How To Guided rod stropping, my Paper Tape Stropping (PTS) method

[kreisler]

Summary: High-polish/Razorsharp-stropping can be done on the Ruixin and similar "GRSS" guided rod sharpening systems very precisely, effectively, conveniently/easily, and budget-friendly. How? By applying the compound on surgical tape. The holder material should provide minimal give: here, balsa wood serves better than leather or basswood.

As you will realize, users of almost any commercial GRSS could adopt my method; i am taking my modded Ruixin as application example. I've given this method a name and call it Paper Tape Stropping or 'to strop a knife/blade/edge with the PTS method' or 'to do PT-stropping' . Afaik I am the first to document it in specific detail.

Pro's:

• very precise, effective, convenient, and budget-friendly way of stropping
• very easy, also suitable for absolute beginners in the realm of stropping
• grit progression possible, if wanted; also inexpensive
• reliable reproducible results, perfect geometrical acuteness
• can replace free-hand leather strops
• goes easy on wrists, joints, muscles; it results painful to strop a Surge on leather
  
• does not produce convex edge profiles; dulling over-stropping is not possible!
• no strop cleaning/reactivation/maintenance needed; simply exchange the tape
• typically the PT-strops are prepared fresh, pure, uncontaminated

Con's:

• may appear tiresome, time-inefficient, longer-taking, slower, less convenient than free-hand leather stropping
  
• for starters, may take some pita time to deploy your GRSS on the table desktop
• may take some time to prepare your series of PTS "whetstones"
• limited to the range/dimensions of knives which your GRSS accepts

Note: The PTS method is not to replace all of your freehand leather stropping activity, when working on a specific knife model or specimen. For example, after reducing the burr with my last Ruixin stone (RUIXIN1500), i sometimes proceed with 1min on my 1 foot long SiliciumCarbide-loaded leather strop to faster smooth out the zig-zaginess of the edge line, before i return to the Ruixin device for the PTS method. The PTS method does smooth out the edge line too, 100.0% perfectly so, it just takes longer. If time is not a factor, you won't need a leather strop during the entire sharpening session. I have been appreciating the PTS method so much that I always try to do it whenever a blade has gone dull and either would need touching up (usually done on a leather strop) or actual resharpening (usually done on a 1000+ grit stone). If you know what you're doing and have the proper set of compounds for the grit progression, then the PTS method can be extremely effective, hence also time-efficient.

Comparison: Stropping with disposable tapes is not a new idea per se. WickedEdge offers 'leather tapes' for 60$/pair, and EdgePro offers custom-cut dry grit tapes for 37$/set. If money isn't a factor, then these are awesome substitutes and superior to my PTS which is basically a budgeteer's DIY method; WickedEdge and EdgePro owners don't need to look any further, they already have the best (and most expensive). At the opposite end of the spectrum, people on a budget or Ruixin users should find my PTS method to be an attractive alternative to free-hand leather stropping.

What you will need:

1. 1pc compatible base/holder; i use the cheap generic black plastic ones
2. 1pc balsa wood, cut to the identical dimensions of your Ruixin stone
3. double-sided adhesive tape or special glue to fix the wood on the base
4. 1 roll of original 3M Micropore surgical paper tape; for best guaranteed results don't use any other product!
5. 1 set of cheap polishing compound; typically in form of solid wax, block, cream, paste, powder
6. leather oil or other light oil for solving and dispersing your preferred stropping compound
7. (optional) 1 pair of disposable rubber gloves; i don't use such a thing anymore, they are not really needed
8. (optional) old newspaper to protect your desktop from spills, crumbs, dirt

If you have a set of 3 solid wax compounds (FINE, SUPERFINE, SUPEREXTRAFINE), then it'd make sense to get 3pcs of the plastic base and attach balsa wood on each one of them. The wood doesn't get dirty or consumed, and base and wood together form the "holder" for the paper tape. The more holders you have, the better for you: you could reuse the holder with the FINE PT (=paper tape loaded with the FINE compound) for other knives —if you sharpened several knives on the ruixin in parallel— and wouldn't need to exchange the tape for the grit progression.

