Is Stropping Necessary?

Kai Winters said:
Depends: For my work knife, sharp enough to easily slice through two layers of brown paper wrapper about 30 inches long. I open around 24 to 30 bags per 12 hour shift...thank goodness today is my last 12 as business demand just isn't there, back to 8's woohoo...if the knife is dull it tears rather than slices and can take several times as long to perform this task...I don't have the time to waste nor the patience trying to get a dull knife to cut through the wrapper.

I could achieve similar results using a stone of similar abrasive/polishing grit but my strop sits in the drawer of my side table aside my couch. I easily pull it out while watching TV...a couple minutes of passes and voila restored to sharpness for my next day of work.

For my EDC/hiking knives: They can shave the hair off of my arm and/or easily slice, without grabbing, through telephone book paper cut into 3x5 inch pieces...for ease of testing.

I've recently started using black compound and am surprised by how this compound improves the edge while stropping. I usually used just green...knowing it is more polish than abrasive. After reading much on forums regarding black compound I bought a stick at Sears for 3 bucks and used it on the untreated side of my two sided strop. Wow what a difference it makes. It does add sharpness and has really made touching up an edge much better, especially my work knife.
I added this compound after buying a Bark River DPH, which has a convex grind. In previous posts I talked about adding a bevel as I was worried about maintaining the convex edge...my stropping skills were not that good and I would dull a freshly sharpened knife about half the time when stropping with only green compound.

I took the time, after reading some forum replies, etc., to practice my technique and the improvement has been significant. I can now, with care and patience, improve the quality of a hone sharpened knife to a decent degree using the strop as a finishing mode. I can also quickly restore a knife that has dulled just a bit with a couple of minutes using the black then green compounds.



Here are a couple of pics of my "work" knife. You can see my thumb mark where I hold the knife during use. The material is very abrasive as it is a filtering medium for our water treatment system.
This knife: BM H&K Plan D is only several months old and used only for work cutting open the bags I described earlier.
IMG_2435_zpsd97ead93.jpg

IMG_2434_zps0a625d74.jpg
Click to expand...



A couple of quick thoughts that came to mind reading this ^. For a fairly rough use knife, that thing looks to have had very little steel removed in the course of maintenance. This in my experience is much more easily accomplished with a strop of some sort.

The Sears black works surprisingly well on its own and can often set up an edge for a finer strop if not too much repair is needed - have been a fan of that stuff for a number of years. Dico also makes an excellent black compound in the same range.

Attempting to maintain a regularly used edge with too fine a compound can often lead to a bit of frustration, and this is where stropping in general probably gets the most well deserved criticism. The smaller abrasive cannot remove enough steel at moderate to light pressure to restore many edges after use, and many don't bother with enough experimentation to find what works.

Initially I wanted to supply my Washboard with two compounds, Dico black and Flexcut gold. I split the difference and came up with my own multigrit formula that works fairly aggressively straight up, but if you wipe it down hard with a paper towel, it embeds the finer particles and some of the binder into the paper and makes a finer stropping surface - two for one. Its the ability to really tailor my results that drew me to experiment with stropping and lapping so much. My 10" Chef's knife was starting to loose a step in the kitchen, so before making dinner I pulled out my block and gave it four or five good passes with the finer abrasive level. For a test, it passed through a paper napkin with a shearing cut like it was a piece of newspaper - took about 20-30 seconds. Not that it was dull to start, but it got considerably sharper. It would have been a lot more demanding (for me) to touch it up with a stone.

I understand some of the reticence to bother with stropping - there was a time I swore it off too (in fact I still won't strop on leather anymore), but has become a mainstay of my maintenance scheme.
 
It completely depends on what edge you desire to keep! For my BRKTs, Rodent Solution, and Busse, I want to maintain my convex edge. Stroping IMO is the best way to keeps them super sharp.
 
HeavyHanded said:
A couple of quick thoughts that came to mind reading this ^. For a fairly rough use knife, that thing looks to have had very little steel removed in the course of maintenance. This in my experience is much more easily accomplished with a strop of some sort.

The Sears black works surprisingly well on its own and can often set up an edge for a finer strop if not too much repair is needed - have been a fan of that stuff for a number of years. Dico also makes an excellent black compound in the same range.

Attempting to maintain a regularly used edge with too fine a compound can often lead to a bit of frustration, and this is where stropping in general probably gets the most well deserved criticism. The smaller abrasive cannot remove enough steel at moderate to light pressure to restore many edges after use, and many don't bother with enough experimentation to find what works.

