Sharpening angle, how to define?

[Bosun]

Sharpening on an 8000 grit waterstone and stroping is fine, but yes, examining under a microscope is a bit of an obsession! But if it works for you, great.

[Woodworks]

I'm a bit obsessed with sharpening. All I can say is it's something that comes with experience. I use water stones, finishing with 8000 grain, then strop on leather and check the edge with a microscope .

 

What does the stropping do?

 

I thought the technique of stropping was used to fatigue off the burr. But if you sharpen down to 8000 grit is there any burr? I only go down to 6000 grit on a Japanese wet stone and the burr appears to fall off. Always interested in new ways to get a sharp edge though

[Cracker]

What does the stropping do?

 

I thought the technique of stropping was used to fatigue off the burr. But if you sharpen down to 8000 grit is there any burr? I only go down to 6000 grit on a Japanese wet stone and the burr appears to fall off. Always interested in new ways to get a sharp edge though

It's just how I do it. With knives I find that stropping after the stone is the difference between it shaving the hairs on my forearm.

[canoehead]

i'm with you there on stropping. after sharpening and sharpening knives for what seemed like an eternity only to find they'd cut hair on you arm/hand or whatever, but wouldn't cut paper vertically, i found that stropping made all the difference. if you've got a blade with two faces and you've sharpened equally on both sides you are always going to be creating a burr, no matter how many times you remove it when you turn the blade over and sharpen the other side. even stropping in the palm of your hand is enough. ray mears on tv i thank for bringing that to my attention.

 

rick