How To disappointing Sharpening results

I'm concerned that stropping may be taking "bite" away from the edge.

I've read many times that stropping helps to remove burrs, but that it also smooths, polishes and can round off the apex. I have a bit of a dilemma here because I want to remove as much burr as possible, but I like toothy edges (400 grit and below). I don't need smooth, polished edges or want rounded apexes.

I'm careful about removing burrs at every grit I sharpen with, so if there is one left when I'm done it's got to be tiny. Personally, I don't think it's worth risking smoothing out a toothy edge or rounding off an apex just to remove a tiny burr that might not even be there, but I'd like to get feedback about this from those who are more knowledgeable than I am.

Thank you...

I'm generally inclined in the same direction. I've mostly moved away from stropping with any compounds at all, and instead just strop on bare leather (a belt, as a hanging strop) or clean paper (laid over a stone is ideal). If any burrs on the edge won't be removed by those methods, that's my cue that I need to thin the burrs a bit more on the finishing stone of my preference (usually in the 320-400 range). If the burr is reduced enough on the stone, most any stropping method or bare substrate will remove what's left very quickly, in a handful of passes, without polishing away the 'tooth' I like in my edges. And again, if the remaining burr is thin & fragile enough, I sometimes don't strop at all, save for a couple swipes on the thigh of my jeans. Anything left will be fragile enough, it'll be scrubbed off the apex in the first use of the knife, after sharpening.

The only time I strop deliberately with a compound anymore is for polishing very thin convexes that work well in kitchen use, for fruits & veggies. But even then, I'm not doing as much of that anymore either. That thin & polished convex is a fun luxury in the kitchen, but still not essential for how I use my kitchen knives.
 
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Obsessed with Edges, thank you, as always, for your valued feedback.

It's reassuring to know that my views about stropping have evolved to be very similar to yours. It's taken awhile to understand stropping and see how it fits in, or doesn't, with the way I sharpen and the kind of edges I want.

Good point about a fragile burr being removed during the first use after sharpening. :thumbsup: That's so obvious I never thought of it! :rolleyes:
 
Obsessed with Edges, thank you, as always, for your valued feedback.

It's reassuring to know that my views about stropping have evolved to be very similar to yours. It's taken awhile to understand stropping and see how it fits in, or doesn't, with the way I sharpen and the kind of edges I want.

Good point about a fragile burr being removed during the first use after sharpening. :thumbsup: That's so obvious I never thought of it! :rolleyes:

There are times when I've noticed in cutting tests with paper (newsprint or phonebook page), the edge will initially grab or slip a little bit on the first cut or two. But on the subsequent cuts, that behavior ceases and the edge just plunges effortlessly into & through the paper. That's how I 'see' those minimal & very fragile burrs are there initially, but getting stripped away in cutting the paper, and it's a good indicator that I've taken it far enough on the stone and/or the minimal stropping I usually do.
 
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