Finally...success with stropping..

[glocke12]

Good grief..I was starting to think I might be mildly retarded because I could not get the hang of stropping a knife.

Its been about 2 years since I got into the expensive knife game..First one was Bark Rive bravo 1 (S35VN). The knife needed sharpening after a couple of camping trips and I think I also had rolled the edge while battoning with it, and I was unable to bring it back with the DLT stropping kit I bought so sent it back to BR 4 or 5 months after buying it.

Got it back, used it more...needed sharpening again and all my attempts to bring back the knife to the shaving sharp condition it was in when I got it back from BR failed using the stropping block. My work schedule really prevented me from getting back to this until recently and I became intent on getting the hang of this down.

After a couple of weeks of working at it, and watching tons of you tube videos I think I got it..this knife is now sharp enough to cut through newsprint effortlessly and will shave hairs.

The only thing I found is that I need to go to a higher angle than what most say...I think most of what i watched/read said to hold the blade at a 13 dg angle...I am probably closer to 20. Lower than that and the knife seems to get duller and I don't get the right kind of sound while stropping.

 

[Bobby3326]

Good grief..I was starting to think I might be mildly retarded because I could not get the hang of stropping a knife.

Its been about 2 years since I got into the expensive knife game..First one was Bark Rive bravo 1 (S35VN). The knife needed sharpening after a couple of camping trips and I think I also had rolled the edge while battoning with it, and I was unable to bring it back with the DLT stropping kit I bought so sent it back to BR 4 or 5 months after buying it.

Got it back, used it more...needed sharpening again and all my attempts to bring back the knife to the shaving sharp condition it was in when I got it back from BR failed using the stropping block. My work schedule really prevented me from getting back to this until recently and I became intent on getting the hang of this down.

After a couple of weeks of working at it, and watching tons of you tube videos I think I got it..this knife is now sharp enough to cut through newsprint effortlessly and will shave hairs.

The only thing I found is that I need to go to a higher angle than what most say...I think most of what i watched/read said to hold the blade at a 13 dg angle...I am probably closer to 20. Lower than that and the knife seems to get duller and I don't get the right kind of sound while stropping.

Typically stropping will only maintain an edge, an extremely dull or damaged edge won't benefit from any amount of stropping. The angle you strop at should correlate with the degree your edge is set at.

 

[glocke12]

Typically stropping will only maintain an edge, an extremely dull or damaged edge won't benefit from any amount of stropping. The angle you strop at should correlate with the degree your edge is set at.

I started with 600 (maybe it was 800) grit sandpaper and worked my way up through black and green compound..

For me, the hardest part was finding the correct angle that worked for me..I have no idea what angle Bark River sharpens these at though I found website that suggested to strop these knives at 13 dg which seems rather shallow.

Along the same lines, I've used my Ken Onion worksharp pro set at 22.5 dg to sharpen some cheap knives. When I go to strop these eventually, thats the angle I will try to hold them at?

 

[Bobby3326]

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Along the same lines, I've used my Ken Onion worksharp pro set at 22.5 dg to sharpen some cheap knives. When I go to strop these eventually, thats the angle I will try to hold them at?

I tend to strop mine at a slightly elevated angle. So if your setting your edge at 22.5 dps then I'd raise to about 25° for stropping. I find that helps with removing any burr left over from sharpening.


Also since you have the ko work sharp you should look into getting the blade grinding attachment for it. It yields far better results, is much easier to use and more versatile. The regular version imo removes too much steel and you almost always end up with a high ground bevel. With the blade grinding attachment you can use as little or as high of pressure as you want for the task at hand. So you can cleanly match a low ground factory bevel instead of basically reprofiling it. It would also make sharpening and touching up your bravo 1 much easier.


Here's a picture for reference. The stamped bk2 sharpened on blade grinder, other is with stock set up as it comes...can see bevel difference

 

[Danketch]

glocke12, I have experienced having to go with a higher angle as well. You cant really set an angle to strop at with convex grind knives, its more about feel.

If it's just Bark River knives that you are doing this with, I have had a bit of micro-convex beveling on a few on mine, more noticeably the 3V blades. If you relieve the micro bevel, to a zero grind (I just used a coarse/fine DMT duofold on mine) , you can get back to a lower stropping angle. Also, i have found, using a hard backing surface (wood, stone) makes it a lot easier and sharper quicker, with less worry of rounding the edge.

 

[David Martin]

Yes, I've gone with a higher angle and it works better. I don't refine much in my stropping, it's mostly coarse stropping. DM