strop versus hone?

S

srmd22

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Oct 19, 2009
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Just about to get into sharpening, and have read all the faq's and internet stuff found in searches. I ordered a spyderco sharpmaker and a 10 inch extra-course/course doublesided diamond sharpening stone with base. I figure the spyderco should be good for most things, to start with. If I run into a knife that is just too dull to get anywhere with the spyderco's courser ceramic, I can get it going with the stone (of course I will mess it up, but in theory).

I am eyeballing an electric sharpener that is highly touted in the recommended literature: the chef's choice 110, for my kitchen knives (they are dull as bowling balls).

I am also planning on picking up a strop and some compound.

My main question is: for beveled, or double-beveled edges, is it better to strop as a final step, or use a fine-grit stone to hone (in which case I will have to purchase one more stone).

I don't have any convex-edged blades yet, but I watched the mouse-pad/sandpaper/strop video on that, and plan to mess around with it, maybe reprofile one of my older knives.

So I see that the stropping is great for polishing up convex edges, and some of the sources say it is a forgiving way to polish up beveled edges as well-- but for a beveled edge, is there a general preference?

Also, can you just use the mouse-pad/sandpaper method to reprofile a beveled or multi-beveled edge into a convex edge, and would this be a reasonable thing to experiment with?
 
Your off to a good start, remember you can lean the diamond stone against the sharpmaker. Add the UF rods a strop and some 1 or .5 micron diamond compound and you'll be good to go for a long time.

A big NO to the electric sharpener and don't worry about convex until it becomes time to.
 
I am a beginner sharpener.

I have used a "dry" strop and it works good for de-burring. Since my strop is big I can use it for big blades and small ones.

I recently bought a small jasper stone and I have been using it to hone my small blades. It works really well too. It puts a nice polish on my edge that the strop does not. I bet that strop compound would change my experience with stropping.

My two primary sharpeners are a DMT 8" benchstone with fine/extra fine sides, and a diafold with the same sides.
 
Compound will make a big difference, also be careful with the size of burr you have when moving to the strop. If its large enough to scrape your strop then more refinement on the stones is needed.
 
All sounds good. I think I'll get both the course diamond and UF rods for the sharpmaker after I get the hang of the basics. I also want to mess with the stones for fun, just for the art of it. I ordered the bark river kit with the 2 sided strop and green and black compounds. I think my sharpening equipment now costs about as much as my knife collection!
 
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