Stropping: Is It Worth The Effort?

Blade forums Thread:
[www.bladeforums.com]

Is stropping worth the time and effort, along with the chance of ruining your edge? I find light stropping helpful sometimes, but if I don't have to I don't strop at all.

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"Gotta love living in 2019 baby, (63rc too soft on a production knife)"
--Shawn Houston
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"I am still discussing issues of steels and performance at this stage."
--Cliff Stamp
__
"Cause geometry cuts, .....steel determines the level and the duration"
--Roman Landes
__
"But in general, I'm all about high performance, Ergos, safety. That's why I've been accused of 'designing in the dark' "
--Sal Glesser
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StoneSharpEdges

Jason D. Stone on YouTube

Lately, I have been getting great results stropping on printer paper place on float glass, with the Chinese 0.5u diamond paste I bought in a variety pack of 10, for 10u-0.5u. I leaves a very crisp, sharp edge, and cuts very quickly, you only need a few passes per side, and there is no noticeable loss of slicing aggression. Up until now, I haven't had that noticeable benefits from using this 0.5u diamond paste. I think that with stropping, to get good results, the steel needs to be in pretty good shape, and the better job you do sharpening, the less chance you have of killing your edge. Less is definitely more with stropping.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Gotta love living in 2019 baby, (63rc too soft on a production knife)"
--Shawn Houston
__
"I am still discussing issues of steels and performance at this stage."
--Cliff Stamp
__
"Cause geometry cuts, .....steel determines the level and the duration"
--Roman Landes
__
"But in general, I'm all about high performance, Ergos, safety. That's why I've been accused of 'designing in the dark' "
--Sal Glesser
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
StoneSharpEdges

Jason D. Stone on YouTube

Quote
jasonstone20
Lately, I have been getting great results stropping on printer paper place on float glass, with the Chinese 0.5u diamond paste I bought in a variety pack of 10, for 10u-0.5u. I leaves a very crisp, sharp edge, and cuts very quickly, you only need a few passes per side, and there is no noticeable loss of slicing aggression. Up until now, I haven't had that noticeable benefits from using this 0.5u diamond paste. I think that with stropping, to get good results, the steel needs to be in pretty good shape, and the better job you do sharpening, the less chance you have of killing your edge. Less is definitely more with stropping.

It seems to be very reasonable method. I like everything:
glass base for flat, cheap printer paper, use of good consistency fine compound..
with extremely light force must be able to achieve extremely high levels of sharpness.

www.instagram.com/jscuttingtools

JSCT,
I got this method from Jeff Clark on BladeForums, he said he favored it in a post.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Gotta love living in 2019 baby, (63rc too soft on a production knife)"
--Shawn Houston
__
"I am still discussing issues of steels and performance at this stage."
--Cliff Stamp
__
"Cause geometry cuts, .....steel determines the level and the duration"
--Roman Landes
__
"But in general, I'm all about high performance, Ergos, safety. That's why I've been accused of 'designing in the dark' "
--Sal Glesser
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
StoneSharpEdges

Jason D. Stone on YouTube