend so many knifes that the stone should be worn like this.
Is this something expected with the stone or is it my technique, pushing to hard?
 
The 120 stone is going to dish if it is used hard. The wear shouldn't be extreme (dishing on a single knife for example), but it sounds from "A lot of the knives" like that wasn't the case. Do you have loose grit with which to flatten it?

Try to use the full length of the stone on each stroke, not short scrubbing motions, to distribute the wear on the stone. The 120 stone is a Boride Engineered Abrasives CS-HD, and you can also get these in 0.25" or 0.5" thickness which will obviously last a lot longer than the 0.125" stock stone.
 
Mr. Swede said:
I've been reading up on strops and wonder why is baslawood the wood of choice for many?
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Balsa is soft enough that it embeds compounds very, very well. This allows the balsa to hold a lot of the compound. That makes for a strop that will be a very aggressive polisher, even with very fine compounds.

The downside to the 'softness' of balsa is, it can also compress & deform in use, which makes it still a little prone to some of the edge-rounding issues associated with leather. It also means the strop will be more 'needy' in terms of periodic maintenance, to keep it smooth & flat. And because it's so aggressive as a polisher with compound, it'll blacken & fill with steel swarf very quickly. That'll take more frequent cleaning and/or resurfacing, to keep it in good shape.
 
Thanks for the answers.
I'm planning to mill about 2 mm (that's 5/64" for you non-metrics in the colonies ) from one of my blanks for the Edge Pro and add a media that can carry diamond paste. I'm gonna use rubber cement so when the media is worn I can just pry it of, clean the blank with glue dissolvent (spelling?) And add a new fresh media. Just need to decide what media to use.

David Martin David Martin , do you use some kind of paste/spray on your wooden strops?
 
Yes I do. I use reclaimed SiC grit which helps it work faster. This grit is likely around 200. Once it's tumbled during use it becomes finer. DM
 
Mr. Swede said:
I've been reading up on strops and wonder why is baslawood the wood of choice for many?
Click to expand...
Would poplar work as well? It is similar in it's density and I have it available at my local Home Depot in perfect sizes for a strop.
I currently use a piece of 9/10 oz beg tanned leather glued to a piece of commercial sign p[lywood (read - Very flat and smooth) with white compound but after reading this thread, I'm thinking of making some changes.
 
I used to work in circuit board manufacturing. For sampling, we would cut coupons and pot them in acrylic. They would then be ground and polished to allow microscope inspection.

The polishing was via adhesive backed cloth discs on a turn table. We would apply a diamond polishing paste.

In essence it was stropping but on an 8 inch rotary table.
 
Hale Storm said:
Would poplar work as well? It is similar in it's density and I have it available at my local Home Depot in perfect sizes for a strop.
I currently use a piece of 9/10 oz beg tanned leather glued to a piece of commercial sign p[lywood (read - Very flat and smooth) with white compound but after reading this thread, I'm thinking of making some changes.
Click to expand...

Poplar should work just fine. Basically, any tight-grained wood that's smooth & flat will function perfectly well as a strop with compound.

I've sang the praises for basswood as well; not quite as hard (maybe) as poplar, but still tight-grained and easy to make & keep smooth & flat. But my initial impulse to try it had a lot to do with the aspect you mentioned with poplar, in that it can be found in perfect sizes for stropping. I used to find basswood at Hobby Lobby, though recently it looks as if they've stopped carrying it (locally, anyway), as well as the balsa they used to carry.
 
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Thanks for the input. I can get my hands on some balsawood that is the right dimentions so I'm gonna start with that.
 
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