Pros: Effectiveness
Cons: None
Took my sharpening to a higher level
I’ve always had a hard time eliminating the burr on knives when sharpening. I don’t know what I do different from other people who seem to get good results right off stones, but based on my knowledge of the physics of knife bevels, it only makes sense that stropping solves the problem of burr formation. See, the very edge of a knife bevel has extremely stiffness, but you are pressing it against something very stiff when sharpening with a stone, meaning it is forced to bend away and rub on the abrasive instead of cutting. A stop uses a much less stiff material and avoids deforming the apex as much. It can even preferentially remove material from the burr without bending it to the other side of the bevel. What I found was that coming off a stone with a light burr, stropping with the 6 micron paste on leather removes the burr quickly. Then progressing to 3 and 1 micron paste improves your edge until it is razor sharp. To be honest I can’t get much past shaving sharp still- no hair whittling or crazy stuff like that. But shaving sharp is very useful, practically speaking, and I’m still proud that I put the effort in to learn the skill. Maybe going past 1 micron grit or using bare leather would also be worth trying. DMT also included some nice hints on using the paste. They mention having to press hard into the strop with diamond paste compared to normal polishing compound- this hasn’t been my experience, as pressing too hard can round over your apex. Not sure what they mean by that.
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