I don't know what a Rough Rider is. But, if it isn't too high end, go ahead and practice on it. With manual stropping being slower, it is harder to do too much damage quickly.

Although, if your black compound is as coarse as my black compound, laying the blade side down on the strop will scratch the sides comparable to 400-600 grit sandpaper.

Vic posts pics all of the time where he convexes the edges of a flat grind blade that originally had a factory V grind edge (like all Busse and kin blades have from the factory).

I also will do the same. In most cases, I don't take the time to turn a blade with a primary grind and secondary edge grind into a "FULL" Convex grind like my Bark Rivers and Fallknivens. But, I will most often Convex grind the edge where I grind the shoulder down between the edge and primary grind. The end result is like on the pics Vic posts where the edge grind becomes convex with a higher grind and more acute grind that "through" cuts noticably better than a factory V grind.

I do most (pretty much all) of my reprofiling on my belt sander. The Sander is faster, but pretty much the same concept in creating convex edges and most anything I do on my belt sander can be done by hand, just doing it by hand takes a LOT longer.

Here is my HR's convexed edge:







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