I stropped with white rouge, now my knives wont cut anything.

G

GarageBoy

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May 23, 2003
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I hit my LST, my SAK and my KFF on white rouge. Now I can run my fingers across the smooth edge without being cut. What did I do? Theres no more of that bite
 
You have probably over polished the edge. Usually it only takes a few passes on My leather pad(with white rouge) to remove the wire edge and leave that "toothy" edge. Try sharpening again and strop once more with fewer strokes . Be sure not to get too extreme of an angle away from the angle you used on the stone too.
 
Your results are inconclusive. Your knives may be very sharp but just not "toothy" as Bill said. Try push cutting through paper. See if the edge catches on your fingernail. I like a polished edge.
 
When you strop you lay your blade essentially flat on the leather. You don't tilt it up like you do when you are honing (well maybe you tilt it a bit, but not as far as when you honed). You want relatively stiff leather held pretty flat. I you use something like a belt you need to pull it taught. A lot of people lay their strop on a table top or glue leather to a board. You also don't press very hard on the strop, you don't want the blade to sink into the strop. All the above is to keep from rounding off the edge.
 
I used cardboard. It wont push cut too well either, except through paper. Wont go into my thumb like my Calypso
 
A lot of people end their stroke by rolling the knife at the end, the blade's spine goes up first kind of like you're spreading frosting. I don't know if you're doing this, but if you do it will round your edge. End each stroke by either lifting the knife straight off the leather, or rolling the knife the opposite direction, i.e. the edge comes up first, then the spine.

Edit: here's a great page on how to strop, provided by HandAmerican.
 
What kind of cardboard? When people talk about stropping on cardboard they don't mean the corregated stuff that packing boxes are made out of. They mean to use the solid material on the back of spiral notebooks. You don't want your edge to sink into the stuff or the cardboard will wrap around your edge and give you an obtuse (rounded) edge.

You really don't want to strop with hard pressure or strop for a long time. The strop doesn't magically know what angle you are trying to achieve or which material you want removed. It will attack the material at your edge. If your edge is a little crooked or you have a burr the strop will straighten things out. If you keep going it will attack the edge itself.

I only like stropped edges if they are thin. The edge you get is smooth and doesn't slice well if the edge angle is too wide. I think of stropping as a cleanup measure. I haven't had very good luck with stropping most stainless steel. It often seems to make things duller. I only strop stainless briefly then I go back and lightly hone with ceramic rods to get a little tooth to the edge.
 
I used a pastry box, which is white on the outside, grey on the inside. I ended up hitting it back on ceramics to get a decent edge
 
When I started stropping I also had problems with my edge being blunted by my stropping technique.

My two mistakes were exactly as TorzJohnson and Jeff Clark describe above.

Far too much pressure on the blade and rolling the edge at lift off.
 
Stropping is a lot like spray painting, most people make the mistake of end their stroke on the srop and as they finish they tend to start rolling the blade which rounds off the edge.

Try not ending on the strop but stroke past the end then lift the blade, that way you ensure that you won't round the edge.
 
http://www.handamerican.com/lhone.html

The method of determining proper strop angle that is described in the above article is pretty much foolproof, regardless of blade-grind or bevel angle.

It seems obvious that you've inclined the blade way too much, perhaps also used too much pressure on the blade, essentially rounding the edge.

Get back to the stone and re-edge the blade. Work until you can at least draw-cut newsprint without tearing the newsprint, before stropping. Then use the above method of determining proper stropping angle.

Don't use heavy pressure when stropping on soft material (leather is soft). Doing so will round the edge unnecessarily. Let the abrasive do the metal-removal - your job is to control and maintain the proper honing angle.

Hope this helps!
 
That has nothing to do with over polishing, try sliding your finger across a razor blade and see if it doesn't get cut[*]. The edge was rolled as Jeff noted.


[*]This isn't an actual suggestion, if you needed to be told this, put away all sharp objects quickly.

-Cliff
 
GarageBoy - can you give us more info on your process (with the SAK)?

(my SAK shaves just fine)
 
I used a lansky dog bone, matching the bevel. It barely shaves, only catching a few hairs and ripping them.
 
GarageBoy said:
I used a lansky dog bone, matching the bevel. It barely shaves, only catching a few hairs and ripping them.
Click to expand...
Sorry for my flip reply before, but I know what your problem is now... The lansky dog bone. I've never been able to do anything with it. Spend a few bucks on a good stone or two; I get real good results with a DMT fine and a black arkansas. Plus you'll feel like King Shiznit after you get a razor edge freehand the first time.
 
I have a norton economy stone/pocket stone, a medium arkansas, a bunch of ceramic rods and a DMT coarse. Gonna get a spydie brown and white stone soon
 
Particularly when you sharpen freehand you want a long hone. I like my hones to be 8-inches long or longer. One of the common ways to round your edge is to tip the blade as you are bringing it out of contact with your hone. If you don't want to scratch your blade on the ends of the hone you need to break contact about an inch away from both ends of the hone. If you have a 4-inch hone you can only use 2-inches of it. I want at least as much useable hone as my blade is long. With a 4-inch blade I want at least a 6-inch hone. With a long hone you finish a nice uniform stroke and then pick up the blade. I only use a pocket hone in my back pack.
 
I don't mean to presume, but could you be relying on the stropping too much to get that "nice" shaving sharp edge ? If done right, a 400grit edge will already shave. Correct honing with a grey/brown ceramic rod (about 800grit) will shoot hairs from your arm. I often don't even need to strop. If I do its 2 passes on the hard leather strop each side. Overstrop and you'll round off an already sharp edge.

I make my strops with very stiff leather used to make the boot soles. Glue and rivet 2 thicknesses to make a 1/2inch width about 8inches long. Grind the edges straight and flat. Then wetted and dried hard. I have a 12inch version of this that can be used as a club !!! Its that stiff. I rub white rouge buffing compound into one side and the other is plain hard leather. One single pass on the side with the compound is enough to do the job.

Also, not too hard, please. I use only the gentle weight of blade against the leather to strop. Or the weight of the strop against the edge. No more than that. Jason.
 
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