Is stropping really important

I just got 2 knives which at first I though had really bad factory grinds. I didn’t feel like breaking out thee stones. I just used my strop on the first blade on the first knife. After 5-10 passes it was super sharp. I pulled out the loop out and saw a lot of burning on the other blades. Just used the strop ont the rest of the blades and they are all hair Whitling sharp.

You will get a lot of opinions for and against. If you like a real toothy or grabby edge then you don’t need to strop after the stones.

However it will still help between sharpening sessions.
 
MtnHawk1 said:
My understanding of stropping is that it's for smooth, fine, polished edges, but I only have use for coarse, toothy edges (325-400 grit or less).

Does anyone strop coarse edges? I know stropping is good for removing tiny burrs and fragments, but I don't want to ruin my coarse edges by smoothing them out. There are lots of different stropping materials so are there some that are good for maintaining toothy edges without damaging them?

Thanks...
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I find a couple light passes on my cheap leather paddle loaded with green is enough to remove the micro burs and still have a toothy edge. Maybe 4 or 5 passes each side very light pressure improves the edge without over polishing the edge. Much more and you may start loosing the toothy edge. It took me around a year of practice until I finally found the sweet spot on my stopping routine
 
Kmikaz3 said:
Occasionally, my blade has some micro dings and when i tried to strop it out, i can still see them with a bright light. Then i have to resolve myself to use my sharpmaker. Or perhaps, im doing something wrong with my strop
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I don't think you are doing any 'wrong', it just not abrasive enough to sharpen the knife and take away the 'micro' ding. I agree with most said, I usually strop after sharpening, and find it useful for a quick 'touch up'.
 
I use to strop my knife edges. I don't any more because it refines the edge quickly. I remove the burr on the final stone, which for me is 280-320 grit. Sure if you want to, strop your edge. It does work for maintaining an edge. But your edge will become finer, to the point that it skates off cutting sisal rope or a hose, cloth, ect.. DM
 
Thank you all for your input, ill keep on stropping after sharpening or for quick touch up. :D:thumbsup:
 
MtnHawk1 said:
My understanding of stropping is that it's for smooth, fine, polished edges, but I only have use for coarse, toothy edges (325-400 grit or less).

Does anyone strop coarse edges? I know stropping is good for removing tiny burrs and fragments, but I don't want to ruin my coarse edges by smoothing them out. There are lots of different stropping materials so are there some that are good for maintaining toothy edges without damaging them?

Thanks...
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I would have to say that is not true,stropping can be used to polish an edge and also for edge refinement,you can have a toothy edge and still strop it,the reason for stropping a toothy edge is to remove any burr's that may still remain on the edge,also you don't want to go crazy with the amount of strokes either I would do maybe 5 to 6 pass's down each side of the blade and that is it.
 
MtnHawk1 said:
My understanding of stropping is that it's for smooth, fine, polished edges, but I only have use for coarse, toothy edges (325-400 grit or less).

Does anyone strop coarse edges? I know stropping is good for removing tiny burrs and fragments, but I don't want to ruin my coarse edges by smoothing them out. There are lots of different stropping materials so are there some that are good for maintaining toothy edges without damaging them?

Thanks...
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Thin substrate over a hard surface. Use a piece of painter's masking paper or baking parchment wrapped over a coarse stone (this will reduce the actual contact footprint and increase spot pressure). Strop away. It almost doesn't matter if your compound is 1 micron or 10. Apply a good bit of pressure for the first few swipes, you aren't going to round it except through user error.

Improvised "honing compound" can be made from reclaimed grit off a SiC stone, mud from a waterstone, even some of the surface swarf from a diamond plate can work well.

There is a limit to how much toothiness you can get with even this method, but it will make for a very catchy edge and not just an overly polished pressure cutter. One can maintain an edge almost indefinitely if your mechanics are sound - the material itself won't be rounding the edge.

