A word on stropping

T

TLoFP

Joined
Oct 22, 2011
Messages
110
This post is meant to benefit those of us who are new to the knife hobby:

Buy a strop!!!

Wow. What can I say. I have been sharpening on water-stones for almost a year now. I already came to the conclusion that I just can not sharpen well (never got them hair popping sharp). Boy, was I wrong! I just didn't have a strop. Literally less then a minute on the strop and my knives where hair popping sharp. A couple of strokes across the strop even made my new spyderco even more wicket sharp then it already was from factory.

Also a shout out to Flexxx strops: I bought a small strop and it came with 3000 and 6000 grid compound. Perfect for a noob like me. I just can't iterate enough how sharp the knives are now, and how easy the strop is to use!

Go buy one if you don't have one already!

Also thanks to those of you that helped me decided on my new Spyderco Military (its awesome :D).

If anyone is interested I can post my thoughts on the spyderco military, especially how I believe it compares to the AlMar SERE 2000, but that's not what this post is about.
 
Yep. That's what I always say - a strop really brings your sharpened edge to the next level.

A word of advice - if your knives aren't sharp after you sharpen them, but then you strop them and they are sharp, you are getting a wire edge. The strop is removing the wire edge. A little longer period of sharpening on the finer grit stones will usually remove this, but some steels hang onto a wire edge really stubbornly. It just flops back and forth and never comes off. The strop is great for taking it off.
 
Bought a sharp maker, bought a set of strops, proceeded to shave off every hair on my left arm. Now I look silly but I have a big smile on my face.
 
AntDog said:
Yep. That's what I always say - a strop really brings your sharpened edge to the next level.

A word of advice - if your knives aren't sharp after you sharpen them, but then you strop them and they are sharp, you are getting a wire edge. The strop is removing the wire edge. A little longer period of sharpening on the finer grit stones will usually remove this, but some steels hang onto a wire edge really stubbornly. It just flops back and forth and never comes off. The strop is great for taking it off.
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Thanks AntDog. I think previously I would stay on the stone too long and eventually wouldn't be able to keep the angle right anymore. Now I just give it a couple of passes on the coarse stone, move to a finer grid stone and then straight to the strop. Sharpening is now a five minute procedure. I think due to the shorter period I am spending on the stone it is more likely that I am keeping the angle correct.

Either way... I am shaving hair :D. I am sure it will get even better with practice.
 
I really find the use of a strop to remove a burr fascinating. I've never found it to do a good job of that. I always deburr on a medium grit water stone or the medium Sharpmaker triangles at a greatly elevated angle, like 40 degrees per side. The exception is power stropping. That's different, and works well with Surgisharp leather belts on a 1x30 sander with some compound.
 
me2 said:
I really find the use of a strop to remove a burr fascinating. I've never found it to do a good job of that. I always deburr on a medium grit water stone or the medium Sharpmaker triangles at a greatly elevated angle, like 40 degrees per side. The exception is power stropping. That's different, and works well with Surgisharp leather belts on a 1x30 sander with some compound.
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I always used to de-burr with a strop. At first loaded with green compound and later with Flitz. Both worked well to remove a burr.
Then I read about removing a burr with a steep angle and very light pressure. That's what I've been doing lately.
I don't know if one method is better than the other but not stropping saves time.
 
I definitely found using a stone was better. I would have a burr left after sharpening that would flop around on the stones, but when I tried to remove it on a leather strop loaded with compound, it would stay on one side and not move, and scrape the strop surface. I suppose if I'd stayed with it long enough, it would come off, but the stones take 3-4 passes per side and it's gone. I then remove that very obtuse bevel with alternating passes, very lightly, to whatever finish I want.
 
TLoFP said:
Thanks AntDog. I think previously I would stay on the stone too long and eventually wouldn't be able to keep the angle right anymore. Now I just give it a couple of passes on the coarse stone, move to a finer grid stone and then straight to the strop. Sharpening is now a five minute procedure. I think due to the shorter period I am spending on the stone it is more likely that I am keeping the angle correct.

Either way... I am shaving hair :D. I am sure it will get even better with practice.
Click to expand...

Yep, a proper sharpening doesn't take me all that long either. And that's going from dull as a brick to razor sharp. If it takes me longer than 5 minutes, the steel must be too hard for the abrasives I'm using and I switch to diamonds. I ain't about sitting there grinding away for hours. Usually 5 - 10 minutes tops is all it takes me. Glad you got your technique down! Keep with it because you will definitely get better with practice.

Me2 - A strop will definitely work for removing a wire edge. I'm not talking about a huge burr you can actually see. I'm talking about a small, fine wire edge that hangs on flops around. I usually can't see it, but I can feel it when testing the edge (many ways to test that - a whole additional thread's worth). A strop will definitely remove that and bring your blade to scary sharpness. Just use some SiC compound. It doesn't take long. Maybe 1 -2 minutes max.
 
The burrs were not visible except under 20-40x magnification. Haven't tried since.
 
Give it a shot, but use some abrasive compound. I guarantee it works, and it doesn't take too long.
 
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