Shapton 16K and CrOx question(s)

[Seraphim]

You can also ruin an edge by honing incorrectly, and thus, in my opinion, there is no clear winner in the fine hone vs. Crox stropping refresher battle.

Personally I use Crmox on a hanging canvas strop, and have never had any issues with it like that.

Rounding of the edge is perhaps not the best way to describe what happens. The actual edge still stays/gets sharp, but instead of maintaining a perfectly flat V bevel shape, the angles start to get convex.

Here's a pic (50x) of a little experiment I did going straight from a DMT1200 to Chromox on a hanging strop. You can see that it shined up the very edge, but not the main body of the bevel. It acts alot like honing using a layer of tape in that you refine only the very edge, not the main part of the bevel.

Yes, after using a hanging strop in this fashion, you will need a more aggressive hove to reset the bevel.

 

[richmondesi]

Thanks, Craig. That's the point I was trying to make.

 

[matt321]

three possible mechanisms for rounding on a pasted strop.

1. Too much paste so that the compound rolls out from under the blade as you strop. As the individual particles roll up and across the extreme edge they can round or blunt it.

2. Too much pressure or too soft of a strop surface so that the blade compresses the surface. The compressed strop springs up at the blade edge and rounds or dulls the edge.

3. The strop is a hanging strop and it is not held tightly. Thus, there is a curved stropping surface which causes the blade edge to be convexed.

The pasted strop seems to focus or act mostly on the trailing edge, whereas the hone acts mostly on the flat bevels. Some combination of the two is probably a good thing. However, there must be circumstances when the the pasted strop can round the edge in such away that it is duller. It is often said on knife forums that if you strop with too much pressure and for too many repetitions you end up with a highly polished butter knife.

 

[matt321]

Here's a pic (50x) of a little experiment I did going straight from a DMT1200 to Chromox on a hanging strop. You can see that it shined up the very edge, but not the main body of the bevel. It acts alot like honing using a layer of tape in that you refine only the very edge, not the main part of the bevel.

Nice photo.
So can one get by with just a DMT and a pasted strop (plus canvas and leather stropping)?

 

[Seraphim]

Nice photo.
So can one get by with just a DMT and a pasted strop (plus canvas and leather stropping)?

If you look at the edge itself, it is nice and shiny, but not as smooth as I'd like it to be. I would imagine that shaving with that edge would not be the greatest feeling shave ever.

 

[richmondesi]

Nice photo.
So can one get by with just a DMT and a pasted strop (plus canvas and leather stropping)?

I'd say yes, but you'd have to strop a lot to suit me