strop question

[weaponwh]

can I strop sharp (.5-1micron) after use of 1k grit stone or I need high grit stone or corase strop before use the .5 micron strop compound?

 

[Magnaminous_G]

I regularly Strop with 1 mu after DMT coarse, which is 400 grit or so. If all I had was 0.5 mu, I'd strop with that, too. Either way, you'll smooth out the teeth a bit and remove the last tiny bits of burr if done judiciously. In fact, a lot of people prefer to strop like that after a fairly coarse stone for just that reason.

 

[HeavyHanded]

can I strop sharp (.5-1micron) after use of 1k grit stone or I need high grit stone or corase strop before use the .5 micron strop compound?

What I find is you can and it will work, works best if done very sparingly.

I find I get better longevity and preservation of the toothy effect by applying a slight microbevel with a 6 or 8k waterstone, just a few passes to thin out the edge side to side but still leave a lot of variation along the edge up and down. For a good medium grit edge finish most of the time I'll just strop on plain paper wrapped around a dry stone or one of my Washboards, using a moderate amount of force to get some burnishing. This won't work so well with high carbide steel but works great for fine grained stuff.

 

[weaponwh]

What I find is you can and it will work, works best if done very sparingly.

I find I get better longevity and preservation of the toothy effect by applying a slight microbevel with a 6 or 8k waterstone, just a few passes to thin out the edge side to side but still leave a lot of variation along the edge up and down. For a good medium grit edge finish most of the time I'll just strop on plain paper wrapped around a dry stone or one of my Washboards, using a moderate amount of force to get some burnishing. This won't work so well with high carbide steel but works great for fine grained stuff.

interest to know your main bevel and microbevel degree and its ratio.

 

[HeavyHanded]

Most often my pre-set is about 26-28°. If I'm not going to microbevel, that's right where it stays, stropped on paper.

The microbevel is only a degree or so higher, not very much at all. Instead of a hard fine line along the edge that's barely if at all visible, the microbevel/polished region leaks out into the main grind a bit, becoming bright just along the very edge. On a polishing waterstone I'll do maybe five scrub passes very,very light finishing with a few backhone passes - this keeps even the terminal angle pretty acute, but thinner across than I started while preserving a lot of the up/down variation left from the 1k (or lower).

On lower RC (and even higher RC with practice) one can get a very similar effect by using a smooth steel or glass rod, but the polishing waterstone is much more forgiving and less likely to draw out the steel or raise a burr.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

Most often my pre-set is about 26-28°. If I'm not going to microbevel, that's right where it stays, stropped on paper.

The microbevel is only a degree or so higher, not very much at all. Instead of a hard fine line along the edge that's barely if at all visible, the microbevel/polished region leaks out into the main grind a bit, becoming bright just along the very edge. On a polishing waterstone I'll do maybe five scrub passes very,very light finishing with a few backhone passes - this keeps even the terminal angle pretty acute, but thinner across than I started while preserving a lot of the up/down variation left from the 1k (or lower).

On lower RC (and even higher RC with practice) one can get a very similar effect by using a smooth steel or glass rod, but the polishing waterstone is much more forgiving and less likely to draw out the steel or raise a burr.

It's quite an advanced sharpening/stropping! Now I have more to experiment!
Thank you!