Initially I wanted to supply my Washboard with two compounds, Dico black and Flexcut gold. I split the difference and came up with my own multigrit formula that works fairly aggressively straight up, but if you wipe it down hard with a paper towel, it embeds the finer particles and some of the binder into the paper and makes a finer stropping surface - two for one. Its the ability to really tailor my results that drew me to experiment with stropping and lapping so much. My 10" Chef's knife was starting to loose a step in the kitchen, so before making dinner I pulled out my block and gave it four or five good passes with the finer abrasive level. For a test, it passed through a paper napkin with a shearing cut like it was a piece of newspaper - took about 20-30 seconds. Not that it was dull to start, but it got considerably sharper. It would have been a lot more demanding (for me) to touch it up with a stone.

I understand some of the reticence to bother with stropping - there was a time I swore it off too (in fact I still won't strop on leather anymore), but has become a mainstay of my maintenance scheme.
Click to expand...

I bolded the portion above, because this is a huge factor in why I favor stropping. I agree, a lot of the bad rap against stropping I think comes from not adequately matching the compound and/or substrate to the work needed. I used to feel essentially the same, relying for a long while only on green compound, which will usually be very slow on all but the finest edges on simpler steels like 1095. I'd noticed a comment or two earlier, expressing some frustration about the time required to get it done; this shouldn't be an issue at all, if the compound and stropping media are matched to the work. I've really come to favor a 'white' aluminum oxide compound at 2-5µ particle size, used on hard-backed paper. This is because it has proven it's ability to work very quickly on a wide range of steels. None of them need more than a minute or two's worth of stropping time (often much less), to restore a very crisp edge with some tooth in it. With the 'black' compounds I've tried, they come pretty close, although I believe there may be other 'black' compounds that might work better than what I've got. I've yet to try the Sears version.


David
 
I just purchased some Flexcut Gold for stropping. Is it very toxic? (Aluminum oxide / titanium oxide). Do I need to wear latex gloves when handling it? What about peeling an apple or cutting cheese with a knife I stropped with it?
 
rje58 said:
I just purchased some Flexcut Gold for stropping. Is it very toxic? (Aluminum oxide / titanium oxide). Do I need to wear latex gloves when handling it? What about peeling an apple or cutting cheese with a knife I stropped with it?
Click to expand...

Titanium dioxide is in toothpaste, IIRC is only hazardous in large exposure in powder form. Aluminum oxide is likewise listed as a nuisance - is safe in small doses, especially if not being aspirated.
 
rje58 said:
I just purchased some Flexcut Gold for stropping. Is it very toxic? (Aluminum oxide / titanium oxide). Do I need to wear latex gloves when handling it? What about peeling an apple or cutting cheese with a knife I stropped with it?
Click to expand...

The abrasives themselves aren't toxic if ingested; not sure what's used for the binding agent, but I doubt it's much of an issue either. But, if you just clean the blade as you would with any normal kitchen knife, before using it, you'll be fine. I wouldn't worry at all about getting any of it on your hands (just wash your hands before eating, as most of our Moms tell us to do :) ).

So far as I can tell, there's not a published MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for it, even from the manufacturer. If it contained any hazardous stuff (toxins, fire risk/fume/other hazards), an MSDS would likely be necessary. They're usually easy to look up, if they exist; having not found it, I'd suspect it probably isn't considered a hazard when used as directed (and with common sense, like not eating it like a candy bar).


David
 
In all reality there should still be an MSDS - is relatively easy to find them for many of the other commercial compounds, even the most basic of them. I have to wonder if there isn't some sort of proprietary exemption based on a "secret formula". An email or call to Flexcut might be in order. In any event, will likely be stearin (stearic acid - vegetable based - commonly used in candle making among others), some additional binders of similar character to give it the desired handling characteristics, and the abrasives themselves making up the bulk by weight.
 
I also use stropping to maintain my knife sharp in between sharpenings which I believe leads to the least amount of metal removed over the life of the knife. There are certain stones that really do a good job of removing scratches and produce a mirrored edge. For me it is the 10K Chosera, or on a different progression the spyderco fine starts it and the spyderco ultra fine further refines it to make a really nice edge and I find I do not need much if any stropping after that point. I have tried some of the diamond pastes on my wicked edge, but find I prefer to finish with the bark river white compound. For me the stropping movement was easier to learn and get proficient with. It was doing that stropping that gave me more confidence to believe I could do as well with free hand sharpening. With stropping however, I don't spend a lot of time doing it, maybe two minutes tops, slightly more if I get feedback during stropping that the edge needs more attention.
I think it would depend on what your plan for your knife is. If you say you want to finish the edge up to a 10K chosera finish or a 400 grit, then you work through the stones until each one gives you the feedback that they have done their job and are ready to go on. Where you chose to end is up to you and what you want the knife to do. That experience will tell you where you need to stop, if you feel a benefit to strop, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top