I am wanting to start a conversation about everyone's experience with burr removal. Here is my opinion:
There is a lot of misinformation about the burr. Chris/me2 noticed something about burr removal that I had also experienced: Drawing a burr you can feel through wood doesn't remove it, ie tear it off or smash it back into the edge, and stopping, abrasive or plain, doesn't grind off a burr you can feel either. So why are these things used and why do competent sharpeners use and instruct those methods to be used? I believe what they are talking about isn't a burr that can be seen or even felt, but the finishing steps of finally removing the last part of the hard to detect micro-burr. I have found drawing through wood or stropping to be effective then. The best way I have found to reduce the burr is to micro-bevel, and to strop, both pasted and plain. Ideally, you can use burr minimization to reduce or remove the burr on the stone, then draw it through wood and go back to the last stone used, or you can strop it. I think a better solution is to use a sharpening technique that doesn't use a purposeful burr formation in the first place. The problem with that is that not that many people seem to have success with trying it by themselves. I have been able to show one person via video chat how to use the Plateau method, and I think real time instruction is necessary for most people to get the technique down. One issue that often doesn't get addressed is the aligned burr or wire edge (what I call the micro-burr), as described by the late knife maker Wayne Goddard. Wootz/KnifeGrinders has a book he published that also addressed this, and describes a removal technique that I like (strop on diamond, strop on CrOx, then strop on plain leather). I think that either most people that have issues with high sharpness edge retention not lasting is because they have a aligned burr/wire edge/micro-burr. How much burrs effect edge retention overall is something I believe needs to be investigated due to the horrible sharpening results from CATRA during their testing by Alchemy1/Clint on YouTube. There is also an increased sharpness with a wire edge, and it would also warrant investigation.
There is a lot of misinformation about the burr. Chris/me2 noticed something about burr removal that I had also experienced: Drawing a burr you can feel through wood doesn't remove it, ie tear it off or smash it back into the edge, and stopping, abrasive or plain, doesn't grind off a burr you can feel either. So why are these things used and why do competent sharpeners use and instruct those methods to be used? I believe what they are talking about isn't a burr that can be seen or even felt, but the finishing steps of finally removing the last part of the hard to detect micro-burr. I have found drawing through wood or stropping to be effective then. The best way I have found to reduce the burr is to micro-bevel, and to strop, both pasted and plain. Ideally, you can use burr minimization to reduce or remove the burr on the stone, then draw it through wood and go back to the last stone used, or you can strop it. I think a better solution is to use a sharpening technique that doesn't use a purposeful burr formation in the first place. The problem with that is that not that many people seem to have success with trying it by themselves. I have been able to show one person via video chat how to use the Plateau method, and I think real time instruction is necessary for most people to get the technique down. One issue that often doesn't get addressed is the aligned burr or wire edge (what I call the micro-burr), as described by the late knife maker Wayne Goddard. Wootz/KnifeGrinders has a book he published that also addressed this, and describes a removal technique that I like (strop on diamond, strop on CrOx, then strop on plain leather). I think that either most people that have issues with high sharpness edge retention not lasting is because they have a aligned burr/wire edge/micro-burr. How much burrs effect edge retention overall is something I believe needs to be investigated due to the horrible sharpening results from CATRA during their testing by Alchemy1/Clint on YouTube. There is also an increased sharpness with a wire edge, and it would also warrant investigation.