- Joined
- May 13, 2019
- Messages
- 7,931
Have a look at the Idahone ceramic rods, they are 1200-1500 grit and straight, i can guarantee that.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Fine stone vs. strop
- Thread starter Papilio
- Start date
Will have a look. Thanks!Have a look at the Idahone ceramic rods, they are 1200-1500 grit and straight, i can guarantee that.
- Joined
- May 23, 2004
- Messages
- 1,175
Something worth trying if your current strops are not working as you expect they should.
Get a sheet or 2 of about 180 / 200 grit sandpaper. Wrap the sandpaper around a solid block of wood and sand the entire surface of the leather strop until it is flat and all the compound is removed.
Get a rolling pin or round heavy bar and roll over the leather for as long as you can endure, I do this watching the TV for 20-30 minutes. More is better. It compresses the leather and releases the silica in the leather. After doing this, rub in a small amount of leather conditioner into the strop ( not wax or oil based - pure lanolin is good and you can get this from shoe shops ) and let it sit for a day or two, then wipe down, or brush with a shoe brush. Your strop will perform dramatically better - night and day turnaround. You shouldn't need to add any compounds or sprays or anything, just strop on the conditioned leather with very light strokes.
Freehand sharpening and using a well treated strop will give you awesome long lasting edges, maybe not as pretty as some of the fancy guided systems at first, but with a bit of practice, you will get the edges you want.
Get a sheet or 2 of about 180 / 200 grit sandpaper. Wrap the sandpaper around a solid block of wood and sand the entire surface of the leather strop until it is flat and all the compound is removed.
Get a rolling pin or round heavy bar and roll over the leather for as long as you can endure, I do this watching the TV for 20-30 minutes. More is better. It compresses the leather and releases the silica in the leather. After doing this, rub in a small amount of leather conditioner into the strop ( not wax or oil based - pure lanolin is good and you can get this from shoe shops ) and let it sit for a day or two, then wipe down, or brush with a shoe brush. Your strop will perform dramatically better - night and day turnaround. You shouldn't need to add any compounds or sprays or anything, just strop on the conditioned leather with very light strokes.
Freehand sharpening and using a well treated strop will give you awesome long lasting edges, maybe not as pretty as some of the fancy guided systems at first, but with a bit of practice, you will get the edges you want.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 162
I have the same problem. I get the sharpest edges when stropping with 1 micron diamond spray on leather followed by bark River white compound on leather. Maybe diamond is quicker in rounding off the apex and the white compound just takes off the burr that is weakest and doesn’t affect the apex of hard high carbide steels as much. That’s my theory anyway.
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2021
- Messages
- 77
I thought that too, but I was able to go backwards in my stropping progression and improve the edge as long as I finished with Bark River White compound. If the apex had been rounded, I don't think just stropping would restore the apex. I'm using a BESS tester and paper cutting, hair whittling to evaluate the edge. I just finished sharpening a Para 3 and stropped with ONLY green and white Bark River compound. This is the sharpest I've managed with this knife so far, and it whittles hair or just splits it on contact.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 1999
- Messages
- 9,837
I don't strop my knives any more. Used to, with green (chromium oxide) compound and maybe it made a small bit of difference on high carbon steel blades, but powder steels with their high carbide content don't seem to respond to stropping. I find honing with a 220 grit (DIA SHARP Extra Coarse DMT) and finishing with a 600 grit (red DMT) produces a hair popping edge on those steels. Further honing with 1200 grit (green DMT) or stropping seems to take that 'bite' away.
Thanks you for this very detailed instruction.
Good to know. This was my initial question: To strop or not to strop
All my edges are a little cleaner off of a light stropping, but I don't always bother with it. I have never felt the need to use anything other than newspaper with knifes but I'm reducing the burr throughout the sharpening process.
It is interesting to see different methods.....
It is interesting to see different methods.....
I keep a large strop in the kitchen. Each knife gets a few strops before being put back into the knife block. Works very well and most importantly keeps my wife happy as she hates blunt knives.
The fine stone I have is a Shapton 2k. I was planning on getting some finer ones but then came across some really good diamond pastes. I treated a few strops with 2k, 4k, 8k and 50k paste.
I now use those to bring edges back if they need more than a bare leather strop.
As mentioned before, how you prepare the leather before making a strop is most important. See Steve Kramer's valuable instructions here.
The fine stone I have is a Shapton 2k. I was planning on getting some finer ones but then came across some really good diamond pastes. I treated a few strops with 2k, 4k, 8k and 50k paste.
I now use those to bring edges back if they need more than a bare leather strop.
As mentioned before, how you prepare the leather before making a strop is most important. See Steve Kramer's valuable instructions here.
Agree. Not much effort to get a good working edge.
Thanks for the link. That was quick and dirty.
50k? Wow. That is fine.
The Honey Badger gives very detailed instruction. Thanks for the link. Very interesting how important the correct preparation is. That you can even make a good strop with cheap and well prepared leather and don't have to spend a fortune.
I've only been using a strop for about a year and only with high carbon Japanese kitchen knives, but it does seem to offer benefits. At first the results were disappointing but that was because my technique was wrong. I was holding the wrong angle and dulled some edges. But with more practice and experimentation I now find just a few, 3-4, passes after the stones and the edge feels much sharper. I find balsa with 1 micron diamond paste or plain leather to be adequate in my experience. However, a good finishing on my 5k stone and then a quick draw through a block of hard felt produces a fine edge that stropping doesn't seem to improve, at least not improvement that lasts. YMMV.
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2005
- Messages
- 204
On the subject of "feel", this may sound counterintuitive but I find a burr usually makes a knife feel sharper on the finger than a clean edge.
On the first look it seems counterintuitive. But when you think about it a little more.
But the knife didn't cut well. Without stropping it was sharper, sliced tomatoes etc. much better. I did sth. wrong.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,432
^That's why I keep any stropping very minimal anymore and almost always with no compound at all. Even with relatively mild-acting compound, like green, it doesn't take many passes to take a lot of those micro-teeth out of the edge and it alters the biting character of the edge very quickly.
- Joined
- May 13, 2019
- Messages
- 7,931
Great advise.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,432
If anything at all, the color gives a vague indication as to where it fits in a buffing/polishing sequence. Most commercial brands of stick-type buffing compounds will usually be graded from the coarsest (most aggressive) in black, then a step finer in something like grey, then finer still in white (or yellow), then green, then perhaps red. The 'coarseness' or 'fineness' of any of these compounds is more about the rate of metal removal (very fast & aggressive in black) or the degree of polish attained in the finer grades. But for all practical purposes, no assumption can be made about the grit's actual size, based on color alone.
And color sometimes gives a general idea of which type of grit it primarily uses - like SiC in black, AlOx in grey, yellow, pink, blue or white, and chromium oxide in green. Red will usually be iron oxide, suitable for softer metals like brass, etc, but not so useful for hardened steel cutlery. But some compounds might also be blended for a unique combination of metal removal rate and polish. I think some 'green' compounds might fall into that category, perhaps blending some AlOx in for the sake of working speed, along with the green for polish. But the mfrs. of compounds like these will never provide much detail about what their 'mix' might be, either in terms of grit type or size.
Last edited:
Thank you for this detailed answer. I can only say it again: It is complicated.
A moment ago I browsed stropping compounds on knivesandtools. They have their own brand. The coarsest is gray, green i medium, red fine and black ultra fine. You are right: Color is no indicator.
A moment ago I browsed stropping compounds on knivesandtools. They have their own brand. The coarsest is gray, green i medium, red fine and black ultra fine. You are right: Color is no indicator.