On the following pic you can see a total of 2pcs black plastic bases (1 blank, 1 in use, made in chinas), 3pcs balsa wood (2 not in use, 1 in use), 2pcs leather strips (both not in use, made in gemani), 1 roll of Micropore surgical paper tape (made by 3M), 1 set of solid wax compound BLUE and WHITE (made in gemani), 1 set of 12 syringes colorful polishing diamond paste (made in chinas, 1 syringe missing), 1 container of pure ChromeOxide GREEN powder (made in gemani), 1 syringe GEMAN polishing/stropping paste (SiliciumCarbide compound, made in gemani), 2 mini glass bottles (water, oil), 1 yellow bottle with leather oil (made in gemani):

Chinese (CN) diamond paste can be found easily in sets of 3, 5, 6, 10, or 12 syringes on ebay, Aliexpress, BG, etc. 1 set costs maybe 6usd. Yes, 12 effing syringes for only 6 lousy bucks! CN diamond paste is for polishing metals and, due to its low(?) concentration of abrasives, not effective as stropping compound applied on leather: on a dry leather surface the creamy paste instantly turns waxy/solid rather than remains oily. Since, applied on leather or directly on wood, it didn't seem to cut steel effectively, I hated this paste … until i applied it on the paper tape. As you can see from the above photo, the (generously loaded) tapes turned black, the CN paste did its work, finally! And surprisingly fast! Now i am loving the CN paste and have almost used up the more 'popular' colors. My set of CN paste goes down to 0.5micron, other CN paste sets go down to 0.25micron. My ChromeOxide GREEN is said to be 0.3micron, here my razor-sharp kitchen chef knife finished with that 12-step series (the upper knife is for edge reference lol):

It took a long time to go through the full range of grit progressions of the CN paste, finishing with the ChromeOxide GREEN ( Chromoxid Grün ), and i wouldn't want to do it again in future, except for show edges like my multitool blades. chromeoxide or "the green compound" seems to be the most popular stropping compound on youtube, and youtubers end up with armhair-shaving sharp edges. I tried the GREEN compound in its pure form, powder, waxfree:

Really inexpensive, 2eur or so from the local painter's supply shop. According to the specs in the material data sheet PDF, the average particle size is "ca. 0,3μm"; by comparison, their IronOxide RED ( Eisenoxid Rot ) is 0.09 micron. Hilarious, it is sold in stupid plastic bags. Can you see what i did there? I feel like genius lol:

At first i didn't have 3M Micropore surgical tape in the household. Instead i found other make surgical tape, you may know the series < Leukoplast, Leukosilk, Leukotape, Leukomed, Leukofix, Leukoflex, Leukopor, Leukowtf, Leukoetc > from your last hospital visit. Anywho, even though this Leukowtf surgical tape stuff worked pretty well for stropping, it didn't work extremely well; so save your efforts and do not use that non-3M kind of surgical tape! If the tape product says Leuko- , you say -byebye:

Another poor idea is applying compound directly on a whetstone, with or without oily solvent doesn't matter:

Yes real whetstones, aluminum, or glass are perfectly smooth and flat but they don't provide the minimal give which is desirable for effective stropping. Balsa wood is superior in this regard. In any case, in practice the idea of employing a (natural or artificial) whetstone or leather as tape holder doesn't work out satisfactorily, here the bad example with a natural stone (GREEN10000) as carrier for the tape:

Another advantage of using balsa wood as holder is that you won't damage (micro-chip) the knife edge when you accidentally hit the PT-strop against it. The knife edge would not suffer any damage, cutting into the soft wood. Check out the four corners, you could see 2 corners with damaged wood underneath the tape:

 

[kreisler]

