What's the best surface material for 1, 0.5 and 0.1 micron stropping compound?

[chempe]

Hi,

I'd like to know that what the best surface material is for 1, 0.5 and 0.1 micron stropping compound? I'm thinking on wood, leather, felt and even glass. Any experience on these materials with the mentioned particle sizes?

 

[115Italian]

I have always used leather on a wood backer. It works for me.

 

[UncleBoots]

Basswood works well for me for knives, and balsa for razors.

 

[elevator man]

I didn't have any success with balsa wood. Sharp, yes. Deburring, no not at all. Lots of failed edges. Now I will say I did not use a ton of pressure, but it'd take a substantial amount of pressure I'd think to get it to compress some.

I'm using denim right now. For me it's been good. Deburrs successfully and as sharp as possible. I use moderate pressure. I will maybe try leather when these strops are done

 

[Tjstampa]

For diamond emulsion i think leather is best for just deburring. If you are trying to remove more scratches from your last stone the basswood. I may try oak or maple that Gritomatic sells sometime.

I don't like denim for spray emulsion because the diamonds seem to just sink between the fibers. However wax compounds ( the green and white crayon stuff) seems to do just fine on denim.

 

[chempe]

Thank you. Noone uses felt or just hasn't tried?

 

[Kryme]

Too soft, any material with significant give will wrap around the apex no matter how flat you keep the blade. This in turn can create the scenario where you're happy with an edge, but just wanna give it that little extra bite so you strop it, only for it to feel a lot less aggressive, dull even. It's why a lot of the fixed angle sharpening systems use lapping film stuck on glass. That is if the goal is to get a mirror polished edge and keep it sharp, because you don't really need to go anywhere near that far to get hair popping sharp or worry about the material or "give" of the strop all that much if at all.