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Balsa wood strop?
- Thread starter THG
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
- 11,155
Yes, works very well too.
I'd imagine using a bar compound would be more difficult but as a basic rule don't cake it on, just a tinting of the surface is all that's needed. If you don't have liquid compound heating some of the bar with a bit of oil to make a paste/liquid might work well. You can probably crayon it on without a problem though.
I'd imagine using a bar compound would be more difficult but as a basic rule don't cake it on, just a tinting of the surface is all that's needed. If you don't have liquid compound heating some of the bar with a bit of oil to make a paste/liquid might work well. You can probably crayon it on without a problem though.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2002
- Messages
- 9,948
Use the bar of rouge like a crayon, but don't press too hard or make the layer too thick - the abrasives are supposed to take foothold in the balsa and scrape new levels of sharpness into your blade.
Balsa strops aren't magic, but they're awesome all the same.
Balsa strops aren't magic, but they're awesome all the same.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 156
I use balsa quite a bit. The main benefit of it is that it is easy to sand and keep flat. Pressing a waxy compound bar into the strop could possibly kill the flatness of the wood. On the other hand, when using wet compounds, you run the risk of curling the wood if you aren't careful. Basically... just be careful. Less is more.
Why not just use MDF and not have to bother with sanding or keeping flat?
Stitchawl
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 156
Good point. MDF is a great choice too. It won't curl or deform as easily either.
My personal preference is still to use balsa... on a guided system like the EP. I like the softness of it and it's ablility to hold compound a tad bit better. I sand it coarse, which allows more holding ability along with a cat tongue type of feel.
It's not as good as leather, but I still like it.
Hmmmm... I guess with rough-sanded balsa you can really apply a really solid layer of compound.
Stitchawl
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2009
- Messages
- 1,342
I don't get great results with MDF. Too 'hard' for a strop, IMO. It's so hard that it's just like using a a benchstone, and benchstones/whetstones are not really supposed to be used with edge-trailing strokes exclusively. I prefer strops with some 'give'... even balsa has some good cushion to it. I do really well with kitchen knives on balsa. More so than with folders, utility knives, etc.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2010
- Messages
- 77
I'm glad to see people using balsa as a stropping substrate.
Back in '98 I joined a group called the 'Old Tools List' - a bunch of 'Galoots' with a love of old wood working hand tools. Back then I tried to convince the guys that a 2x4 with one dead flat surface painted with green paint was a great honing surface for plane irons & chisels.
I don't think anybody bought the concept back then but it was a common practice among early 20th century carpenters that I learned from my father.
(I was a wood head before I became a leather head, still a wood head though.)
Of course chromium oxide is the pigment for making green paint and most 2x4's are made of soft wood and handy.
About six months ago I mentioned offering balsa pads to go with our bench hones to Mark at CKTG and he put them up as a kind of 'why not?' type of thing.
Now we can''t keep up with the demand. But the good news is that for people who are handy the material is available in any number of places so it's an easy item to fabricate on your own.
Another thing which is kind of cool that I tried to get people to try years ago is to apply sharpening stones to blades as opposed to blade to stone.
You have much more control angle wise and you can see the blade edge changing form as you work.
Heres a video of Shosui Takeda employing the technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8U3AHvLa4
I don't know if that will hot link by itself, you may have to cut & paste.
To me it was always common sense that in order to sharpen or hone a long knife or sword a wide, large diameter wheel would be used or stones would be run along a secured blade ala Takeda.
Basically the concept behind the Wicked Edge machine which I think is an excellent device.
If you don't yet have a WE but have a stone, a knife, and a piece of wood like Takeda is using you're good to go. You can wrap abrasive papers around a paint stick and have at it as well, and a smooth steel used the same way will bring a rolled edge back nicely.
So I wasn't nuts after all, or at least people haven't uncovered the appropriate evidence to prove it.
But I am in this business, prolly enough proof right there.
Keith
Back in '98 I joined a group called the 'Old Tools List' - a bunch of 'Galoots' with a love of old wood working hand tools. Back then I tried to convince the guys that a 2x4 with one dead flat surface painted with green paint was a great honing surface for plane irons & chisels.
I don't think anybody bought the concept back then but it was a common practice among early 20th century carpenters that I learned from my father.
(I was a wood head before I became a leather head, still a wood head though.)
Of course chromium oxide is the pigment for making green paint and most 2x4's are made of soft wood and handy.
About six months ago I mentioned offering balsa pads to go with our bench hones to Mark at CKTG and he put them up as a kind of 'why not?' type of thing.
Now we can''t keep up with the demand. But the good news is that for people who are handy the material is available in any number of places so it's an easy item to fabricate on your own.
Another thing which is kind of cool that I tried to get people to try years ago is to apply sharpening stones to blades as opposed to blade to stone.
You have much more control angle wise and you can see the blade edge changing form as you work.
Heres a video of Shosui Takeda employing the technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8U3AHvLa4
I don't know if that will hot link by itself, you may have to cut & paste.
To me it was always common sense that in order to sharpen or hone a long knife or sword a wide, large diameter wheel would be used or stones would be run along a secured blade ala Takeda.
Basically the concept behind the Wicked Edge machine which I think is an excellent device.
If you don't yet have a WE but have a stone, a knife, and a piece of wood like Takeda is using you're good to go. You can wrap abrasive papers around a paint stick and have at it as well, and a smooth steel used the same way will bring a rolled edge back nicely.
So I wasn't nuts after all, or at least people haven't uncovered the appropriate evidence to prove it.
But I am in this business, prolly enough proof right there.
Keith
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2002
- Messages
- 9,948
Don't sell yourself short, Keith. You've been encouraging mad scientists, knife-wielding maniacs, woodworkers, and other fans of sharpness for several years. If you're not hearing the voices yet, it's only because they've been deburred on grooved borosillicate.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2010
- Messages
- 77
Hey Thom,
Thanks for embedding that video - he looks happy as all hell working that blade.
The thing I like the most about stone to blade is you can see the effect. I have the same problem a lot of others have when trying to maintain a perfect angle the other way.
One thing that I've found helpful is to keep a print out of a protractor handy as a sight guide especially when working with angles 10 degrees and under.
Keith
Thanks for embedding that video - he looks happy as all hell working that blade.
The thing I like the most about stone to blade is you can see the effect. I have the same problem a lot of others have when trying to maintain a perfect angle the other way.
One thing that I've found helpful is to keep a print out of a protractor handy as a sight guide especially when working with angles 10 degrees and under.
Keith
I think that's it really beauty of MDF! It give a perfectly flat bevel.
Quite a few very good sharpeners use an edge trailing stroke with stones. I find that brings up a burr very quickly.
For convex edges, I do too. But not for flat bevels.
Hmmmm.... I don't bring my kitchen knives beyond about 600 grit (except for my sushi knife) so I've never tried stropping them.
Stitchawl
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,393
This caught my eye. In the last couple of weeks, my Dad showed me an old Stanley 'Bed Rock' plane (ca. ~1910 - 1925) that he inherited from his grandfather who, apparently, was a carpenter by trade.
I'd taken the blade out of the plane to re-sharpen it. I think the original length of the blade was about 7" (if equivalent to a modern replacement today). This one was just under 6" long, sharpened down to within about 1/2" of the slot in the middle of the blade. So, it's clear to me, this was a very well-used tool. My Dad's actually never used it. All the wear was apparently left long, long ago by my great-granddad, who passed away in 1961 (the year I was born), and in his 90s at the time.
I'm going to have to give it go, to try out the green compound on a flat piece of wood. Seems like the proper thing to do, based upon your account of how these were maintained originally. Just seems RIGHT.
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