Stropping compund in between stropping compound and a stone

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Sharperthansticks

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I recently started stropping -- with green compound and diamond spray. I also have a KME and a WorkSharp with grinder attachment. What I'm looking for now is a stropping compound that is roughly halfway between a traditional stropping compound and a stone. In other words, if I have a small nick in my knife, I don't want to take off too much metal, so even the 1500 grit on the KME is a bit much. On the other hand, neither the green compound nor the diamond spray compound can take out the nick. And it took well over 50 swipes in each direction for the white Tormek compound in the yellow tube to get out the nick.

Can someone recommend a somewhat coarser stropping compound -- a compound that can get a small nick out of an M390 blade in under 30 stropping passes per side?
 
You are asking a lot out of your stropping compound. If the nick is noticeable you will just be waving at it and saying "hi". Of coarse you can get high grit compounds but you are better off taking it to a stone for a nick.
See what I did there.
He never said he had a soft strop. That being said the compoounds you are using excepting the diamond have precious little effect on m390.
I guess seeing the "nicks" you speak of would help us, although I doubt the 1500 grit is *too much* if it is a real nick.
One last point, there are plenty of stropping compounds available besides gritomatic.
 
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The grit rating of a stone doesn't absolutely dictate how much metal is removed, in using it. The number of passes taken with the stone and the pressure used will have the greater effect on that.

For tiny knicks which are still ordinarily too much for a strop to efficiently fix, using a stone and tailoring the number of passes and pressure used to the task at hand is the way to go. Metal has to be removed to a certain depth no matter what, i.e., to the depth of the nick, to remove the nick. The key is in working with a lighter-than-usual touch, watching the progress pass-by-pass and recognizing when to stop grinding.

Over-stropping might eventually remove the knick, but it'll also introduce other issues which may be undesirable (rounding, over-polishing, recurving the edge, etc). For an aggressive strop to do what's actually needed (removing the nick while leaving the character of the rest of the edge intact), the 'strop' would have to be made to work essentially like a stone anyway, to remove the nick in a timely manner without otherwise altering the rest of the edge too much. But again, if the nick is to be removed fully, you'll have to take metal away from the rest of the edge, to the nick's depth, to make it happen. Either method can potentially do it. But a watchful approach with a stone will do it much, much faster and likely better as well.

Stropping is meant to be done minimally, after good stonework is done. Everything else the edge needs, especially for the repair of damage, is better served by a stone.
 
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Hi,
What is a small nick (microns)?
So you got a KME Gold Series X-Fine - 1500 grit 9 micron?
And you want some sandpaper thats finer?
8.50 micron = FEPA-P : P2500
7.00 micron = FEPA-P : P3000
7.00 micron = WEPS : 1000
7.35 micron = Shapton : #2000
6.70 micron = Chosera : 2000
5.00 micron = FEPA-P : P5000

:)
 
Edge maintenance equals metal removal equals limited knife life. That's just a reality. How limited depends on the knife and the use and the edge maintenance but the fact is, if you use your knife and you sharpen it, it's going to "wear" out at some point.

For me, nicks would mean going to the stone.
 
I'm thinking over the advice everyone has given, and I'm thinking that I might need a stone around 2500-3000 grit -- either in standalone form or KME form. That would probably keep the flat grind flat (which stropping compromises) while taking off a minimal amount of material. My knives cost me hard -earned money; I'd like to take off the minimum amount of material to take the edge back to a defect-free state.
 
The nick is out. (See first post.) I am looking for a solution for the *general* situation, not this particular knife and this particular nick. (I thought that would be clear from my post.)
 
Sharperthansticks said:
The nick is out. (See first post.) I am looking for a solution for the *general* situation, not this particular knife and this particular nick. (I thought that would be clear from my post.)
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Personally I find that how the compound is worked is at least as important as the micron rating. Scuff up a piece of hardwood and apply compound with a drop of oil - even a fine compound will remove metal at a higher rate than anything applied to a softer surface.

The higher the rate of removal the more swarf will contaminate your compound.

Compound applied to a sheet of paper over the coarse side of a stone will remove a lot of metal comparatively - it won't readily remove dings, but it can do a lot of sharpening without rounding the edge.
 
HeavyHanded said:
Personally I find that how the compound is worked is at least as important as the micron rating. Scuff up a piece of hardwood and apply compound with a drop of oil - even a fine compound will remove metal at a higher rate than anything applied to a softer surface.

The higher the rate of removal the more swarf will contaminate your compound.

Compound applied to a sheet of paper over the coarse side of a stone will remove a lot of metal comparatively - it won't readily remove dings, but it can do a lot of sharpening without rounding the edge.
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Maybe I should scuff up a piece of scrap from a 2x4, throw on some toothpaste, and see what happens. :-)
 
For me in removing nicks I take it to a 180 grit stone at least. Maybe a little more coarse. Then work it back through the higher grits. So, if you want to go up to 3000 you have a ways to go. To strop out a nick just takes too long. DM
 
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You can get 16 and 8 micron CBN compounds (roughly 1000 and 2000 grit ANSI, I believe) from Bark River/Ken Schwartz that sound like that could give an edge like you want. As Heavy Handed pointed above, the strop media plays a big factor. I still think it will take you forever to get a nick out of the steel with stropping though, even with a 100 or 60 micron compound. Better to grind it out on a stone, then come back to stropping, if you value your time much.
 
HeavyHanded said:
Personally I only grind out nicks in my woodworking tools. Working knives they get worked out over time with successive sharpenings.
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Probably the best approach, right there. :thumbsup:

Especially if one is concerned about taking too much metal off the edge. Do that when the rest of the edge needs reworking, and not just for the sake of small nicks, which likely won't get too much in the way otherwise.
 
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