Howdy,
Recently, I have gotten back into some leatherwork after many years.
Among other tools, I have several "round knives" (the half moon shaped knives that you may have seen.)
In any case, I had always sharpened them using Japanese water stones ending with an 8000 grit gold polishing stone.
The edge I could produce was always very good, but...
A few days ago, I got some .3 Micron lapping film, and worked the wet edge of my largest round knife with it for perhaps 30 strokes.
Then, I made a cut in some 10 ounce oak tanned leather.
The tool glided through the leather with far greater ease than I had ever experienced. It was like using a different tool.
I was truly astounded.
Next, I polished the knife using a strop on which I had some aluminum oxide abrasive compound, and saw a similar result. The knife was far sharper than I could achieve using the
8000 stone.And so these questions:
What might be going on here? Is the grit on the 8000 stone really so much more coarse that I can feel the difference in the resulting edge so easily? Or is there something else happening with the few strokes of the strop or .3 Micron film?
And finally, would there be ways that I could get these knives sharper still?
Thanks for any thoughts,