Quote Originally Posted by 86azms3 View Post
End grain boards. And don't muscle it. I have no issues stropping my knives to a .5 micron. Also about hardness and geometry. Find the limits of your knife. European knives can't take the geometries of high hardness Japanese knives
I like Paulownia boards for J/knives & I prefer a harder stone to finish razors than one that will give kasumi finish on knives . This is possibly why you have to use abrasive strops to finish.