Yup. I always deburr with the rough side of a Surgi Sharp leather belt. I do that because I’m trying to not degrade the toothy edge, so I stay away from abrasives when deburring.
I should qualify the 150 gf reading to some extent. That is for a quick, basic sharpening. By that I mean create a burr on one side, flip the knife and create a burr on the other side. Then deburr with a few strokes @ ~45° and some at close to 90°, etc... Doing that I see around 150 very often. Rather surprising methinks. Of course, it does vary from with different blades with different steels. Sometimes it’s very quick, but some types of steel create those annoying super malleable burrs that just bend and bend. I can understand the temptation to abrade those away, but I just mutter under my breath and soldier forth.
After you describing burr fall off like rain I tried a coarse DMT diamond plate. I was probably doing it wrong because is just messed up the edge. Maybe it was too coarse or I was pressing too hard.
If I really take my time I can get edges down to 115 or so. You know, stuff like more alternating strokes on each side, progressively lighter and light strokes to slowly reduce burr, being very careful about maintaining a consistent angle and more attention to deburring. I don’t bother with that often because 150 is about what I’m looking for. For some dubious reason I’m under the impression that much sharper than 150 probably won’t hold up as well. That’s just an impression I’ve formed after using sharper blades. I have not actually tested that so I could just be blowing smoke, but I blindly blunder forth under that impression. On the other end of the spectrum, I’m not satisfied above a160 gf reading.
I have no doubt that you are totally correct that I would see performance differences in edges and that I should cut more stuff and do retention testing. Very sound advice. Depending on how I feel at the moment I may sharpen from 80 – 150 grit and no doubt those edges would perform significantly differently depending on what is being cut. I just sharpened a cheap paring knife and the crappy steel just crumbled with a Cubitron II 120 grit belt. Then I tried Cubitron 150 grit with the same results. It finally took and edge with a slightly used 180 grit Deer ceramic belt. I didn’t bother to change the grinding angle, just went to a finer abrasive until it worked. But hey- I got the little $0.99 Salvation Army thrift store find knife sharp. I was happy.
All that said, I’m pretty happy with the toothy 150 edges that my quick sharpening method produces. They perform very well cutting a variety of materials, and seem to hold up well even with just average steel blades. I’d love to have some super steel blades to play with. I’d like to compare sharpening methods, varying levels of tooth and deburring techniques but I keep being put off by the cost of those blades. Super hard fine steel is always pricey.
What!? Expand my horizons? My God man! What are you suggesting?
Learn something new? 
You are indeed a wild man Mr. Mark. 
I should qualify the 150 gf reading to some extent. That is for a quick, basic sharpening. By that I mean create a burr on one side, flip the knife and create a burr on the other side. Then deburr with a few strokes @ ~45° and some at close to 90°, etc... Doing that I see around 150 very often. Rather surprising methinks. Of course, it does vary from with different blades with different steels. Sometimes it’s very quick, but some types of steel create those annoying super malleable burrs that just bend and bend. I can understand the temptation to abrade those away, but I just mutter under my breath and soldier forth.
After you describing burr fall off like rain I tried a coarse DMT diamond plate. I was probably doing it wrong because is just messed up the edge. Maybe it was too coarse or I was pressing too hard.
If I really take my time I can get edges down to 115 or so. You know, stuff like more alternating strokes on each side, progressively lighter and light strokes to slowly reduce burr, being very careful about maintaining a consistent angle and more attention to deburring. I don’t bother with that often because 150 is about what I’m looking for. For some dubious reason I’m under the impression that much sharper than 150 probably won’t hold up as well. That’s just an impression I’ve formed after using sharper blades. I have not actually tested that so I could just be blowing smoke, but I blindly blunder forth under that impression. On the other end of the spectrum, I’m not satisfied above a160 gf reading.
I have no doubt that you are totally correct that I would see performance differences in edges and that I should cut more stuff and do retention testing. Very sound advice. Depending on how I feel at the moment I may sharpen from 80 – 150 grit and no doubt those edges would perform significantly differently depending on what is being cut. I just sharpened a cheap paring knife and the crappy steel just crumbled with a Cubitron II 120 grit belt. Then I tried Cubitron 150 grit with the same results. It finally took and edge with a slightly used 180 grit Deer ceramic belt. I didn’t bother to change the grinding angle, just went to a finer abrasive until it worked. But hey- I got the little $0.99 Salvation Army thrift store find knife sharp. I was happy.
All that said, I’m pretty happy with the toothy 150 edges that my quick sharpening method produces. They perform very well cutting a variety of materials, and seem to hold up well even with just average steel blades. I’d love to have some super steel blades to play with. I’d like to compare sharpening methods, varying levels of tooth and deburring techniques but I keep being put off by the cost of those blades. Super hard fine steel is always pricey.
What!? Expand my horizons? My God man! What are you suggesting?
Learn something new? You are indeed a wild man Mr. Mark.