- Joined
- Dec 13, 2007
- Messages
- 4,472
When I first began learning about knives I was pointed to JRE Industries for some sheath work by Brian_T (great guy). While strolling around their website I came across their strop bats. At the time I had NO idea what one of those was for, but I had seen a barber strop a razor and after doing some research, I learned that one could do the same thing for his/her blade if the edge geometry was what it needed to be.
So off I went in search of info on convexing. It has taken awhile, and I still don't know much about it, but when I had to send a knife to Ban for some tube fasteners, I figured I'd have one of the masters give me my first intro to convex edges. Let me just say that when that knife came in the mail, I was grinning like a geek in a computer store.
Now I've decided I'm going to convex the edges on my users and I'm trying to learn how best to do that. I've read and will re-read JAB's online class, and I'm looking as many other places as I can as well. I figured it was just a measure of time before I would need a good strop, and it was going to cost me 20-30$ to make one myself because it's kinda hard to find all the supples (specifically the leather) in Miami. So I went here:
http://www.jreindustries.com/strops.htm
and picked up Dan and Spen's standard strop bat. It came in the mail about an hour ago.
First impression: This thing is solidly made from Red Oak and seems to be built to last a while. It has a lanyard attatched (in order to hang in the kitchen/shed/garage/workroom), but the material is thin, and I think JRE could improve it by making it out of paracord in the future.
Each of the four sides has a piece of leather attatched and three of those leather strips are loaded with compound, with the fourth being unloaded, finished leather bearing the JRE Industries logo.
So I got this thing in my hand and deicded it was time to do some work. I first grabbed my kitchen-duty Cultie and tried working that a little bit. Now the Cultie has it's original edge geometry, a flat grind with a primary edge bevel. I stropped each side about 8-10 times beginning on the black compound, moving to green, following with pink, and then finishing up on the finished leather side. There was no detectable improvement on cutting performance, but I expected that knowing that the edge was not convexed. (That is a project for later)
Next I decided to move on to my SFNO, which IS convexed. Some of you may know that this baby got some bruises the other day (which I discovered upon closer examination are dents/rolls, not chips). I tried to steel the edge a bit so that the rolled edge was straightened, but it didn't work for me. Maybe someone can help me out with that. After attempting to steel the edge, both 2 days ago, and again this morning, the edge on the NO was no longer shaving sharp. I started by putting the strop bat black side up on my kitchen counter. I applied the logo side of the knife to the compound and began stropping. After a few strokes I kinda got the feel for the angle I should be keeping with the knife.
After about 8-10 slow, gentle passes (careful to let the weight of the knife do the work), I switched to the other side and did another 8-10 passes. I noticed that there was a little accumulation of compound on the both sides of the zero edge, so I wiped that down and moved on to the green compound.
I did the same for the green and pink compounds and then tried shaving a bit of paper. The knife would bite, but then it would tear a bit (I assume from the "wire edge") so I proceeded to move to the finished leather side and gave both sides of the knife about 7-9 passes. After this I put the knife to my arm and shaved yet another patch of hair from myself. Back to hair-popping! :thumbup: The only problem I noted was that the rolled edge seemed to leave a bit of a gouge on each of the four sides. I hope that doesn't affect the efficacy of the strop bat in the future.
I am very happy with the JRE strop bat, though I must say that it seems it will work better for the shorter blades like the GW, AD, MS, Cultie, and even on up to the Badgers. For knives longer than those it can become a bit burdensome due to the fact that each side of the strop bat is only about 1.5" thick. To that end, however, JRE does offer to make custom strop bats to a customers' specs, so if you wanted something thicker Dan and Spen could whip it up, I'm sure. And their prices are pretty reasonable.
Oh, and a note about customer service. I first spoke with someone over at JRE a long time back when I was looking for a sheath for my BATACLE. I never sent it out to them because I decided to go another route, but when I spoke to them they were friendly, informative and helpful. This time, when I ordered the strop bat, I never emailed OR called as it was easy to order from their website. However, a few hours after placing my order and paying through PP, I got an email from Dan thanking me for placing my order and telling me he would get my strop bat in the mail that day. That was Monday (the 14th of July). Today is Wednesday (the 16th) and I've already used my strop bat and written this review. Cheers to you guys, JRE! :thumbup:
I know I should have taken and posted pics, but this was spur of the moment. I'll go punch myself in the face for letting you all down now.
