How are you measuring these angles? How do you hold the knife?
Thank you for your fine questions, I feel that you're actually giving me useful information to work with. I hold it real steady with the fingers as close to the cutting edge as possible with minimal and superficial contact with the stone.
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What medium are you stropping on? If you are stropping at 5 degrees above your sharpening angle, you could be rounding the edge, especially if the stropping medium has some give to it (you could easily add another 10 degrees to the final result, depending on how much pressure you apply during stropping).
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I'm stropping on a leather strop that I've had for a few years that I use on my straight edge. The rounding of the edge might be something that I can look into. I use minimal pressure: just the weight of the knife without pushing into the cutting edge.
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Stropping is not really mandatory for kitchen knives. It will give a finer edge if you know what you are doing, but it is an edge that is finer thanyou really need for kitchen use. And you do run the risk of rounding the edge.
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Ok I will most definitely take this into consideration in my future attempts.
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If I strop, it's usually on a hard medium like balsa or a dry fine (8k) stone or rock hard felt. Or cereal box cardboard folded over the edge of a bench. And it's usually to see if I can refresh an edge instead of having to sharpen again. Or sometimes just to show off to myself that I can cut flimsy paper. Which is fine, as long as you don't expect it make your knife cut food better.
hmm stroping on a dry fine stone is a new concept for me
Yeah, I do wonder whether instead of producing a convex bevel, you are producing a rounded edge.
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Thank you Again Nemo!! your questions and feedback is legendary!