Stropping knives on strop loaded with compound and toothyness???

L

lonestar1979

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Mar 2, 2014
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I always strop my knives little on bare leather or strop to clean the edge up and keep the toothyness which i realized is gone when using fine compounds because I prefer and use toothy edge for all my needs.I understand theres some diamond compounds that allow you to retain toothyness while polishing the blade little more.The toothyness also depends on type of steel youre using and not all steels react to polishing same.Your thoughts and experiences are welcome!!!What are best compounds to load the strop with to keep the toothyness and bite on edge?I strop on palm or bare leather strop and get excellent results.If i need polished edge for woodwork use green compound.all ideas and experiences are welcome.
 
I use 1 micron diamond paste. Gonna switch to spray once that's depleted. Gives the apex a nice toothy crisp edge even if you go higher up in the grit scale when sharpening. So the edge will be toothy per say.

You could go anywhere between 4 and 1 micron depending on your preference. You could just go with a somewhat coarse edge sharpening and say use 3micon spray like I've seen others do.

I generally finish sharpening on one of three stones... 400, 600, or 1500 then use one micron diamond paste.

I haven't used it on softer steels because I don't tend to like using them. So might vary depending on the steel and ht.
 
I find using very thin substrate like baking parchment, painters craft paper, etc over a very hard somewhat open backing (coarse side of combination stone. Washboard) can make a reasonably toothy edge.

Once you apply to a backing, that can have more influence than size of abrasive.
Compound on red oak with drop of oil works well too. You can actually sharpen a knife using this method, but if the abrasive is too large you can find yourself w/ a burr thats tough to eliminate on the same board.
 
Let me remind folks that eBay sells high quality diamond lapping paste in all micron sizes, and does so for 1/4 the price demanded by knife sharpening companies. This diamond paste is sold to Gem stone polishers, and so needs to be extremely accurate in size, as even cheap Rubies, Sapphires, and Emeralds are considerably more expensive than high quality knives. Gem polishers aren't going to buy junk polish.

You can purchase syringes of compound for under two dollars, and pots of it for less than $8. There is enough compound in one small pot to last the average knifeknut five years. I've been experimenting with this stuff for the past couple of years, and am quite satisfied.

Put 'diamond lapping compound' into the search box in eBay, and see for yourself. You might save yourself a lot of money, and still be able to play with various sizes of quality diamond paste.


Stitchawl
 
DMT diamond paste is easily 10x more expensive. Are they of similar quality?
 
I keep finding out I prefer the tooth coming straight off the stone/hone. So, I focus on thinning & cleaning up burrs there, as much as possible, with any remaining cleanup done on bare leather, or sometimes with a sheet of paper laid bare over an oiled stone. That's all I need. If I find myself tempted to use a compounded strop to clean up or enhance the 'tooth' in the edge, I take it as a hint I could do a little more on the stone instead.

Anymore, I only use a compounded strop if I'm looking for more polish for certain uses, such as for woodworking tools or occasionally for mirror-convexing a kitchen knife or two (but I'm sort of shifting away from that too).
 
Last edited:
sharp_edge said:
DMT diamond paste is easily 10x more expensive. Are they of similar quality?
Click to expand...

I've never put the two under a microscope to compare them. However, when you consider that this stuff is used for polishing $10,000.00 rubies and sapphires, etc., etc., it does seem logical that it's at least as good as a product made for stropping a $75 knife... if not better. :)


Stitchawl
 
I forgot to add this - best results for toothy "stropping" is backhoning on a softer waterstone. The Norton's work well for this. Not sure its the best long term strategy but makes a wicked toothy edge that is very burr free right off the stone.
 
Ill try stropping on waterstone.I usually finish it on medium sil carbide or brown sharpmaker stone and it has plenty of tooth and whittles hair too.Ill try stropping on waterstone,i gave up stroping on green compound because it polished edge too much for my uses and edge lost that bite.
 
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