A couple of observations so far:

1. I focused on rake angle during the whole process and found that it made a significant impact on performance. The first rake angle I tried was too extreme and required me to hold the knife at a funny angle while slashing through the cardboard. I modified the angle to 30 degrees from perpendicular (easily verified via microscope) and found a tremendous improvement.
2. The cardboard was touch on the blade and the 15um CBN and Balsa strops weren't able to restore the edge to shaving sharp. I had to go back to the Micro-Fines to get it done and even then it took a while to get rid of the little flat spot on the edge of the edge which made me wish I hadn't lapped the brown stones. I think I'll want to test a set where I do lap the white stones but leave the brown ones alone so they can be more aggressive.

razoredgeknives wrote:


+1 !

Clearly I can't help tinkering... I wasn't satisfied with the edge restored using the Micro-Fine stones and 15um CBN and Balsa strops after cutting all that cardboard; it just wasn't sharp enough for me. I decided to go a different route and picked up my 400#/600# diamond stones and sharpened it with those. Immediately there was huge improvement. My stones are extremely well worn in so even at 600# the edge is very refined. I jumped from there to the Super Fine Ceramic stones which really cleaned it up and then on to the 14/10 Diamond and Leather Strops and then for the heck of it, .75um CBN on Balsa strops. Now the blade is extremely sharp! Here is a picture of the edge:



I like this image because you can see the old scratches as well as the tiny ones from the strops.