So yeah i tried various tape products. Being absorbent, surgical tapes are the ones we're looking for. Among them the #1 best choice is the surgical paper tape. And the market-leading surgical paper tape is made by 3M, and their product is called 3M Micropore. If bought from a local pharmacy via the PZN identification, it is expensive stuff, maybe 6EUR per roll. I found it on amazon, a 12-pack box for 9EUR shipped. Each roll has 2.5cm x 9.1m, what a steal:

With the 12 rolls à 9.1m one could build hundreds of Apex-sized paper tape strops. For sure it is an economic no-brainer to exchange the tapes frequently, regularly, as soon as they have turned black:

How to prepare a PTS "whetstone":

Assuming that you've already attached the wood on the plastic base, there are 3 steps:

1. Apply a strip of paper tape on the balsa wood holder
2. Place 3 oil drops on the dry tape (1 near either end and 1 in the middle) and rush to disperse the soaking oil evenly over the entire tape with the help of your index finger.
3. Place "crumbs" of your compound on the (now slightly oily) tape and disperse them with your bare index finger through rubbing motions; the entire tape should be loaded with the compound evenly
4. (optional) If the loaded tape is too dry, then no good. If the loaded tape is too wet from the oil, then also no good. In the latter case, game over, remove the tape and try again. In the former case, place 1 oil drop on the tip of your index finger and rub the finger across the tape to "moisturize" the surface.

Step1 is banal. You will notice that the adhesive of the 3M Micropore product sticks pretty well to the smooth balsa wood surface, so be careful later, when you replace the tape, and also remove adhesive residues with a paper towel plus some rubbing alcohol or oil. Remind yourself that the surface should be smooth when you apply the tape.
Step2 is for pre-saturating the tape and evenly so. The oil (personally, i use leather oil and never tried stuff like Ballistol or WD-40 for this purpose) acts as solvent (dissolving agent) for the polishing compound, no matter if the compound is in solid wax form, block form, liquid cream form, paste form, or dry powder form. Since the tape absorbs the oil fast, you need to be even faster with your index finger to disperse the oil with circling/rubbing motions over the entire tape surface. Just try your best and use as little oil as possible: i use a pipette apportioning 1 full-size drop among the 3 spots. In fact, 3 full-size drops of oil would be too much, no good.
Step3 is where you try to create an evenly compound-loaded stropping surface with your bare index finger. It is obvious that cream and pastes are the most convenient forms for this little task and don't need further How To explanation. See the remainder of this post how i manage to apply solid block compound.

I use an old knife to scrape flakes from the block compound. One does not need much. Both flake piles are a bit too much:

Oil does solve the flakes and liquefies them. A few drops of oil on the pile and some rubbing action with your finger and you've created a DIY paste. In the following pic i used too much oil, no good:

The following pic shows how i experimented with applying the DIY paste on dry tape. No good, because you're losing control over the amount of oil getting absorbed by the tape:

Now let's do it the correct way, shall we?

Step0 is getting your blank Apex balsa wood "whetstone" out on the table! For a 2-stage grit progression (WHITE → BLUE) it makes sense to prepare 2 of them, i.e. 1 "whetstone" with the WHITE compound and 1 with the BLUE. The following photo shows brand-new fresh stock wood, they are my spares for future use:

Step1 is applying a strip of paper tape on the balsa wood. Note that in all the following photos i am actually using used wood, not brand-new fresh stock wood. As long as the wood surface is smooth, flat, plane, and undamaged (material consistency), it doesn't matter. The wood only serves as "holder" for the tape. The tape does the stropping, not the wood:

After Step2 the tapes look a bit wet or "moisturized". Important, use as little oil as possible. 1 (or 2) full-size drops of oil should suffice:

For Step3 i've produced more flakes than needed. My scraping tool is a scrap piece of hard plastic lol:

This is how it's done, correctly! You disperse the "crumbs" (here: flakes) rather generously over the tape, like so:

Then use your bare index finger to rub the crumbs into the tape. You'll be surprised how the rubbing motion plus the oil in the tape dissolve the solid flakes and how easy it is to spread the compound evenly over the tape surface, like so:

Now you're ready to go. If you think that the loaded surface seems a bit dry, don't worry; when needed, you could place 1 oil drop on the tip of your index finger and then either dab the minimal amount of oil on the (blackening) tape or directly on the knife edge.