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. And if anyone can give me some ideas about how to fix those rolled edges (I tried the steeling...maybe there's something I did wrong), please get in touch. Thanks
Jason
So off I went in search of info on convexing. It has taken awhile, and I still don't know much about it, but when I had to send a knife to Ban for some tube fasteners, I figured I'd have one of the masters give me my first intro to convex edges. Let me just say that when that knife came in the mail, I was grinning like a geek in a computer store.
Now I've decided I'm going to convex the edges on my users and I'm trying to learn how best to do that. I've read and will re-read JAB's online class, and I'm looking as many other places as I can as well. I figured it was just a measure of time before I would need a good strop, and it was going to cost me 20-30$ to make one myself because it's kinda hard to find all the supples (specifically the leather) in Miami. So I went here:
http://www.jreindustries.com/strops.htm
and picked up Dan and Spen's standard strop bat. It came in the mail about an hour ago.
First impression: This thing is solidly made from Red Oak and seems to be built to last a while. It has a lanyard attatched (in order to hang in the kitchen/shed/garage/workroom), but the material is thin, and I think JRE could improve it by making it out of paracord in the future.
Each of the four sides has a piece of leather attatched and three of those leather strips are loaded with compound, with the fourth being unloaded, finished leather bearing the JRE Industries logo.
So I got this thing in my hand and deicded it was time to do some work. I first grabbed my kitchen-duty Cultie and tried working that a little bit. Now the Cultie has it's original edge geometry, a flat grind with a primary edge bevel. I stropped each side about 8-10 times beginning on the black compound, moving to green, following with pink, and then finishing up on the finished leather side. There was no detectable improvement on cutting performance, but I expected that knowing that the edge was not convexed. (That is a project for later)
Next I decided to move on to my SFNO, which IS convexed. Some of you may know that this baby got some bruises the other day (which I discovered upon closer examination are dents/rolls, not chips). I tried to steel the edge a bit so that the rolled edge was straightened, but it didn't work for me. Maybe someone can help me out with that. After attempting to steel the edge, both 2 days ago, and again this morning, the edge on the NO was no longer shaving sharp. I started by putting the strop bat black side up on my kitchen counter. I applied the logo side of the knife to the compound and began stropping. After a few strokes I kinda got the feel for the angle I should be keeping with the knife.
After about 8-10 slow, gentle passes (careful to let the weight of the knife do the work), I switched to the other side and did another 8-10 passes. I noticed that there was a little accumulation of compound on the both sides of the zero edge, so I wiped that down and moved on to the green compound.
I did the same for the green and pink compounds and then tried shaving a bit of paper. The knife would bite, but then it would tear a bit (I assume from the "wire edge") so I proceeded to move to the finished leather side and gave both sides of the knife about 7-9 passes. After this I put the knife to my arm and shaved yet another patch of hair from myself. Back to hair-popping! :thumbup: The only problem I noted was that the rolled edge seemed to leave a bit of a gouge on each of the four sides. I hope that doesn't affect the efficacy of the strop bat in the future.
I am very happy with the JRE strop bat, though I must say that it seems it will work better for the shorter blades like the GW, AD, MS, Cultie, and even on up to the Badgers. For knives longer than those it can become a bit burdensome due to the fact that each side of the strop bat is only about 1.5" thick. To that end, however, JRE does offer to make custom strop bats to a customers' specs, so if you wanted something thicker Dan and Spen could whip it up, I'm sure. And their prices are pretty reasonable.
Oh, and a note about customer service. I first spoke with someone over at JRE a long time back when I was looking for a sheath for my BATACLE. I never sent it out to them because I decided to go another route, but when I spoke to them they were friendly, informative and helpful. This time, when I ordered the strop bat, I never emailed OR called as it was easy to order from their website. However, a few hours after placing my order and paying through PP, I got an email from Dan thanking me for placing my order and telling me he would get my strop bat in the mail that day. That was Monday (the 14th of July). Today is Wednesday (the 16th) and I've already used my strop bat and written this review. Cheers to you guys, JRE! :thumbup:
I know I should have taken and posted pics, but this was spur of the moment. I'll go punch myself in the face for letting you all down now.
If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. And if anyone can give me some ideas about how to fix those rolled edges (I tried the steeling...maybe there's something I did wrong), please get in touch. Thanks
Jason
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copied links dont count. I want to see yyours
