Do You Need Compound

Stark Knives

Stark Knives

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Mar 19, 2010
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I was thinking about making a strop and I have a few questions.

Do you even need compound when you strop?
I don't have any leather shop in my area, where can I find leather?

Thanks for the help,

Erdbeereis

P.S. I know you can order leather online but it's often very expensive.
 
You don't need compound if it is horse hide leather but with more common veg tanned cow hide its needed. Also if you get compound don't make it to fine or the jump between stone and strop will be to great and you will not have good results.

Newspaper is a good alternative.
 
Erdbeereis said:
Thanks!
Where should I get leather?
I don't have any shops around where I live.

Erdbeereis
Click to expand...

www.chefknivestogo.com

has Hand american leather. It's among the best.

And I must respectfully disagree about the compounds. You will want several strops. the last, used for finishing cane bare. But the others, lopaded with fine and untra fine compounds will give you a truly wicked edge!
 
No disagreement, we said pretty much the same thing.
 
Google scrap lace leather. I bought an 18" by 10" piece a while back and although one side of it was a bit wrinkled it gave me nine perfect 10" by 1" strips and three that were usable. Got three 4-sided strops out of it.
 
I don't want to have to ask this, but does anyone have a scrap of leather for me to use for a strop?
I would order some online, but it is so expensive once you add shipping.

Erdbeereis
 
Sorry for the double post.
If I ever get leather what compound would I need after a DMT EF stone?
Is having one compound enough?

Erdbeereis
 
try a slotted wheel, its faster and works great for getting that wire edge/burr off your edge!
 
I would get the paper wheels, but would like to free-hand sharpen for a little more time.
Does anyone have some leather they could send me?

Erdbeereis
 
Regarding finding some leather:

Hobby & craft stores usually carry leather for craftwork. If you have a Hobby Lobby near you (online store search in Nebraska shows me 8 locations), they sell scrap leather in bulk, like a 1/2 lb. or so, for about $5. They also carry 'tooling leather' (veg-tanned cowhide) in rectangular pieces (such as 8" x 11", 1/16" thick). It's a bit pricier, because it's a little more refined than the scraps, but it would also do well. For use with compound, either of these will do fine.

As for which compound to use after your EF DMT, the DMT diamond pastes are a good complement to that. The EF DMT hone is 9 micron, so a transition to 6 or 3 micron paste on a strop would make sense. Might finish off with the 1 micron paste, after that. Some also like to use the green compound, but it won't be as effective as the diamond. It's considerably smaller in grit size (typically 0.5 micron on 'average'), so that'd be a big jump down in grit size, after the EF DMT.
 
It doesn't matter what leather you get. Just get some Flitz, or some other metal polish. Use that as your compound. Using a dry sponge apply the polish evenly to a magazine and use the magazine as a strop.

Place the magazine onto a edge of a table and strop away. I like to use the pages 1/4 of the way into the magazine.

I use newspaper wrapped around and taped down on a flat stick of MDF and coat it with green compound.

Also get yourself a 15usd ultra fine ceramic rod from spyderco. Just one rod is good.
 
Does anyone have any extra compound they don't use to give me?
If you don't it's okay too. I just want to make sure before I have to spend a lot on compound.

Erdbeereis
 
Metal polish is VERY cheap. You can get a stick of green compound from most wood working stores for less than 10 bucks, maybe 20. And it will last you your whole life. Flitz metal polish is less than 10 bucks.
 
As mentioned, metal polish like Flitz or Simichrome works pretty darn well (I still use Simichrome occasionally). You might spend $5 or so for a tube, and it'll last almost forever. With stropping compound, it's all very inexpensive over the longer term. Even the DMT 'syringes', at about $12 apiece, should last a VERY long time (years for a light user/hobbyist), because the amount used is so very small. Using more of it doesn't improve performance at all. In essence, a 'proper' layer of compound on a strop would be like a layer of dust, an even layer no more than 1 particle thick.

My recommendation of the DMT paste is based in knowing diamond can handle any steel you throw at it. Other abrasive types may or may not be as fast or effective, depending on the steel. If I were to buy or use only one of the DMT compounds, it'd probably be the 1 micron.

Edit:
BTW, I'm sure other reputable brands of diamond pastes/sprays are fine too (HandAmerican, for instance). I didn't recommend them specifically, only because I haven't tried those particular brands yet. :)
 
Last edited:
OWE,
I've not used the DMT Diapaste, (yet) but I regularly use 1, .5, .25 and .1 micron diamond and/or CBN paste from

www.chefknivestogo.com Click on suppliers, and then on Handamerican and Ken's corner.

These pastes and sprays have proven more than satisfactory. Indeed, they have surpassed my expectations by an order of magnitude!

For those not familiar with CBN, (cubic boron nitride) it's hardness is 9.9 on the mohs scale, where diamond is10.0. The difference in hardness is therefore inconsequential. :thumbup: (Unfortunately, so is the difference in cost:( )

Sprays are available in .050 micron and .025 micron as well. The finest sprays were designed primarily for straight razor sharpening, but they work equally well on knives. :)
 
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