Fungus strop?

Interesting. I could see it might polish a little, but how is it abrasive enough to do real sharpening?

DancesWithKnives
 
a strop isnt abrasive. When you sharpen a knife your both pulling and cutting the steel to create a "burr" on the edge. the burr easily rolls from one side to the other. Which is why a loose sheath creates a dull knife. A strop's job is to straighten that edge and re-center it. Ofcourse this is all mostly microscopic or depending on the grind, hard to see w/o an aid. hope this helps.
 
A strop isn't abrasive? What are the compounds we use on strops...they're abrasives...even the leather itself is mildly abrasive. I think the objective is to remove the burr and refine the edge via polishing not push it back and forth. Sharpening "steels" are used to straighten rolled burrs, but that's an expedient and not as effective as removing the burr with a fine abrasive. Some "steels" are designed with a surface texture to remove the burr. The primary difference between sharpening and stropping or honing is really the difference in the abrasive grit size and perhaps the hardness of the substrate, ie, if you use a soft pad under your strop material. However, plenty of folks use a hard pad, wood or even glass under their strops. In the end, it's all about abrasives.
 
I use no compounds on my strops. didnt even know there was compounds for them to tell the truth. I always use arkansas whet stones to take it to xxfine then use a bit of arclite for xxxfine then strop on a piece of leather belt screwed to a block of oak wood. Guess this would prove sharp is reletive...
 
Stropping compounds are a relatively new concept. People have gotten excellent results stropping without compounds for decades.
 
Stickman said:
A strop isn't abrasive? What are the compounds we use on strops...they're abrasives...even the leather itself is mildly abrasive. I think the objective is to remove the burr and refine the edge via polishing not push it back and forth.
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Agree with that.

Stropping also hepls removing wire edge or burr: the soft stropping material means the burr is jerked back and forth until it detachs and the remaining edge is polished away by fine abrasives.
 
Never used anything on the strop myself, don't think the old time barbers did either
 
I've used leather strops both with and without polishing/abrasive compound on them. I employ bare leather for a final touch-up of an already sharp knife.

The fungus seems like it would not be as stiff and abrasive as even bare leather. Using fungus strikes me as more like using a computer mousepad without abrasive paper on top of the pad. I was wondering how something relatively soft could do anything more than just finish polishing. If you had some very fine, powdery dust to put on the fungus, that might help it out. It would be interesting to give both ways a try.

DancesWithKnives
 
I would be willing to bet that some of the minerals in the fungus start to granulate after it is cut open.
 
DWK2 said:
The fungus seems like it would not be as stiff and abrasive as even bare leather. Using fungus strikes me as more like using a computer mousepad without abrasive paper on top of the pad. I was wondering how something relatively soft could do anything more than just finish polishing.
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Those fungus that grow on trees are actually a lot wood like, they are actually pretty stiff.
Remember cardboard wheels are a pretty well know stropping medium so I'm not that surprised.
 
Perhaps---but I'd sure like to try it and see first hand how it performs.

DancesWithKnives
 
Every several years, I get a burr ("tinned edge") when sharpening, including my razors. Otherwise not.

I was taught, and believe, that a burr is a sign that too much metal was removed; yet I read that some deliberately try for a burr. Different strokes for different folks - I guess - if I have too.
 
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