For a rougher edge I still tend to strop on plain paper coming off the stone. This as much for QC as it reveals any latent burrs very quickly. Over a hard surface with plain paper on low carbide steel, it is capable of burnishing along the very edge, leaving you with a still coarse edge that cuts better than it did off the stone. I normally apply a good deal of force at the bevel angle and a few light swipes at an elevated angle.

You can maintain the edge this way for a long time on low carbide steels. The higher the carbide content the more resistant it is to burnishing and the less effective this method will be. Even on high Vanadium, high Rockwell C steels I will still use a few passes on plain paper to finish.
 
MtnHawk1 said:
My understanding of stropping is that it's for smooth, fine, polished edges, but I only have use for coarse, toothy edges (325-400 grit or less).

Does anyone strop coarse edges? I know stropping is good for removing tiny burrs and fragments, but I don't want to ruin my coarse edges by smoothing them out. There are lots of different stropping materials so are there some that are good for maintaining toothy edges without damaging them?

Thanks...
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Minimize the use of compounds for stropping, to maintain the bite in a toothy edge. In other words, a toothy edge can still be refined on a strop of bare leather, paper, wood, cardboard, etc., without compound. My favorite working edges are always in the 320-400 range. I strop those on the sueded side of a bare leather belt, with no compound applied. OR, another method that works well for toothy edges is to use just a piece of clean paper over a stone, which can really enhance the aggressive bite of a toothy edge.

Most compounds used for stropping will quickly polish the toothy bite out of the edge, if taken very far at all. If you do use a compound, bias your choice to something that's less aggressive for the steel you're sharpening; just enough to clean up burrs, weakened fragments and maybe do a tiny bit of refining, without being so aggressive that it overpolishes the edge. Minimize the number of passes on the strop as well, to avoid going too far.
 
I myself never use stropping compound, typically just an appropriate very mildly abrasive surface like cardboard or a more grabby surface like an old belt. Cutting is done by the stone, straightening and conditioning is done by the strop.

Typically when stropping a toothy edge you are changing it from a saw tooth type edge to a micro serrated edge, which may or may not make them necessarily sharper, but it should wear down the and refine the weakest high points. Really what you are doing when stropping is separating the wheat from the chaff by removing the already stressed and broken down parts of the edge that were going to break off upon first cut anyway, making the remaining good parts stronger and more finished.

Overdoing while using a more coarse compound will definitely remove the toothy pattern and make it a highly polished edge, which as others have said may not always be desirable. I've gained a lot of respect for a rougher edge at about 300-600 grit, there are so many times when it out cuts a finer edge. I recently vowed I will never again sharpen an every day user knife above about 1000 grit. It doesn't seem to help performance in a real world setting and it can take substantial time to step through each stage. If it's a blade that needs to be that fine edged or if I'm doing it for fun I'll take it further but not for general purpose.
 
Nice thread yet again. Great summaries. Worth discussing with interested families and communities.

In the beginning for game, fish, and kitchen processing, stone and strop on jeans or leather. Then meat processing at work meant stone and steel at break, lunch, and end of shift; steel as necessary the rest of the time. In my middle years I used a portable stone that lived in the tacklebox, stropping on jeans or leather for kitchen, outdoors and tool maintenance.

My most difficult cutting chore in the last five years was breaking down summer spaghetti squash :-). My edge set up routine and typical usage along with the amazing longevity of “super steels” edges, gives me sharp-enough edges across many months with little wear using ultra fine hones and stropping.

After years of practicing the craft of teaching, I end up breaking down sharpening skills using various assistive/adaptive tools available on the market, matched to each persons needs. Stropping is always part of my sharpening ecosystem.
 
I just wanted to thank everyone for your thoughtful responses to my question about stropping toothy edges. :thumbsup: I'm often amazed and impressed with what I learn in here and this time was no exception.

