09-17-2017, 01:25 AM
I'm curious, do you use any abrasive on the leather belt? I'm sure you have a lot more experience sharpening than I do, so I feel a bit awkward giving my input, but even with light pressure I would think that an unloaded strop might cause a lot of plastic deformation right at the apex (i.e., the base of the burr). If your BESS reading is around 150, that should translate to an apex dimension of about 1.5 microns, if I understood the docs correctly. On a belt running at any speed, I would think that many, many millions of microns of leather would travel across the edge, and some metal would move with that. But I have zero experience belt sharpening or stropping, so don't know what to expect. (I strop on an 8-inch piece of mounted leather, and usually only take a few strokes with light pressure - works fine for chisels and plane-blades, but seems to make my knives worse, so I'm obviously missing something important.)
If you're using a loaded belt, then I would expect the burr to be abraded away. Whether it can be abraded away faster than a new burr could be created I have no clue, but I imagine the new burr wouldn't be visible without magnification.
I've had times when feeling for a burr that it comes off in my fingers (hard, non-stainless steel). Wonder if you would have been able to just pull it off.
Maybe soft stainless steel is just that way by nature.
If you're using a loaded belt, then I would expect the burr to be abraded away. Whether it can be abraded away faster than a new burr could be created I have no clue, but I imagine the new burr wouldn't be visible without magnification.
I've had times when feeling for a burr that it comes off in my fingers (hard, non-stainless steel). Wonder if you would have been able to just pull it off.
Maybe soft stainless steel is just that way by nature.