loaded leather strop

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Do you clean your loaded leather strop?
Do you scrape off the compound, and then add fresh compound?
or do you just keep adding more compound?
how often do you add compound?

thanks
 
I don't clean my loaded leather strop. From time to time I do put mineral oil on it for sharpening, which probably cleans it somewhat.

I typically just add more compound onto the strop. The only compound I have used is the green chromium oxide. I do not add compound very often to the strop and is just usually an eyeball estimate. Many times I strop without the compound. I have not had experience with diamond compounds yet. I'm not an expert by any means and by what I have learned about hand sharpening is that it is not a one size fits all type of mentality.

-Joseph
 
Depends on the strop and the compound used, for me. For strops with very aggressive compounds, which load up fast and very darkly, I'll usually just use something like a microfiber towel or paper towel to wipe away any black buildup that'll come off (and that's usually quite a lot), and then apply some new compound. I have at times moistened the paper towel or rag with some WD-40, which aids in removing more of the dirty swarf and old compound from the leather. After letting the leather dry for a day or two, I'll then apply fresh compound.

Some strops don't load up very much anyway, like those used with green compound. With those, I'll still periodically give it a few wipes with the paper towel or whatever, but that's generally not as necessary. I've also found green compound lasts a long while on a leather strop, so I don't need to reapply it very often at all. If I actually notice a loss of performance in the strop, then I'll apply some more compound.

If you want to completely remove compound from a leather strop, sanding it down to clean leather is the easiest way to do that. I'll usually use WD-40 or some isopropyl alcohol to clean the leather a bit before sanding it, to minimize rubbing or grinding dirty swarf and old compound into the leather while sanding it. After the leather has been sanded down to a clean & velvety 'nap' on the surface, then apply new compound of your choice.


David
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
Depends on the strop and the compound used
Click to expand...

I've been using Tormek compound, the white stuff, very little required.
I'm not having any issues with the stropping in terms of loss off performance
I was just curious

Frankly replacement leather is cheap and the tube of Tormek should last me my lifetime.

thanks
 
You know me and strops.

I couldn't help posting though. I don't clean my strop because I don't use it(them) anymore. It hangs peacefully over there on its hook. I don't bother it and it doesn't require anything from me. A copacetic detente has been arrived at through much, careful, and detailed attention to the differences on both sides.

People say water stones are too messy. Now I learn I need to maintain the strops, WD-40 and sanding and such. ! ! ! Sanding doesn't CONTAMINATE the strop with big rocks ! ! ! ! ? !. Then 30, 40, 50 strokes you say, ON EACH SIDE . . . no less . . . hummmm.

A few strokes on a fine stone to end my sharpening progression gets me mirror and hair wittiing and no foiley wire edge then rinse under the faucet.

Strops . . . pointless activity. The only thing I hated more than getting the green stick to go onto the strop was crushing up the hard yellow one (which worked better) so I could sprinkle the dust on.

Nah dude, nah:)

PS: I had hopes for the 600 grit diamond paste on a hand strop that it would improve my one ceramic blade . . .
Nah, nope, nah
Power driven paper wheel turns out.
 
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Every so often I scrape the old compound from the strop surface. Then reload it with fresh compound. I take the old compound off when I see that the color changes to a darker grey.

To scrape it I use the top (not sharp side) of a knife. I usually dont maintain a strop, kind of a waste of time. Had the same Stopman stop block forever and strop all my knives on it.
 
You can strop on many surfaces, it doesn't have to be a leather strop. My leather strops I keep loaded with one grit and don't clean them. I like stropping on my pine board with slurry and a stone. It's simple. DM
 
I found my strops worked best if I scraped them and reapplied fresh compound often.

They will continue to work if allowed to run dirty, but work better with fresh application.

I mostly strop on plain paper or paper loaded with compound if using it to refine the edge - I'll ditch it after 4 or 5 uses.
 
I make my own paddle strops. I don't scrape off the old stropping compound. But on occasion I add a few drops of olive oil to the leather and then wipe off the excess. When wiping off the excess oil some of the stropping compound comes off on the lint free shop cloths. Then I reapply additional stropping compound to restore the strop.
 
You can use oil to clean it off then apply fresh compound
 
Fresh compound makes the strop work much faster, the dark color is small steel particles which do very little to help sharpening.

Regards,
FK
 
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