The following 7 pics document how the tape gets loaded with powderized knife steel. Depending on your wrist movement and pressure balance, a black pattern would form on the tape. After switching blade sides and also 180°-turning the "whetstone", the tape would become fully covered with the black stuff. The WHITE compound cuts very fast and produces a near-mirror polish after a few strokes. Micro-nicks, micro-chips are gone in no time:

Moving on to the BLUE compound. It also cuts very fast and leaves a mirror polish. The high concentration of abrasives (3micron? i dunno) makes the compound so fast-cutting:

The duo of WHITE plus BLUE compound costs 5EUR or so and is for polishing metals. But they are so fast-cutting, much faster than the CN diamond paste, that they have become my go-to standard method for finishing the sharpening of my knives (and also for resharpening, instead of going back to the 1000+ grit stones); only sometimes would i add a 3rd stropping step with the GREEN compound:

I heard that Jeweller's Rouge, for example the DIALUX RED compound is even finer than 0.3micron, wow! It is also a solid block compound and usually a pita to apply on leather strops and a challenge to apply evenly on balsa wood direct since it is solid and not liquid. I am going to buy and try this compound on my PT strop! As we know, the oil does the trick of "liquefying" the hard compound … by dissolving it.
Wax(s) + Oil(l) = Paste(s/l). What a neat chemical equation hehe.

Verdict: For sure, for me, the PTS method gives me a more perfect stropping result along the entire edge, on either blade side!, than when i try my best doing free-hand stropping where I always struggle with the rounded portions of the knife ("belly"). I was happy with my budget free-hand leather stropping and results before, but the PTS method took the sharpening results to a higher level. A real win and worth composing this time-consuming reference post.

What i also like about balsa wood as holder: Even though the material is soft and could be damaged/dented easily during non-careful handling, the wood stays smooth, flat, plane and does not get dented or compressed through the stropping action itself. Maybe that's because no pressure is needed during the paper tape stropping: the (generously loaded) paper tape does all the stropping work, acting like a mechanical shield, there is not much strain left on the balsa wood itself. I can tell you, stropping on balsa wood direct consumes the material, whereas paper tape stropping spares the wood material!

Guided stropping is highly effective resulting in hair-whittling sharpness, WickedEdge and EdgePro owners know it, and with this post I've shown how one can get there on a budget. The essential key was using 3M Micropore (this very product!) on balsa wood, and not loading a whole bunch of balsa strops with an entire set of forbiddingly expensive diamond sprays

 

[stitchawl]

Wow! Thanks for that report.

 

[brasileiro]

Great Idea. I’ll try it, thanks for share, for spend time and money.

 

[kreisler]

Hi guys, thanks for thanking and liking, appreciated!
I have added a photo (Step0).

Btw i have reason to believe that there is some probability that 3M's "3M Micropore™" and BSN medical GmbH's "Leukopor®" are the same product made by the same manufacturer 3M. The Micropore-branded version costs less on amazon, so never mind the Leukopor-branded version from your local pharmacy anyway!

 

[brasileiro]

May I ask you a question. Here where I live I only found the “rosē” 3M micropore. It is a little bit cottony. I’m searching for the white one. Is the white one less cottony than the rosē?

Edit: rosē I mean pink, but not pink at all. We call here skin color.

 

[kreisler]

Hello brasileiro, from my research there is no difference between my white and your rosy version other than the color.
And neither is cottony: cotton is thick and has a regular/directional repetitive macroscopic texture whereas this tape is super thin and smooth-ish with no macroscopic texture on it, and rather resembles paper, which can be torn easily in any direction. Other Leuko- tape products could be called cottony, though, but not this one. Of course, the Micropore paper tape is composed of a fibrous structure, comparable to normal sheet paper.

