I read somewhere recently (with respect to a norton waterstone,) that 4000 grit is approx. 2 micron, and 8000 is approx. 1 micron particle size. Now I realize that the movement against the blade is opposite between honing, and stropping on pastes, but is there any chance that moving to a 3-micron diamond paste after finishing with my 8000 grit hone is actually bringing my blade backwards in sharpness?
Pastes more harm than good?
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Why would you want to go from one grit to a lower grit? I don't hone (yet 
) but that just seems wrong in my head.
) but that just seems wrong in my head.I've never heard that 8k hone=1 micron abrasive. The Shapton 8k hone uses a 1.84 micron abrasive, and I believe the Norton 8k uses a roughly 3 micron abrasive (3.02 micron or something like that...), yet they're both classified by their manufacturers as 8k hones. FWIW the Shapton 16k hone is 0.92 micron and the Shapton 30k hone is 0.49 micron.
Secondly, it's very difficult to compare microns to grit rating at those levels (somehow both 3 micron and 1.8 micron particles are 8k grit???), and it's even more difficult to compare hone grit to paste grit since they're used so completely differently, and the substrate (leather/cloth/balsa/hardwood) affects the paste's performance, as does the degree of swarf loading.
Nonetheless, I wouldn't go from an 8k hone of any sort to a 3 micron paste as part of a honing progression. They're almost certainly too close in performance for this to be a useful progression whether it takes you backwards or forwards slightly. Just use one of the two steps, either the 8k hone or the 3 micron paste, depending on which one gives you better results. But really, if you honing skills are halfway decent you should be able to come off the 8k hone and go straight to the chrome oxide with only a dozen laps or so.
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The Norton 8k is considered to be around 3µm,
what makes it a non-8.000. At least not in JIS-Grit system.
Nonetheless the Norton 8k is considered to be fine enough for finishing.
A 3micron Paste will however probably not ruin your edge.
The worst thing that could happen is that it won´t improve it!
So you maybe give it a try. I have a 3µm Diamond paste that gives me a nice HHT,
so sheer micron sizes will not always tell you what edge you´re going to get.
Nonetheless I would not stop at 3µm.
You should go for some chromium oxide or at least graphite pencil or newspaper, for the finish prior to stropping.
Microns and pastes can be somewhat deciptive. You should try out for yourself
what makes it a non-8.000. At least not in JIS-Grit system.
Nonetheless the Norton 8k is considered to be fine enough for finishing.
A 3micron Paste will however probably not ruin your edge.
The worst thing that could happen is that it won´t improve it!
So you maybe give it a try. I have a 3µm Diamond paste that gives me a nice HHT,
so sheer micron sizes will not always tell you what edge you´re going to get.
Nonetheless I would not stop at 3µm.
You should go for some chromium oxide or at least graphite pencil or newspaper, for the finish prior to stropping.
Microns and pastes can be somewhat deciptive. You should try out for yourself
The 3 micron paste won't cause any damage to your edge if used properly. However, as you have surmised, the benefits are questionable.
Use 1 micron and then .5 micron pastes or go straight to .5 after the 8k if you don't have a ~12k hone.
Use 1 micron and then .5 micron pastes or go straight to .5 after the 8k if you don't have a ~12k hone.
You didn´t know? Yes of course you can. In the older days strops often times were pimped with black graphite to make them a little abrasive.
A pencil lead consits mainly of graphite wich is bonded in some type of clay,
wich I think is the reason for its very, very fine abrasiveness.
Graphite itself does rather lubricate than abrade, I think.
But the Clay, that would chemicaly be some type of Alumo-Silicate which makes it a ceramic should be hard enough to be able to abrade.
Clay is mainly the reason Thuringians like Eschers abrade so fine.
So apply some Pencil Lead to a newspaper or on a strop,
and you got yourself a nice, quick and fine (maybe 0.1-0.3µm) pasted strop for free.
I usually use either newspaper naked or with pencil lead AFTER any type of paste,
be it 0.5 Cr2O3 or 0.5 Diamond to soften the edge up a bit
directly before hitting leather.
10-20 strokes per side should be plenty
Sorry, but thoses numbers are not correct. If you're going to base your question on numbers, you owe it to yourself to have the correct ones.
The Dovo Black paste is graphite. I've had less luck using lead pencils, but the Dovo Black makes a really nice edge.
It's surprising what you can sharpen an edge with. The sharpest edges I've ever done have been honed on bare newspaper.
Yes, I did. Majorly for kitchen knife sharpening when nothing to sharpen on was available. I even tried stropping it with toothpaste.
Well both do not seem quite adequite for our purposes, both in feel and result
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stropping on cardboard sounds viable, on the same grounds that cutting paper products with your scissors dulls them way faster than say, fabric. Likely a similar abrasion going on.
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