I was about ready to give up stropping completely, so am happy to see that there are some benefits for coarse edges. It was also beneficial to learn that some people don't strop at all, or strop minimally, so if I follow suit I'll be in good company. I'll just have to experiment and see what works best for my knives. I think the difficult part will be to strop properly and know when to stop, since I can't actually see what it's doing to my edges and don't want to smooth them out.
 
stropping shouldn't be of concern or question. the real and only difficulty in sharpening is the 100.0% removal of micro burr (and macro burr). absolute pro's spend 40% of their session time on deburring, it can become a huge challenge. strops not only polish the very apex, but fast cutting strops also smooth out toothy edges and can help removing burr. they can also create fresh microburr!, which is why microdeburring can become so challenging.
don't mind strops, better be concerned about deburring properly... without strops

after 2.0yrs of tremendous experience with freehanding, i am still learning and improving. meaning, in those 2 years i thought i was good but i wasn't paying full attention to the deburring challenge. improved sharpening requires enhanced viewing and feeling (of microburr), heightened focus, and not a strop tool. Just stropping, ignorantly .. no good!

my aim is for the knife to leave my last and finest stone 99.9% burr-free. at that point the apex is clean and crisp and smooth, hopefully. no stropping needed. or maybe just 1 pass per side for cleaning up.

Stropping wrong can dull the apex, microconvex it, or create fresh microburr. so whether to use a strop or not is asking the wrong question imho;). Sure enough, coming off the 204MF or 204UF product your apex will bear microburr - and it's always a new question how to proceed\strategize from there, depending on the extent (size, ductility, stubbornness, etc) of the microburr. a strop can be helpful in the quest, sure.

I'm a big fan of strops as a cheating tool but more important is knowing the condition of the apex and acting upon it accordingly. and that has nothing to do with strops.:poop: kreisl, out.
 
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kreisler, good post and info!

kreisler said:
my aim is for my knife to leave my last and finest stone 99.9% burr-free. at that point the apex is clean and crisp and smooth, hopefully. no stropping needed. or maybe just 1 pass per side for cleaning up.
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This is a great goal, and one which I try to attain when freehand sharpening.

I am familiar with stubborn burrs and how difficult and frustrating it can be trying to remove them. The problem is that since I can't see knife apexes, and microburrs are so tiny, I always wonder if they're really there and if I'm unintentionally smoothing my edges by stropping. Since I only need coarse, toothy, working edges maybe I'm striving for too much perfection. I'm better off with the toothy edges I want than to possibly smooth them out by trying to strop away bits of microburr that might not even be there.
 
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MtnHawk1, don't obsess over it. I back-hone on the last stone to remove all 'felt' burrs. Which is usually a 280 grit SiC stone. If I have stubborn burrs, I'll take it to a 400 grit SiC stone or with better steels I'll back hone them on a 600 grit DMT. The diamond stone takes half the time to remove burrs on the better steels and leaves about a 500 grit edge. Still, less refined than some stropping. DM
 
David Martin said:
MtnHawk1, don't obsess over it.
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Good advice! :)

Thanks for the info about removing burrs. :thumbsup: I'm always looking for new methods since what I do doesn't always work.

A few questions, if you don't mind:

By "back hone" do you mean edge trailing?

Some burr removal instructions say to increase the angle just a few degrees and others say to go all the way up to 45 degrees. That's a very wide variation! Should I start low and work my way up until the burr is (hopefully) gone, or what? How do you do it?

Also, you say if 280 grit doesn't remove stubborn burrs you go to 400 or 600, depending on the steel. Could you please explain why you go to a higher grit if you can't remove burrs with a lower grit?

Thank you!
 
Yes, edge trailing. Pulling the blade. I also do both a little pulling and push stroke. Not long, less than a 1/2".
If burr removal is not working at a medium grit, I'll go finer in hopes the more grit & finer grabs the burr and grinds it away.
I go at it by keeping the same edge angle as when I was sharpening. With some lift.
I have noticed some steels are easier to remove burrs. 420 and kitchen knives. 440c is stubborn. A light touch helps. Good luck, DM
 
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What would be the better way to apply a compound on a strop? With heat? Or rub it dry like a crayon? Because, i noticed, sometimes it wouldn’t want to stick and "peeled" off from the leather.
 
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