At this point we can assume that the tan and the white version are the identical product (except for the color). You have found the right product, but i would still prefer my white version, because the white background lets me see the colors and blackening discoloration of the colorful compounds better.

 

[brasileiro]

Thanks, now I got it. I don’t know if cottony is the right word. English is not my native language, maybe fuzzy (micro fuzzy) not like cotton maybe like swab?
But I understood. Thanks again for effort to explain.

 

[kreisler]

Yes the paper shows micro fuzzy composition once your tear it. Like real paper.
Yes the surface is a bit similar to a cotton swab surface, macroscopically smooth, but fibrous\fuzzy on a microscopic level.

You got it. Now it's time to get it. Amazon or hospital

 

[annr]

I love tape: especially paper tape (surgical tape)—have rolls of it (different sizes!) lying around and use it for all kinds of things—and not sharpening/stropping—yet.

Have to view this on the computer monitor—until then I salute the idea.

 

[kreisler]

I salute the idea.

Thank you, annr!

Today, a snowy Sunday, i made 2 fresh "holders". This time i used double-sided adhesive tape to stick the wood on the plastic. Question: Does your double-sided adhesive tape adhere to your balsa wood? Answer: If it doesn't at first, try dabbing the wood surface clean with tape. I gave my balsa wood surface a full treatment of repeated "tape-dabbings" to get rid of all hidden dust, splinter and superficial or loose wood material particles:

After that treatment the tape would stick nicely to the wood surface! Then i applied a broad strip of the tape on this uberclean wood surface and cut it to size:

I chose the cut size to be a bit bigger, 1 millimeter or so:

The double-side adhesive tape really does its job holding the 2 materials tightly together:

Ta-rah, my 2 new "holders" are done! Looking good:

Now i've got a total of 4 "holders", all ready to go:

Balsa wood is affordable, around 2.00€ for 1pc of Balsa 20x5x1000mm from a local craft shop, if you can find one or if they have it in stock. I had difficulties finding it in my neighborhood, so I had to take quite a drive to get my balsa supply. On a side note, a local shop has Birkenholz 20x5x1000mm always in stock (birch wood), which is much denser and harder than balsa wood; because of that property i didn't buy it and i will not recommend birch wood or basswood for the PTS method, sorry!

Why use double-sided adhesive tape instead of glueing the 2 parts? The tape will allow me to flip the wood strip, if (if!) the wood surface gets notably damaged by accident during countless weeks of paper tape stropping. This way i could reuse the wood strip: both sides of the balsa can be used for holding the paper tape. Very economic method, cheers!

 

[Piero]

Wow, I like that very ingenious method!

Did you try the dialux red, to achieve a finer edge? I think I will try with sandpaper, and will tell you the results I obtain!
A f 2000 grit is about 1 micron so a f 7000 seems very fine!

But I can't find if sandpaper are f grit or p grit.

Here is a chart comparison:

https://www.fepa-abrasives.com/abrasive-products/grains

 

[kreisler]

Salut Piero, on s'entend
I never got the commercial DIALUX RED, but instead i got the actual IronOxide RED "0.09micron":

And i also did systematic testing and comparing of all my compounds (Chinese diamond pastes, geman SiC paste, geman ChromeOxide powder, geman IronOxide powder, geman solid pastes, French solid pastes) and I've come to an unambiguous result: the finest polishing result is produced by the CN 0.5micron diamond paste!

After PTS with this paste my chef knives got shaving sharp up to tree topping. By now i've consumed most of my stash of CN diamond paste, so instead of buying the DIALUX RED for testing purposes, i'm gonna buy more CN diamond paste, down to 0.25micron.

Sandpaper sounds like a good idea too. Maybe you could present your method and results here too, or in a youtube video?

 

[Piero]

Thank you Kesler for your answer, what brand do you use for your diamond paste?

