Behold The Strop ;)

E

Edged_Obsession

Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
150
Just saying to everyone that hasn't tried a leather strop to put the final touch on their sharpening job, should definitely look into it, seriously! I got one from Bark River n the thing's a peach. ;)
 
I looked at the B R ones and then saved some $ and made one from a old belt I had. Seems to work good so far! one of these days I'll buy a "real" strop and see if there is any difference.
 
They say belts, cardboard from legal mads, mousemads, all kinds of things work. So I'm sure your belt is fine man! Enjoy that. = ]
 
Compressed leather like Hand American will provide better results. $15 can make 2 or 3 strops depending on how you slice it. I get mine at WoodCraft, but I believe HA has other distributors as well, may even be direct.
 
No doubt, I've been stropping my blade tools for 20 years. I do a bit of leather work and I charge the strap with jewelers rouge, one pass and you can see the color change due to metal removal. I only have to re-edge the blades occasionally, it's much easier to manage them with the strop than sharpen all the time.
 
I've tried the legal pad trick, and leather, and I tend to take a blade from hair popping sharp, fresh off of the sharpmaker, to hair scraping sharp, after stropping... (a downgrade, to be sure)... I just end up injuring the edge, no matter how careful I am, it seems. Thank goodness for the ultra-fine rods.
 
ohmyheckinslc said:
I've tried the legal pad trick, and leather, and I tend to take a blade from hair popping sharp, fresh off of the sharpmaker, to hair scraping sharp, after stropping... (a downgrade, to be sure)... I just end up injuring the edge, no matter how careful I am, it seems. Thank goodness for the ultra-fine rods.
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You must be rollong the blade ever so little, I get sharper with the strop, and love the near mirror finish
 
Until recently I didn't bother with a strop. Lately I've been using an 8" strip of leather with some automotive rubbing compound on it. I'm a believer now. My knives have never been sharper.
 
I tried all the cheap tricks as well - a nice compressed leather strop with compound definitely works best.
 
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