Leather hones..... OMG!

[Necroshine]

Is it better to have the leather glued to a piece of wood and be solid, or just to pull it tight and let it flex a little? I've seen adjustable strops that have a long treaded rod with two pegs, one at the end of the rod that just swivels and the other is threaded with a leather strap wraped around the pegs, but I like to keep things simple.

 

[HoB]

Hey! I just got that combo! Tried it on my Ritter grip. Wow! How do you go about applying the Veritas honing stuff? I just sorta rubbed it into the leather. Hope that's OK . . .?

Its a pain to get the Vertas green onto the strop no matter how you try it, it gets easy in time though, once the strop has already some compound on it. I found that putting a drop of mineral oil onto the Veritas green helps (I don't put it onto the leather because it sinks in too quickly).

 

[HoB]

Is it better to have the leather glued to a piece of wood and be solid, or just to pull it tight and let it flex a little? I've seen adjustable strops that have a long treaded rod with two pegs, one at the end of the rod that just swivels and the other is threaded with a leather strap wraped around the pegs, but I like to keep things simple.

Depends on what you want. For a straight razor, you should use a hanging strop. A hanging strop will wrap further around the blade than a strop with hard backing. I prefer to use a backed strop for anything but a straight razor. You can use a wooden paddle made from plywood as backing. Doesn't really matter much, as long as it is straight and flat.

 

[Gshock300]

hey guys,

I use the veritas green compound in my hard felt buffing wheel which works wonders on anything I can lay my hands on lol.
Just wondering tho if you guys know what takes the residue off the blades the easiest thats non toxic and whithout too much smell. Ive tried metholated spirits and kerosene which work ok but Id rather not use that on kitchen knives.
Plain detergent or soap doesnt really seem to do the trick.

thanks
Dan