I can't believe this actually worked.

CrimsonTideShooter

CrimsonTideShooter

Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
3,196
After reading about stropping here I decided to try it. I got an old leather belt, some dremel red polishing paste, and my knife and went to work.


I wasn't expecting results since I'm not using the right materials - but literally within minutes my leek was the sharpest it's ever been! I was actually able to wittle hairs, and cut paper towels. I know that my ghetto version of a strop is probably crap, but it actually worked!
 
Old (quality) leather belts work well.

I have several strops made from them.

One of my favorites is an 18 inch piece from an ancient well used police gun belt glued to a 1/2 inch thick strip of hardened safety glass, and treated with .5 micron CBN.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
Thanks! Do you think it is ok for me to keep using the dremel red paste? Or do I need something more directed toward knife sharpening?
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Well, if it works I can't see how it can be wrong! When you strop you are not trying to grind off a lot of metal so you only need to polish a tiny fraction of steel off to turn a sharp knife into a SHARP knife. If the polish is able to remove even a small amount of steel then it will do the job.
 
Gadgetaholic said:
Well, if it works I can't see how it can be wrong! When you strop you are not trying to grind off a lot of metal so you only need to polish a tiny fraction of steel off to turn a sharp knife into a SHARP knife. If the polish is able to remove even a small amount of steel then it will do the job.
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Ok that's good to know. I'm excited that I found a cheap way to strop my blades, and also that I didn't screw it up! Haha. Thanks everyone.
 
The Dremel rouge is iron oxide. It works slowly, but well.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The Dremel rouge is iron oxide. It works slowly, but well.
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Ok so it's a mild enough absrasive to not hurt anything? I was actually hoping it was a very mild abrasive.


I have been worried that it was too aggressive. Should I look for something else or just keep using the dremel paste?
 
It is very fine but not for hard metals, Chromium oxide, silicon carbide, boron carbide, diamond, will all work faster and yeild better results.

Quality of the compound means a lot too, green compound found at sears or lowes will be vastly different from something like handamerican.
 
knifenut1013 said:
It is very fine but not for hard metals, Chromium oxide, silicon carbide, boron carbide, diamond, will all work faster and yeild better results.

Quality of the compound means a lot too, green compound found at sears or lowes will be vastly different from something like handamerican.
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I was actually going to pick up some green tomorrow from lowes to try and put a makeshift strop together. Are you saying I probably shouldn't get it from there?
 
Precisely yes. It doesn't mean it won't work, it's just a Hardware store stocks more than ten thousand products.

Not every product is the best of the category.

I would suggest looking at online stores instead and buy "ZAM compound" or Flexcut

Remember that if you use a compound, the carrier is less important than the wheels itself. You're essentially covering the entire surface of a belt or leather piece with compound anyway.
 
The locally available compounds will be nothing like the real thing. The lows compound leaves scratches and at a guess is about 3-5 microns where the good stuff is 0.5.

Compounds like those found at lows will have a very hard time with modern alloys and the finished sharpness will only be Ok compared to the higher quality product. Also try using the compound on balsa wood, if you like leather get some horse hide and use it bare.
 
I used the brown compound from a dremmel set and the green compound from Lowes on an old belt and still cant quite get there. I have had a little success. Ive gotten a couple of knives hair whittling sharp. But its hard to repeat.

I added the compound to a dowell rod and inserted in my sharpening system.Its not working as well as I hoped but its close. I think a little better compound and I might have it.

P1010050.jpg
 
Just make yourself a balsa strop, you will probably get better results and following the angle is not nearly as hard as you may think.


Better compound would help too.
 
Ben Dover said:
Get your compounds from Handmerican. :thumbup:
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+1 I've only tried their 1 micron diamond spray but am very impressed. But in the interest of fairness and balance I feel compelled to add that I don't find it to be any more effective than JapaneseKnifeSharpeningStore.com 1 micron DuPont Blue Diamond Spray. In fact, if I had to choose which of the two I find more effective, I would go with the JKS blue stuff over the HA white. Also, don't forget about HA's stropping media. I REALLY like the balsa, and the bark tanned bovine leather is pretty good, too. I haven't got a chance to try the horse leather, which I hear is fantastic, but I am using their hard felt pads (loaded with HA 1 mic diamond spray) for all sorts of stuff... most recently I've found it to be very useful for polishing off patina and oxidation spots from the Blue Super steel. I imagine it would work equally well in that capacity on any carbon steel.

Sorry, back to the OP's post... if it works for you, then keep it up!:thumbup: But dollars to doughnuts you will get better results from a properly mounted piece of dedicated and treated leather on a hard base, loaded with a high quality polishing/honing compound such as DMT Dia-Paste, Hand American's diamond, chromium oxide and boron carbide products, or JapaneseKnifesharpening's diamonds and/or chromium oxide.

And I don't believe I'm being a snob about it, either. I started off using inexpensive green, black, white, brown and red crayon-style compounds on makeshift surfaces such as cardbaord, mag covers, paint stick, etc., and while they did get my edges sharper and shinier, they did it much slower and more inconsistently than the "brand name" products do. It really is an appreciable difference, and an exciting one, too, when you finally make that "breakthrough".

dipbait said:
P1010050.jpg
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Nice knife. What is it?
 
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