Strop Sharpening

"The complete guide to sharpening" by Leonard Lee. It is far more than a simple "how to" guide on sharpening. It includes sections on steels (and how they effect geometry), abrasives, cutting ability and much more. The level of detail is very high, for example high magnification shots of edges in various states of polish, which is quite interesting, as well as showing exactly what a burr is, and how it is formed, etc. .

-Cliff
 
Lee discusses high speed steels as well as various super alloys like Stellite. It is however not clear which steel he used for the sharpening experiments. He doesn't however give any indication of a different sharpening technique being used for the different steels, outside of the obvious geometrical difference in edge geometry that is necessary.

I have seen this discussed on the woodworking groups before, the basic idea presented there was that it was of little use to use an abrasive that was finer than the grain structure of the steel. However I don't agree with this from an edge polish point of view as I have seen even D2 respond very well to fine abrasives and take an edge the equal of 52100 in regards to polish (~100 g for fine thread, edge angle 15 +/- 3 degrees).

In regards to length of stropping, as a finish you should not have to do much more than 10 or so per side. Depending on the curvature and length of strop of course. More specifically I have found that 100" of stropping will put about as fine an edge on a blade after finishing with 5 micron SiC, using say ATS-34. Some steels will respond a little faster others slower, but the curvature changes from blade to blade make a much larger difference and can require double the stroke count to achieve the same length of coverage.

-Cliff
 
The sharpest I've gotten a knife is shaving or razor sharp on the 204 i got for my birthday two days ago. I don't own a strop, but if i think it might help maybe i'll make one out of a belt. i'd like to have just one "scary" sharp blade in my collection
 
Great comments Cliff, much appreciated. I have long used a unloaded hanging strop to good effect..looks like I may have to get one to load up. :)
 
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