Stropping and Hair whittling edge

[rollintent]

I have been struggling with loosing my edge when stropping. I have been freehanding on stones ultrafine diamond then spiderco ultrafine ceramic bench stone before going to an knives plus strop and leather strops loaded with 1.0, 0.5 and .25 micron diamond sprays. I sometimes get a hair whittling edge but never tree topping sharp. I have tried varying my pressure from just barely touching the strops to maybe a pound of pressure and have varied my stropping angle from nearly flat on the strop to approximately the angle I work on my stones to just slightly steeper than sharpening angle. I get varied results but it seem the more I strop the duller my knife gets most of the time. Most of the time my knife cuts and feels better right off my Spyderco ultrafine ceramic stone.

Can anyone point me to a video that goes into more detail or some resource that explains a good way. I feel my work on the stones is as good as it needs to be but am usually making it worse with the strops as often as not but usually I am really not improving the edge much at all by stropping.

 

[microtech85]

Maybe..could be edge geometry. The sharpness needs to come from the stone. The strop should only refine what is already there. The strop works best with very light pressure. I have never had tree topping sharp but i do get hair whittling sharp from dmt extra fine or spyderco medium followed by 2-4 passes on green compound loaded strop.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Check my signature for link. It helped me. I will say that much of the time I don't even strop after coming off the Spyderco ultra fines. I'm no expert though. If you need more guidance, the folks over in Maintenance, Tinkering, and Embellishment can help you with pretty much any sharpening advice. Crazy amount of knowledge.

 

[rollintent]

Thanks! I missed that forum. I was looking for a something titled “sharpening”. I will post over there! Thanks again!

 

[Alberta Ed]

Sometimes stropping takes that crisp newly honed edge off... try spending a little more time on the ultra-fine hones. Could be the steel, too; it's easier to get a hair-popping edge on high carbon steel blades than many of the current high carbide volume 'super steels' (S30V etc.).

 

[skyhorse]

With only weight of the blade and a soft hissing sound like a snake will let you know you're dead on.

 

[Cscotttsss]

Following this one as I've had the same type of issues too recently. I will admit I'm a novice sharpener.

 

[RiderOnTheStorm]

 

[Valyrian steel]

A lot of that is technique. Ive been able to get razor edges with just plain cardboard.

 

[Horsewright]

Biggest thing I've seen folks have trouble with when stropping is the angle. Folks will get it too flat and they are actually polishing the top of the secondary bevel not the edge. Try putting your knife on the strop and slide slightly towards the edge direction. Keep increasing the angle till the edge bites. Then go backwards as ya normally would. That way you are polishing the edge not the top of the secondary bevel.