Difference between honing, buffing and stropping...

[MattRadtke]

I always considered the top-level term to be sharpening.  Grinding, honing, polishing, buffing, stropping, all make things sharper, therefore, sharpening, is the inclusive term.

Grinding establishes or corrects an edge

Honing refines what was ground (1000 grit water stone)

Polishing refines what was honed (5000 grit plus)

Etc, etc, etc.

[Timberwolf]

I much prefer a hard wheel for power stropping.  I don't "buff" surfaces to get sharpness.  My power stropping setup is a laminated paper wheel on a classic low speed grinder (~2000 rpm), which presents a hard surface for both the compound (I use the Lee Valley green stuff) and to the edge.  I also avoid putting too much pressure on the wheel.  A light touch to a decently sharp surface and you have wicked sharp.  Literally only 3-5 seconds for me.  I make sure before I present the edge it's at the same angle as the bevel I want to strop.  Too low an angle and you aren't honing the edge and there is a tendency to push harder.  Too high and you're adding yet one more microbevel.

My observation over the years is the two most common mistakes sharpening are 1) too little time working the edge on stones prior to stropping (especially with the more exotic tool steels like A1 and D2), and 2) unknowingly increasing the bevel angle each time you sharpen.  Attention to detail solves both issues.

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unknowingly increasing the bevel angle each time you sharpen.

I agree with that...I do it also, because I sharpen freehand, and I think it's a natural tendency to raise the angle. I have to concentrate on NOT doing it.
The hardness or the type of steel is less important because I use diamond for the most part these days. The new diamond laps I bought for my WorkSharp are super and they also fit my Foley...I have from 600 to 3K..

[adamcherubini]

I think stropping is not a sharpening process but rather the act of using a strop. It’s like hammering or screwdrivering. As such, it’s an imprecise term. I’d say buffing, either by hand or with a machine has the same problem. I’m confused about “polishing”. I think polishing has to do with using a polish. So all these are pretty imprecise. I agree differentiating them from honing and grinding is important.

In the real old days, they used the term whetting to mean sharpening. It’s an old English word. Lots of woodworkers have confused wet stone, a stone used with liquid, they mistakenly call lubricant, with whetstone which just means sharpening stone.

The liquid we apply to whetstones is used to prevent the stone from clogging. It’s not the same as cutting fluid. I’m not sure what to call it.

So more questions than answers from me.

[rwe2156]

To me "sharpening" is generic term for a process of removing metal to put a cutting edge on.  It can involve grinding, honing and polishing.

Grinding or filing is crude removal of metal. 

Honing is the further refinement of the edge with finer and finer abrasives until the desired sharpness is obtained.

Stropping I look at like burnishing.  It involves microscopically pushing metal around in order to refine the edge even further than honing.

I think polishing is probably synonomous with extremely fine honing and stropping.

[Timberwolf]

To me "sharpening" is generic term for a process of removing metal to put a cutting edge on.  It can involve grinding, honing and polishing.

Grinding or filing is crude removal of metal. 

Honing is the further refinement of the edge with finer and finer abrasives until the desired sharpness is obtained.

Stropping I look at like burnishing.  It involves microscopically pushing metal around in order to refine the edge even further than honing.

I think polishing is probably synonomous with extremely fine honing and stropping.

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I think polishing is probably synonomous with extremely fine honing and stropping.

I think you are correct.
.Polishing takes it to a higher and smoother level...Like paving over a gravel road...

[adamcherubini]

To me "sharpening" is generic term for a process of removing metal to put a cutting edge on.  It can involve grinding, honing and polishing.

Grinding or filing is crude removal of metal. 

Honing is the further refinement of the edge with finer and finer abrasives until the desired sharpness is obtained.

Stropping I look at like burnishing.  It involves microscopically pushing metal around in order to refine the edge even further than honing.

I think polishing is probably synonomous with extremely fine honing and stropping.

I don't think I agree stropping is burnishing, but I may be making this more complicated than Timberwolf intended.  Here’s my crack at it:

Polishing removes scratches and produces a smooth surface typically by abrading metal with a soft applicator (be it a buffing wheel, abrasive charged leather, cardboard, or even a rag with brasso on it). Mechanically, polishing is just like honing EXCEPT, the softness of the tool used to polish does not control the shape of the metal.
 
Honing is cutting metal with a hard substance that produces a desired shape. You can hone with a variety of materials, but typically the material is hard in some way. Some water stones are so soft, they are called polishing stones. While they are effective at honing, they can be so soft that you can effectively polish a non flat surface. Conversely you can polish a flat surface out of flat by some amount. I feel some super fine sand papers have paper backings that can do the same thing. Sand paper with mylar backing behaves differently and I think this is why.
 
Stropping is strictly about removing the wire edge left by fine honing. This is different from using a “steel” on a kitchen knife, which is more akin to burnishing than stropping.  The strop fractures the microscopic metal at the edge of a tool. Many of us charge our strops with polishing compound so that confuses things. We are stropping and polishing at the same time.
 
Burnishing is defined as plastically deforming material (i.e. moving it around).  Some very fine slow cutting natural stones may burnish some and cut some.
 
I don't know if this is helpful or not.

[cputnam]

That all hurts what mind I have left. I simplify (for woodworking only) as follows. Sharpening is the creation and refinement of the bevel(s) up < 1000 grit. Honing is edge refinement and polishing up to whatever astronomical grit care to use. I view the strop as a variation of honing because it is charged with ½ micron paste and many folks use the strop to refresh an edge whilst working. Power stropping reinforces my view to me. Even without green crayon, the various strop materials all have some abrasiveness. Other than that the term "polishing" brings to mind military boots and Mom's silverware.

JMO & YMWV

[daddo]

Interesting..........