What stropping compound for cpm 3v?

9

9.3x62

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Jun 19, 2020
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As title says, what kind of stropping compound should i be using for cpm 3v steel?

Does it even matter?

/Kind regards
 
CBN or diamonds. You need something with that degree of hardness to abrade the carbides in the steel.
 
Gritomatic, and Chefknivestogo, usually both have a solid selection of cbn and diamond stropping compounds.
 
So, i saw that both dlt and knivesshipfree has a deal with a leatherstrop and the choise of two cbn compounds.

Which two compounds should i choose to maintain a convex egde i 3v steel? Possibly also a2.
 
Haven't tried diamond stropping compounds yet, but I find I can get hair-splitting edges on 3V (Benchmade Puukko 200)and CPM-M4 (GB2) on diamond hones without stropping. Not sure what stropping would achieve beyond that.
 
I use the same black and green for 3V. A strop only knocks off micro burrs and gives polish to the final edge.
 
skyhorse said:
I use the same black and green for 3V. A strop only knocks off micro burrs and gives polish to the final edge.
Click to expand...

Use what you prefer, obviously. But stropping does more. It also can abrade the carbides in the steel--if you use a solution of diamonds or cbn that can abrade them. That's not to imply that stropping without those solutions does no good. Only that stropping with them does more good.
 
chrome ox graded at 0.5 microns is extremely closely graded and also slow for anything with complex large carbides or high hardness. I'd strop 3v with 1/2 or 1 micron loose diamonds (you can buy them on ebay for about a quarter a carat last time I checked). Every loose diamond vial, bag or whatever else that I've ever purchased has been very closely graded. I'd save the chrome ox for straight razors.

I've always avoided the sprays because it's just as easy to sprinkle a bit of loose dry diamond on something and then add a drop of mineral oil to move it around, and you can have 10 lifetimes of diamond doing that for $25. Not much issue with contamination as long as you don't use larger diamonds (anything loose-sprays, powders, whatever, will end up somewhere else sooner or later either on your fingers or on a blade. If it's super fine, contamination doesn't matter).

A hard buff (powered) with aluminum oxide would probably be faster and more effective than a strop with diamonds even though it may not be optimal for the carbides. you can use the corners of a buffing wheel like a hand strop - the face of the buff will round over an apex some, but the corner doesn't have enough backbone to do much and the buffer is better at completing the job than we generally can do by hand.

(sub micron diamond buffing compound could be made pretty easily for a buffer with gulf wax and loose diamonds, too).
 
FWIW, I got very good results on my Benchmade 200 and 202 with just the basic green chromium oxide. Now I got the edge I wanted on a DMT diamond plate. But the green stuff worked great for me and I am happy. YMMV.
 
The edge comes up crisper and with more "bite" with diamond/cbn compounds.

I just use the waxy bars of green, black and white for buffing handle scales.

The buffing compounds gunk up the leather, also the edges come up smoother and less exciting. The edge seems to go smooth faster as well.
 
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