(05-27-2017, 10:11 PM)grepper Wrote: I was doing some experimenting with different materials for deburring.  I wanted to try hard materials just to see the effect of something that would be strong enough to definitely bend the burr.  Then I wondered what a plain piece of leather would do.

When I say, "strop", I mean do a one pass strop one side of the blade turn it over and do the other.  That would be 1 strop.  5 strops would be doing that 5 times.

Here's what happened:

I started with this Oxo Good Grips blade sharpened on the Kally @ 180 grit.  This is the burr.  It is a fine burr.  The black line is marking pen.



I decided to try a hard plastic cutting board on the theory that it would be strong enough to bend the burr but not damage the steel.  The dent in the burr is where I took a sharpness reading.  This is what happened after 10 strops on the hard plastic.  Yes, the burr had actually fractured and broken off in some places but I was not getting anywhere very fast.  The burr was just bending back and forth and back and forth...




So then I tried the smooth side of a clean leather strop with the hope that the leather would bend around the edge of the blade and do a better job of grabbing the burr.  First I did 10 strops and there was still a lot of burr.  Then I did 10 more strops.  The dark/light image below is the same image, just with side and top lighting.  Here's the result after the 20 strops on plain leather.  Much better, but still a lot of burr and it was a bunch of work to get to this point.  It also seemed that getting that last bit of burr was going to be a very slow process indeed.  Some of that little tiny burr directly above the edge is very difficult to get to.  You can see it in the light picture below as little shiny mountains right on top of the edge.  That is burr.



Getting tired of messing around, I did 5 strops on the Kally using the rough side of a leather belt with just a touch of Tormek 1-3 micron compound that was left over from a previous sharpening.  Final sharpness was 200g.



So, that was yet another experiment.  Take from it what you will.  Hope you found it as interesting and entertaining as I did.  (I have a low interest/entertainment threshold).

(05-27-2017, 11:32 PM)grepper Wrote: That was about 2" above the platen, with just a very small bit of compound left over from some other sharpening.  What I have found is that plain leather just won't do it very well, but just a tiny little bit of compound makes the difference.

I've tried plain leather and plain leather with only oil on it and that did not work.  So, even though I don't understand exactly why yet, just a little abrasive makes the difference.

I only use a very small amount of compound very infrequently applied and a very fine grit because all I'm looking for is burr removal.  I don't want to polish the edge at all if I can help it. I don't want to damage the nice toothy edge by abrading it away.  Just remove burr and only remove burr.  For that reason I hate using compound, but at least with my testing so far, it seems to make the difference.  That tiny bit of very fine abrasive must be grinding the burr off.  At least that is what I am guessing at this point. I'm still not sure, but at this point is seems like a logical assumption.


Oh, yea, you bought your son the Celestron!  Well, how about some images Mr. Rupert!

(05-28-2017, 07:25 AM)Jan Wrote: Some knife sharpeners in this country consider the Tormek pasta as an aggressive honing compound despite its small grit size.

(05-28-2017, 08:22 AM)Rupert Lucius Wrote: Sir

Will you please help us get started with the Celestron?

Maybe I am asking for a overview photo of your vise or etc.

In reference to  your excellent photography, excellent and so very descriptive.

Rupert