Leather strops - is anything special done to treat the leather?

[TheMightyGoat]

I'm wondering because if the leather is not treated in a special way, then pretty much any leather should work to strop, correct? This seems at least a plausable idea to me, since I've heard cardboard or denim pants will work as well.

 

[Daniel Koster]

You are correct. There is no need to treat the leather - in fact a rawhide belt turned inside-out works just fine.

Now, having said that, there is something you can do to make the leather cut and polish better - add green rouge. You can get it from Lee Valley Tools, Woodcraft, and several knifemakers suppliers. Just rub it on the rough side of the leather and start stropping, edge trailing.

Dan

 

[Don Luis]

I´ve used an old leather belt with good results, also cardboard and folded newspaper, denim works OK (less abrasive in my experience), my old jeans are all worn out and patched on the left leg above the knee from this.

 

[JDEEBLADE]

I have seen meatworkers use the palm of their hand as a strop, Axeman out here use a rolled up newspaper, one barber I know uses the flesh side of leather coated with "Brasso".

Please be warned if you use the palm of your hand you do so at your own risk.

 

[Emanuel]

pendentive,
Is there an alternative to this green rouge stuff that might work as well?
Something that is easily available?
Perhaps an oil?

 

[RH]

huh? The only strops I've seen is rough leather loaded up with rouge or light polish compound. What would plain leather (or a palm!) do to the blade? I guess I'm confused about what it is stropping is supposed to do.

 

[Daniel Koster]

Stropping is polishing (aligning) - simple as that. I'm sure there are more technical explanations, but that's what it means to me.

You can use all sorts of polishing compounds, just that green rouge is best suited for knife blades.

You can even use just the leather. However, the rouge will "cut" faster.

 

[Don Luis]

As far as I know stropping will remove burrs, polish and align the edge, I have used plain leather, leather with polishing compund and with brasso, somebody once told me that I could use toothpaste but haven´t tried it. I have used my jeans, the palm of my hand, cardboard, newspaper (plain and with some brasso).

The effect of stropping will depend on many factors, how abrasive is the strop (or what you put on it), what kind of steel in the blade, how much force do you use, what condition is the edge to start with, etc.

On a smooth edge stropping can give you razor sharpness good for push cuts.

You may or may not want to strop a coarse edge, stropping on coarse edges will clean and align the toothy edge and take away some of the ripping effect (don´t use a good strop for a coarse edge since it will damage the surface of the strop, folded newspaper works well for this).

 

[Jeff Clark]

For an extremely thin edge I would use a smoother strop. For example, don't strop your straight razor on the back of a rawhide strap. Leather that is made for strops is smoother and is tanned with non-corrosive vegetable materials. If you are using plain leather it is nice if there is some silicate crystals in the leather. That comes with some of the vegetable tanning compounds.

For most knives the edge is thick enough that you don't need to be real particular about the leather itself. I find it makes a difference what I put on the leather depending on the alloy that I am working with. Simple carbon steel works best when I put red (ferric oxide) or green (chromium oxide) buffing compound on the strop. Relatively homogenous and or soft stainless like 12C27 or AUS-8 work well with green buffing compound. When I get to the high alloy stainless steels compounds seem like they are doing more harm than good. The edge seems to lose some of its bite if I strop for too long with a compound-loaded strop. I like to finish my edges with a ceramic rod then to a little stropping on a plain leather strop. This seems to do the alligning and deburring that I want without removing the micro-serrations of the carbide loaded edge.