Originally Posted by
David Weaver
Frankly, brent beach doesn't know enough about stropping to really know what he's talking about - the first clue is that he associates stropping only with using compounds, and doesn't describe why people would strop to begin with (I'd imagine he's unfamiliar with natural stones). He also seems to be unaware that there are powders and compounds widely available down to .05 micron (that's not a misprint). I have no idea what beach would do if he were faced with an incannel gouge, or any gouge for that matter. he might find strops very useful if that were the case.
At any rate, i don't generally use those compounds because they're not necessary, and also for the reason you mention - I'd rather do the heavy work with a stone and preserve geometry and control it so that the next wire edge is raised easily when I sharpen again. When I strop, it is with clean bare leather.
Stropping itself is another thing that you will get a good grasp of only with experience, to improve an edge with it, and to figure out the things it works with well. It is my opinion that it offers little on the very hardest of steels, but on vintage steels, it provides quite a gain. The same is true with razors. The super ultra hard razors do respond a little bit to a strop, but not so well as one that is medium hard.
All of that said, what brent doesn't give much of a nod toward is how sharpening actually fits in a work flow, with various shapes of tools and in the context of actually doing work and letting results dictate technique. I can't imagine having to stop and use his process in the middle of a session preparing a large rough panel. His pointers are useful to show that some of the popular compounds do have large particles in them, but the suggestion that graded chrome ox is too slow is only worthwhile if you're actually trying to use it to cut steel at a significant rate - which isn't its use, either. (it's a lovely thing for razors, if the razor is brought to it sharp already).
At any rate, my suggestion would always be to look at what the folks doing what you're doing ...do. If you're preparing boards from rough, find out what joiners and cabinetmakers do/did to sharpen. If you're carving, find out what carvers do. If you're sharpening and stropping a razor, find old barbering texts. The answers will often be different when in the context of the work than they are outside of it by someone trying to parameterize everything.
Anyway, the reason you might like MDF on the WS is that it's a bit harder than leather, but as it loads it becomes slick and it doesn't threaten geometry. I've got a 6" leather wheel attached to the disc on one of those junky combination belt/disc sanders, and while it works, it's no quicker for me than stones and because of the power aspect, it has an appetite for disregarding the geometry you've carefully set up on an edge. Once geometry is right, you only hone out wear, except in extreme cases where you want something like an ultra thin low-angle paring chisel or something. Parsimony in wear and in removal of steel, and preservation of geometry, while doing great amounts of work becomes infinitely more satisfying than mass removal methods.