 

[kreisler]

Hi Piero, CN means Chinese or China . It's not a brand or company but the country from where it originates, the manufacturing site. Funny nobody on the various forums seems to get my forum name right, never mind lol.
My diamond paste is just that, CN diamond paste. No seller is advertising a brand or company or manufacturer with this kind of product and i also don't care when ordering CN diamond paste. I only care about the lowest price (per syringe) and that the set covers all microns down to 0.5micron, or even 0.25micron.
Just go to Aliexpress (Go to Global Site (English)) or Banggood or similar etailer sites and enter search term < diamond paste >. If you compare the colorful pictures of the cheapest offers, you'll realize that it's the same product originating from the same factory. Just order the cheapest set. The lowest micron size you'll find on the CN sites is 0.25micron. There are maybe 2 factories, i.e. 2 different companies, which produce these cheap CN diamond pastes. When you search on ebay, you'll see the same product.

Forget about brand. There is no brand. It is generic stuff, originating from 2 or so CN factories.

 

[bucketstove]

And i also did systematic testing and comparing of all my compounds (Chinese diamond pastes, geman SiC paste, geman ChromeOxide powder, geman IronOxide powder, geman solid pastes, French solid pastes) and I've come to an unambiguous result: the finest polishing result is produced by the CN 0.5micron diamond paste!

After PTS with this paste my chef knives got shaving sharp up to tree topping. By now i've consumed most of my stash of CN diamond paste, so instead of buying the DIALUX RED for testing purposes, i'm gonna buy more CN diamond paste, down to 0.25micron.

Hi,
What is "systematic testing"?
How sharp do you get without the tapes?
Can you get "shaving sharp up to tree topping" using the non-diamond stuff?


And more importantly, do you now have a pile of used tapes?
I wonder how they burn in the dark of night, and if the diamonds remain, or burn up / float away ?
That'd be a video

 

[Piero]

Sorry Kreisler for your name
And thank you for your answer, you are very helpfull.

I bought a lot of stuff today, even the 3M micropore that seems so good for sharpening!!

I will try your method with some sandpaper between stones and diamond paste. I found 3k,5k and 7k grit on Ali and I think it will cut very fast!

I also wil buy a board of mdf to prepare one base for each great (the plastic ones are not cheap), so I have to make ten plates: 3 for sandpaper and seven for diamond paste). Or maybe I will try to make a reversible plate to make less plates. Or to use one plate with a system to reposition the 3M micropore, I have to think about it !

 

[annr]

Hi Piero, CN means Chinese or China . It's not a brand or company but the country from where it originates, the manufacturing site. Funny nobody on the various forums seems to get my forum name right, never mind lol.

I like your idea, and do something similar with wet/dry sandpaper that can not be easily improved upon in terms of results, cost, or simplicity. I have grits ranging from 220 to 30,000. I can get an amazing edge that is parallel and perpendicular and works exactly as I need it to.

I would buy products from Germany, HOWEVER, I would NEVER buy anything from China that would touch my knives or skin. I wouldn't even use it if they gave it to me for FREE! Have you ever had it tested for purity?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[kreisler]

What is "systematic testing"?

It took lots of efforts to test the various compounds as polishing compounds on a bunch of identical hard drive discs, so-called platters. I used macroscopic photos, microscopic photos, reflecting light sources, sensible grit progressions, microfibre polishing cloths, etc to compare the similar yet minimally different polish finishes. I still have the photos and plan on posting them when i can. The naked eye tells the difference between polishes more reliably than my poor photos, though. And it was really challenging to evaluate which polish was finer, even in direct comparison platter vs platter. However, the result of the 0.5micron CN diamond paste polish stood out clearly as the winner of the comparison test, so i felt relieved to have found out a clear winner. The CN paste doesn't seem fast-cutting or effective/abrasive, if applied on a leather strop (there are some amusing youtube clips documenting the fail lol no offense), and it is really not as fast-cutting as my geman solid pastes (WHITE, BLUE), but it is surprisingly fast-cutting, if applied on PTS.

