- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
- Messages
- 2,790
I just started stropping a little while ago, and I've been stropping with the entire knife almost flat (but not quite) to the strop-keeping it raised 10 degrees or so just so I don't get the belly of the blade worn and scratched. I don't need a full convex, I just like to keep the shoulders between the belly and primary grind and primary grind and secondary grind a lot less pronounced, plus stropping like this is honing/polishing/straightening the edge out. I had been doing it on leather with a heavy metal polishing compound, but I tried some cardboard tonight and it seems to work a LOT better. I don't think it conforms as well to the edge contour, but the coardboard seems to get the edge a lot nicer. I think my new edge maintenance is going to be more frequent touchups instead of less frequent major sharpenings.
Tonight I passed the edge over the 20 degree edge setting on my Sharpmaker with just the corners and flats of the fine (white) rods, then I stropped on the cardboard. It worked great!! You can see where the edge shoulder is becoming less defined so it won't wedge up. By the time I was done with the loaded compound and put a few passes down on dry coardboard, my knife could easily slice a very old, very ragged and soft receipt. I can shave with it if the edge touches my skin, but I can't shave from middle or top of the hair. Any tips on finer stropping?
Tonight I passed the edge over the 20 degree edge setting on my Sharpmaker with just the corners and flats of the fine (white) rods, then I stropped on the cardboard. It worked great!! You can see where the edge shoulder is becoming less defined so it won't wedge up. By the time I was done with the loaded compound and put a few passes down on dry coardboard, my knife could easily slice a very old, very ragged and soft receipt. I can shave with it if the edge touches my skin, but I can't shave from middle or top of the hair. Any tips on finer stropping?
