Great pictures Clay, in your copious free time I would like to see the same experiment done with the 400 grit stones.

Great scope

Thanks for all the input! I keep reading about stiction. Could someone give me a working definition? Conceptually I understand the Wiki definition. When stropping a knife what level, quantity or quality (not sure how do ask) of stiction works best?

This next little study was fun to do though also time consuming since prepping the samples takes a long time for the 2000x images. There is a long process of cleaning the samples and lens, then applying clean immersion oil for each iteration. In order for the 2000x lens to gather enough light and present a clean image, it needs a continuous bond of the oil between the end of the lens and the sample. Every time I take the sample out, I have to add more oil and re-form the bond. Still, all the work aside, it's a blast So without further ado, here are some images of an edge that started as nearly perfectly smooth and to which I applied a micro-bevel 30um wide with the 400# diamond plates:


The above image shows the smooth shoulder at the start of the micro-bevel where the diamonds started digging in and cutting little troughs out to the edge.


The above image is showing the middle of the bevel.

Next I lowered the angle three degrees and completed 40 strokes with the 14um diamond and leather strops. I was surprised by some parts of the results. The first image shows the transition at the shoulder between the formerly smooth section and the micro-bevel:


The 14um strops clearly created their own very distinct scratch pattern and wiped out the smooth section. The also had an impressive affect on the scratches from the 400# diamond plates:


It's exciting to see the combination of burnishing and abrading going on with the strops.

As a footnote, these are the same 14/10 strops I've had for a long time and the paste hasn't been refreshed in months. I did apply some rubbing alcohol to increase the 'stiction'.

In the first image of the post above we see the clear junction of the 400# micro-bevel where it cuts into a very polished primary bevel. In the third image I've lowered the angle by three degrees and completed 40 strokes with the 14um diamond and leather strops. The effect is dramatic and illustrates why it's so easy to create a convex edge with a couple of facets and the strops. The strops easily smooth over any peaks. In the next little study I'll try to image the vertex of a pair of facets and then smooth it over with the strops.

Here is a nice view of two facets I created using the 1600# ceramic stones at 20° and at 25° so there is a 5° difference between the two facets:

I admit that I'm shocked by the image below. I changed the angle to 22° and completed 40 strokes with the 14um strops. There is almost no evidence of the junction between the facets - it's been almost entirely erased by the strops:



The only way I can even find where on the bevel to image is by the direction of the scratches. I'm now extremely thankful I used alternate directions with the 1600# stones when making the facets.