Stropping compound for K390

J

J389

Joined
Nov 19, 2020
Messages
8
Relatively new to stropping and also to high vanadium knife steels.
In the past I've used Autosol and a leather strop to finish off A2 and D2 knives with decent results.
I've just picked up a convex ground knife in K390, ideally would like to use just one compound and a leather strop to maintain the edge.
Is there any appreciable difference between cbn and diamond ?
What grit for a leather strop ? (Normally sharpen down to a 1200 diamond stone before stropping)
Thank you
 
J389 said:
Relatively new to stropping and also to high vanadium knife steels.
In the past I've used Autosol and a leather strop to finish off A2 and D2 knives with decent results.
I've just picked up a convex ground knife in K390, ideally would like to use just one compound and a leather strop to maintain the edge.
Is there any appreciable difference between cbn and diamond ?
What grit for a leather strop ? (Normally sharpen down to a 1200 diamond stone before stropping)
Thank you
Click to expand...

CBN and diamond are both more than hard enough to abrade the vanadium carbides in k390 however personally I only use CBN for powered applications eg. tormek and not so much for stropping although it will work just fine. I prefer hard substrate like balsa or basswood, see link in my signature stropping endura in k390. Diamond on leather works well too however gotta be careful not to use to much pressure when using it. Hobby stores and hobby lobby etc. sell wood cheap and leather too. Any decent diamond spray, paste emulsion will work just fine, search the site too as there is a plethora of info here.
 
Not to be "that guy," but my strops, other than the ones I use with straight razors, have been sitting idle since I learned to deburr on stones. It's not rocket science, you just do some edge-leading strokes on each stone before going on to the next. The great advantage of this approach is that you know for a certainty that you have a proper edge before going on to the next stone. And when you're done doing that with the finishing stone, well, there's just no apparent need for a strop.
 
I have and use the 1 micron spray from NWKG. Very easy to use and excellent results. I also have a paste from Venev, but doesnt seem to work as well and the paste is messy.
 
UncleBoots said:
Not to be "that guy," but my strops, other than the ones I use with straight razors, have been sitting idle since I learned to deburr on stones. It's not rocket science, you just do some edge-leading strokes on each stone before going on to the next. The great advantage of this approach is that you know for a certainty that you have a proper edge before going on to the next stone. And when you're done doing that with the finishing stone, well, there's just no apparent need for a strop.
Click to expand...
Stropping after deburring on a stone will refine your edge. Do you need to do that? No, you can get a great edge without a strop. But what I mainly use a strop for is to bring a slightly dull edge back to sharp quickly. It would be way more time consuming to do the same thing on a stone. I would say most people don't use a strop for deburring, but that's a guess.

J389 said:
Relatively new to stropping and also to high vanadium knife steels.
In the past I've used Autosol and a leather strop to finish off A2 and D2 knives with decent results.
I've just picked up a convex ground knife in K390, ideally would like to use just one compound and a leather strop to maintain the edge.
Is there any appreciable difference between cbn and diamond ?
What grit for a leather strop ? (Normally sharpen down to a 1200 diamond stone before stropping)
Thank you
Click to expand...
After finishing on stones, I use 1 micron diamond emulsion from Jende on leather for my high carbide steels and it works great. I've never used CBN.
 
I find a light steeling works better on high vanadium steels -- stropping doesn't seem to improve the edge for me. I rarely go past 600 grit (DMT red) on powder steels (S30V, M4, 3V, 110SV, etc.).
 
The diamond emulsions from Ukraine are great, I think it's like "Ukrainian diamond tool" if you search it up. You can pick not only size of diamonds but also the weight (density) in the emulsion. I like the increased carat 3/2 10,000
 
I like 1um spray on leather best.

My favorite is Portland Knife House Diamond Spray.
 
I have a few tubes of diamond paste that are working fine on M4, M390/20CV, S30V, Elmax and more so I would assume that those would work well with K390 as well. You can get some good bang for your buck out of diamond paste as well if you shop around. I know there are plenty of folks here that will swear by the diamond spray and I havent tried that so I cant speak to its effectiveness but I have found they are universally more expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top