# Need advice for a newbie on a stropping set, polishing compounds etc..



## Chips (Mar 12, 2014)

I've spent a good deal of time searching thru various threads here for sharpening and stropping but I wanted to ask in case there happened to be a "best choice" for my particular Konosuke Honyaki Wa Gyuto when it comes to choosing the best bang for the buck stropping setup. I have my Edgepro setup down to a 6k stone. Sometimes I find myself sharpening all day, carefully, just for the geekery of it all. As a knife that gets used, I know I don't always need an edge finer than what the 6k stone can establish, but it's certainly fun for me to try.

I'm all ears for any specific recommendations, if it's better to buy one type of leather over another, buy things separately, as a package deal, whatever. I'm open to any suggestions. I've seen the 0.5micron diamond liquid polishing stuff, and many other types. I'm basically completely new to all this, so I'm not even sure what all questions to ask.

Thank you for any help!


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## Keith Sinclair (Mar 14, 2014)

I don't know who else uses it,but the guy who got me into strops used Adam's #2 polish.I have tried different compounds cro oxide,diamond liquid,paste.I prefer the Adam's,when I finish off other peoples knives,it leaves a clean polished edge.Any compound the knife should be washed warm water & soap after.

Also made a Horse hide that I strop with no compound,just the leather.

All I use is leather it works for me.That and newspaper.You can take it to different levels eg.Balsa,Felt.


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## Mucho Bocho (Mar 14, 2014)

Chips I've found that your question depends on the steel. I love boron carbide on balsa to finish off my stainless knives but diamond loaded leather works better for carb on knives and really hard steels. Unfortunatley there is no one size fits all. Least I haven't found it


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## ThEoRy (Mar 14, 2014)

Felt with 1 micron polycrystalline diamond for gyuto. I like chromium oxide for yanagiba.


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## Chips (Mar 15, 2014)

I appreciate all this feedback. I've been reading as much as I can in this section. Sometimes it's like 31 flavors, having too many options makes the decision harder to make. I'll be making the buying decision on or by the 18th when the CKTG folks get back from a much earned vacation. The more input the better.


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## berko (Mar 15, 2014)

this 2-4 µ (8.000#) is what i am using and it works great! i also have the 0-2 µ (12.000#) which seems to do pretty much the same. i prefer the lower grits over the higher grits and chromium oxid, due to the aggresiveness of the edges they produce.


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## Sherski (Mar 23, 2014)

What is the general consensus about leather and the other more old school methods such as leather belts, cardboard and/or newspaper?
I believe there are some advocates for this and also 'purists' who, in the search for ultimate sharpness, will frown upon anything less refined than horse butt or balsa loaded with a compound. So i would like to have a kind explanation why they believe a certain product/technique might be superior to another (assuming steels are anywhere between 60-63rockwell), if anyone would please


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## Keith Sinclair (Mar 24, 2014)

No takers Sherski? Good question for hard knives Ceramic rod,leather.newspaper,all the mediums & compounds do not actually sharpen your knife.They remove any residual burr,clean up the edge.After hours of cutting a ceramic rod can realine your edge.

I learned newspapers fr. a Japanese national.Also deburring on the stone.I never used leather at work.Just lite touchup on already trained fairly sharp knives.I feel that a splash & go stone Med. or polish are a good way to touch up your blades at work.Japanese Sushi Chefs do this,after much cutting mist a stone a few strokes & yanagiba razor sharp again.

Still I like finishing off a blade on a piece of leather.


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## Chips (Apr 4, 2014)

With input from you good folks and the fine folks at JKTG, where I bought my precious, I went with the Richmond Strop Kit w/ 3 x 11 Horse hide Richmond Strop Kit, which I believe comes with a .25micron diamond polish.

I had a new friend over, who worked as a sushi chef for 6 years and was willing to walk me thru some better points of sharpening manually again. I think I'll be navigating away from my reliance on my Edge Pro, and re-learning a bit of the muscle memory and technique of manual freehand sharpening with good stones. 

I had kitted out my Edge Pro with lots of stones up to 6 or 8k, plus I put a 92lb strength neodymium magnet cube which just happened to fit perfectly into the base of the Edge Pro, which gave me a wonderful anchor in which to magnetize and hold my knives as a second set of hands. But there's just something that never quite feels right when I'm sharpening anything longish, like my Honyaki. I don't get a good feeling that my bevel is being maintained thru out the session. 

I'm a very tactile feedback sort of individual. I prefer to grind my coffee by hand using finely crafted precision hand grinders which are a newer entry to the market, and I think this tendency is ringing thru to my knife sharpening. I didn't bother with a lot of Youtube videos back when I first started manually sharpening my knives, I just went with what worked for me. And from that, the only one lesson that I feel I can claim that was proudly self taught, was that I was able to trust my free hand on the blade, near the edge, that it was establishing the bevel on the coarser grit stones properly, and maintaining it well as I progressed thru. But a lot more has come to light as I've listened and learned.

Fortunately my Honyaki is hard as hell and can take a very keen edge. I intend to take it up to a 18k before stropping, just for kicks. I love the sound, the feel and the physical motion of the whole sharpening process.

Now I'll have to decide on parting with the Edge-Pro to begin a new collection of stones, since i gave all my others away to my brother after I picked up the Edge-Pro.

Fun days ahead either way. Thanks again for helping steer a new guy. Search functions help a lot, but sometimes you can be buried with too many choices and options. I was originally just wondering if there was a better choice for a harder steel like my Honyaki.


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## Sherski (Apr 6, 2014)

^Sorry, but what's JKTG?


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## rfwillis (Apr 6, 2014)

Sherski said:


> ^Sorry, but what's JKTG?



I think he meant CKTG


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