1pc of tape 150x25mm (applied on 150x20x5mm balsa) should be used for 1 "sharpening session" only, say you have 2-3 Spyderco Endura's and want to PTS them within the same hour. No problem, you can re-use the same loaded tape for up to 2-3 knives during that short time frame; between the knives, one would need to reapply 1 oil droplet or a bit more paste on the tape because the tape loses small amounts of paste during the stropping and also dries up a bit because excessive oils would get absorbed by the balsa surface. PTS users would figure out by experience which the perfect 'moist/creamy level' on the knife edge is. Anyhow, after that 1 hour of PTS, the tape will be fully blackened with gunk. And to prevent more oil from getting absorbed by the balsa holder, one should remove and trash the piece of tape. It is not a good idea to prepare a tape with paste and leave it on the balsa holder during storage; it is always best to prepare a PTS fresh as soon as one wants to do PTS, and not earlier. I've used up several meters of paper tape by now and usually i use 1pc of tape for 1 knife 1grit stage only; once i am done with the stage, i remove the (blackened) tape and set it aside, about to trash it. It is okay to keep 4 balsa PTS with different CN diamond pastes (1.5 1.0 0.5 0.25micron) but as soon as the stropping session is completed, all 4 tapes should be removed from the balsa and trashed. So no, i don't really keep a pile of used tapes. (tape and CN paste is inexpensive, so there is no need to store semi-blackened tapes on baking paper)

After 100 hours of PTS with the same PTS, the balsa wood would get softer and softer and also lose its perfect flat plane surface. You get to decide when to replace the balsa holder (on the black plastic base), it's a consumable after all!

Similar commercial offers use glass plates as holders or even aluminum backs/bases. Glass/Aluminum don't absorb oils and stay perfectly plane flat. But they're heavier and harder; mishap movements do happen and your edge would get damaged/hit by accident. I appreciate that my balsa holders are light-weight and minimally soft. Sure, one day i will try birchwood or basswood as PTS holder. That's harder than balsa but softer than glass/aluminum.

Without the tapes i'd do the burr removal and stropping on 1 single leather strop loaded with SiC paste (Silicium Carbide). The edge is then sharp enough to cut through tomato skin but would struggle with WHITES PAGES phonebook paper. And no, without the diamond stuff i cannot get to tree topping sharpness level. Btw we should never forget that the major factor for sharpness is the sharpening angle (acuteness). My chef knife is scary sharp after 2 PTS steps, the WHITE and BLUE geman solid compounds. And whenever i sharpen on the Ruixin, i always use the tapes for burr removal/stropping with automatic polishing.

And thank you for your answer, you are very helpfull.

Good luck with the sandpaper! Yes, you don't need 1 separate holder/base for each of the 10 grit stages. 4-6 holders for exploiting the PTS method should be plenty. As just explained, one should not leave the (compound-loaded, blackened or not) tape on the wood holder, even if the compound is not very oily. Fresh tape and fresh application of the paste compound is the best way to go!
You could try MDF board, but i find the 20x5mm profile balsa wood quite convenient and optimal already.
Congrats to buying the 3M Micropore and thanks for your trust in me and my proposed method

I can get an amazing edge that is parallel and perpendicular and works exactly as I need it to.

No i haven't tested any of my polishing compounds for purity. You know, haha, i also don't watch documentaries or movies about animal slaughtering farms; learning about the reality would kill my appetite for meat. I clean my knives well with geman oil, rubbing alcohol, acetone, soap, water, paper towel.

Look how clean/abrupt the border line between the satin finish and the PTS edge of my Chinablade is (2 different pic lighting source directions). This degree of accuracy, a transition-free border line, is imho impossible to achieve through manual stropping/polishing of the edge:

 

[anteck7]

Did this and got my first mirror edge with the KME. Total Investment was $30 bux.

Thanks for the advice, will see how this holds up but so far its amazing.