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Wicked Edge Stops - Leather or Balsa?

Glock Guy

Glock Guy

Joined
Jul 28, 2012
Messages
1,598
Guys,

I'm looking at picking up a Wicked Edge and was wondering about the strops.

I currently have a stropman strop, and the WE Pro-pack comes with leather strops as well.

I was just wondering if investing in a set of balsa strops for the WE is a good idea, or just a waste of money? Does a system like the WE work better with a balsa strop, or are the leather strops that come with it more than enough?

Thanks!
 
Never used the balsa strops, but I do have the 5/3.5 micron leather strops. They complement my 1200/1600 ceramics nicely. They give me a very good polish. Not a perfect mirror, but very good. I didn't use them on the first few blades I sharpened, but I use them on all of the blades I do now.

I've never done a cut test on when I stopped at ceramics versus going through stropping. So, I can't give you any hardcore data.
 
Alchemy1 said:
Never used the balsa strops, but I do have the 5/3.5 micron leather strops. They complement my 1200/1600 ceramics nicely. They give me a very good polish. Not a perfect mirror, but very good. I didn't use them on the first few blades I sharpened, but I use them on all of the blades I do now. I've never done a cut test on when I stopped at ceramics versus going through stropping. So, I can't give you any hardcore data.
Click to expand...


I will be picking up the 1200/1600 ceramics as well, but forgot to mention that in my OP!

Your comment is basically what I was thinking though. The WE Pro Package has the 5/3.5 leather with it, but I was looking for a strop that would give me a SUPER nice, polished edge in that 1/.5 micron level. I also thought that balsa might be a better finishing material since it's a little firmer, but that's why I wanted to get some other opinions here.

I think the other question is do I actually *NEED* anything finer than the 5/3.5? Is anything finer just giving a better look, or does it actually give a better edge????

Can anyone chime in on that one for me?
 
For fine grain and alloy steels heat treated at near optimal hrc - 1um diamond compound charged balsa or 1um diamond film on glass, would definitely give a sharper edge. You could even go as low as 0.5um but smaller than that consider novelty-edge which won't last. My limit is 0.1um polydiamond freehand honing surface with edge thickness is probably around 200nm.

For low hrc steels (very high toughness, applicable to most inexpensive stainless steel pocket & kitchen knives), no bother to go lower than 12um.
 
I'm not big on numbers and all of that. I'll just say I can easily slice phone book paper into curls with my Strider SMF after going through the stones/strops I mentioned. Doing this gives me no "bite", but it is like a razor! Straight clean slices! Steel is S35VN.
 
Thanks for the info. I forgot to mention that my main EDC is a ZT0350TS, so the blade is S30V.

What I'm looking for is that "No bite" part that Alchemy1 just mentioned, in addition to actually seeing if the 1/.5 micron would actually add any noticeable sharpness to the blade, or just more mirror to the finish?
 
Beside edge thickness, super fine abrasive will abrade proportional smoother edge (smaller and smaller bumps/jagged-serrations) to a point so smooth that the edge no longer grab/bite the cutting materials. Edge geometry composes of thickness & shape (plain - a line, serration, scallop, etc..).

With 3.5um you can get hair-popping sharp edge for many knives but that required super light pressure stropping(edge trailing) stroke and a hecka lot of patience that I sure don't have, thus impatience me call for 1.0, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1um stuff on hard firm surface (avoiding over convex / round the edge). My s30v at 30* incl can tree-top hair after 0.1um with moderate pressure lead+trailing strokes. Just a diff technique to achieve tree-top without dealing with convex+burr/wire at low angle for super-thin edge.

edit: I always finish with strop on bare leather, otherwise no tree-topping for me.

edit again: I was yakking about freehand sharpening not guided system - I don't have WEP but do have an EP.
 
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