ceramic vs leather honing strop

[tatonka]

In the final honing of an edge, if you use a white ceramic stone, do you still need to use a strop and compound to finish the process, or is this redundant?

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

You need a leather strop for everything lol, my ol' dad had a different use for the strop ha ha Talking

[dutchmanmk3]

Not redundant. While some marketing would suggest that, the strop may be your single most valuable tool. I only resort to stones to change the angle or repair damage to the edge. Until they come up with something better my strop is my very bestest friend ! It's going to take a bit of convincing to get me over that. JMHO

[Kenny_S]

Leather strop for final edge.

Hi Ho, See how you turned out. Well, Maybe not!Talking

[Clifford_Parker]

There is a difference. If you are going to sharpen your own tools you need several tools, a whet stone (I use a medium grit aluminum oxide stone) for establishing the bevel, a hone (I use hard arkansas but ceramic or japanese water stones also work well) for refining the edge created by the whetting process, and a strop for polishing the edge and removing any traces of the wire edge created by the first two processes.

[Shimmy]

I know Wayne Barton (Chip Carver)At his seminars uses the white ceramic stone only ,no strop.It gives a high polish.

[Lightningbolt]

I agree with the leather strop final polishing crowd. What convinced me was looking at some microscopic images of a blade after using each phase of the various stages of sharpening stones. There's just so much that the naked (even the enhanced naked) eye can't see. Man, what a wirey mess those stones (even the fine ones) will leave on the steel.

I swear by the strop even after using my 900 grit extra, extra super-dooper fine grit stone.