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@nick_h.
Opinions please....can excessive stropping mess up the profile?
Long story. I chipped my Rockstead Sai Tanto https://www.rockstead.jp/collection/spec_list.html . Three small chips. It's 67 hardness and a convex grind but I tried to remove the chips just with stropping. The instructions say you should strop the knife 2 or 3 times every time you use it. I've stropped it more like 200 or 300 times, which has nearly removed the chips. But the sharpness isn't great. Stropping being an imprecise manual process, I'm wondering whether I might have messed up the profile? Maybe I've invalidated the warranty with 'improper sharpening'? The warranty says "Rockstead warrants the sharpness of the blade. If your knife doesn't cut well, please send it to our company. Rockstead warranty doesn't cover damage caused by abuse, misuse, loss, improper handling, alterations, accident, neglect, disassembly, or improper sharpening." Eek. Have I fucked up my £1600 knife?
I have a Wicked Edge kit, so I probably should have started with that so I could get the angle just right. But with the convex grind I'd probably get it wrong, according to this https://www.knivesandtools.co.uk/en/ct/how-to-convex-sharpening.htm Should I quit now and send it to Rockstead? If I don't invalidate the warranty I get free sharpening for the life of the knife. But I pay the postage to and from Japan, which is £50.
There's a puzzling myth about Rockstead knives. It says you never have to sharpen them. Ever. Just the 2 or 3 strops mentioned above. I suspect this is just a dodgy translation from Japanese.
I did the stropping in the approved Rockstead manner, with a polish-soaked piece of denim pinned to a board. https://www.rockstead.jp/maintenance/
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