First time using a strop, questions please :)

[vaguy]

I just bought a 12" leather/wood stropping block and some green micro fine honing compound, and I wanted to know how to apply the compound to the leather and what it should look like when applied?

I used a strop for the first time ever yesterday and it was in a 50 degree garage, the honing compound was quite hard and didn't really want to transfer to the leather, it just marked it up as you can see in the picture. Would it help to warm it?

I must say I was quite happy with my first attempt though, in that I actually made the knife sharper and not duller! Actually started to get a mirror finish on the edge of my recently sharpened BK2.

What about cleaning off the old compound and/or metal residue from the strop periodically, do you need to do that?

Thanks! - vaguy

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

That application will work. I used the exact same compound on one or two of my strops, and just 'crayoned' the compound onto the leather. I used sort of a diagonal cross-hatch pattern in applying it. You can spread out and more evenly distribute the compound a bit, if you want to, by moistening a paper towel with some WD-40, and rubbing the surface of the strop with it. To some degree, this will also work with a dry paper towel. Either way, you will notice a lot of the compound coming off the leather and coloring the paper towel. That's OK; the compound only need be heavy enough to lightly tint the leather, while still looking like leather.

In the pic below, you'll see one of my similar strops that I've essentially treated as described above. After a couple or three of the wipedowns with WD-40 on the paper towel, it took on the appearance seen in the picture:

By the way, the WD-40 wipedown is also what I've used for cleaning it, when it gets a little black/dirty. Again, this can also be done periodically with just a dry paper towel.


David