Leather Stop: Smooth vs Rough side

[knife chop]

Are there any benefits over the other? and does thickness of the leather matter for stropping process?

 

[Muaddib1116]

I have very limited strop experience/expertise, but from what I've seen, the rough side can load up more compound than the smooth side. As far as the thickness, if you're mounting it to a hard backing, then thinner leather will deform less and be a "harder" strop, and thicker leather will give more and be a "softer" strop. I would imagine that if you're using the strop like a barber, just pulling the leather tight between two points, then it would be sort of the reverse, where the thinner leather would give more and the thicker would give less.

 

[REK Knives]

I know in the straight razor world we use the smooth side up... But for knives the rougher side would be fine to bring your edge back.

 

[Jason B.]

Using the backside of leather is like turning tires inside out and driving on them.

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

For using with white compound (AlO), I use the flesh/nap/rough side of horse butt leather. This produces a slightly more rounding compare to HeavyHanded's Washboard printer paper+AlO (virtually no rounding). However same rounding compare to strop on skin/smooth side of leather + AlO. For diamond/cbn/sic compound, I use skin/smooth side of leather. Actually I prefer using HH's WB top with a printer paper because rounding is the least among all substrates (including hard backings, such as: wood, glass,..)

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

^This. :thumbup: