I am interested in seeing your results.
I tested one of my EDC’s in CPM154 trying different edges to cut 3/4” Manila rope. Highly refined edges did not cut the rope worth a flip. Stopping at 400 grit and deburring produced an edge that cut well and lasted. The highly refined edges wanted to slide over the fibers more than cutting into them.
There's just so many variables to sharpening, I can't give a great answer. I'm not going to claim to know all (or half) of them but I spent (and am still spending) time researching old studies on sharpening and abrasives in general. For me, it's somewhat also steel/heat treatment dependent. I've noticed steels at higher hardness, and typically ones that have finer microstructures(even with higher carbide volume) tend to be the easiest for me to get to high levels of sharpness and still be able to basically "sink" through 1/2" and 3/4" manila rope. Before I thinned my main current user (15V Manix G10, 66Rc 0.010"~ behind the edge with a tradition bevel at 5° per side, regular cutting bevel at 26° inclusive, my main EDC "all purpose" angle) I had it set to 28° inclusive, factory BTE (0.023"~) with it at roughly a 0.5 micon finish.
Just as a test of the knife, as it was my first real 15V user since getting one to replace the custom stolen in 2019, I hung 1/2" manila over the edge of my workbench in the garage so no blunting from the workbench would happen, the weight of the blade was enough to just keep it going through the rope non-stop. I gave up at a certain point on it, as even though it was slowly wearing the blade, the way it wears in general is different from a more coarse finish. I don't focus on forming a burr though as I sharpen, I mainly focus on shaping the apex and if a tiny micro burr happens, I'll use basswood with quality diamond emulsions at a micron rating just under my finishing stone. I've found leather stropping or suede to round the apex too much at lower micron levels, unless incredibly careful. Basswood basically keeps it straight with the edge, assuming you hold the same angle, with less chance of accidentally getting slight convexing of the apex.
This is just going by what I've read through different people's processes in sharpening, stropping, and abrasive types in general. I'm not going to claim to be an expert, or anything close. What I've learned though is there's a lot of variables just in sharpening that can change the end results a lot. I've saved a lot of different old studies done on different grits, angles, and methods comparing them on how they all work together to create the end result.
Hopefully, as this testing will be very time consuming, it will be beneficial to some people. I'm probably going to do it both in push and draw cuts, and see if that also plays a role on which steels at what hardness levels can remain stable at lower angles(so probably 400-600 grit and a 0.5-0.25 micron finish), and roughly how low each steel will go and not be stable anymore.
