Make a strop - Part 1

Once I get a decently large chunk of leather in hand, we are going to make a really big one for Pointy. Hopefully about 4" wide and fairly longish. Will have to make handle out of wood, so we will be cutting down a 1x6 to make it the right size and shape. Expect tons of pics and whatnot when we get it done. That will be the part 2 at least.
 
Hi all,

Could some one list the basic compounds and usual grits or uses. I see white red black green gold yellow etc thrown around on the forum all the time, never really knowing what I'm reading. Are they pretty much all the same across manufactures, for the same color? Are all white ones (red black green etc) made of the same material - and that's why they are that color? some better for different steels than others? And then diamond pastes are sold in microns - is this a better way to go? And do they need a strop or is a piece of wood better as some have said? And what type of wood? Sorry if this is not the right thread for this but these are questions that come to mind and relate to stropping..
 
for the most part, the colors are standardized.
some compounds work better for stainless, some for carbon. Other compounds work on both.
compound vs diamond paste is a matter of preference and desired level of polish.
softer wood is better for stropping - spruce, pine, fir, poplar -- because the abrasive embeds better and the wood will actually flex a very small amount at the point of contact. if you're covering the wood with a strip of leather, then you can use pretty much anything you want -- I've seen strops made with walnut burl. gorgeous, but a waste of a good piece of wood IMHO.
 
Yotee said:
Hi all,

Could some one list the basic compounds and usual grits or uses. I see white red black green gold yellow etc thrown around on the forum all the time, never really knowing what I'm reading. Are they pretty much all the same across manufactures, for the same color? Are all white ones (red black green etc) made of the same material - and that's why they are that color? some better for different steels than others? And then diamond pastes are sold in microns - is this a better way to go? And do they need a strop or is a piece of wood better as some have said? And what type of wood? Sorry if this is not the right thread for this but these are questions that come to mind and relate to stropping..
Click to expand...

Bark River Knife white compound approximately 12,000 grit
Bark River Knife green compound approximately 6,000 grit
Bark River Knife black compound approximately 3,000 grit

Also, they are not the same across the board. I started with polishing compounds from a hardware store and green and white are reversed in that the green was the smaller grit. They also very in grit size per color and manufacture, which is not what the internet experts would have you believe. I had to re-learn much of what I thought I knew once I really got into stroping.
 
For your general polishing compounds that you find at the hardware store:

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Doesn't include all the colors though.
 
So far, using the same technique with the same leather and same compound is yielding different results based on smooth side up vs rough side up of the leather belt. At this point, with black compound, smooth side up is the winner by a very wide margin. More testing commencing. Results will be posted here.
 
DerekH, thanks for doing the research. I don't strop well enough or consistently enough to do that type of research so it's great help to be pointed in the right direction. I did just get my diamond paste assortment form Hong Kong yesterday and stropped on a piece of wood with the 5 micron and got the sharpest knife I've ever been able to get before - intermittent tree topping! What a great feeling. With the paste on leather (rough side always) I get to push cut sharpness pretty easily and then it's a crap shoot as to whether more dulls it or sharpens a little more. At some point it always dulls it. It's probably because I get a little to hard with the stroke but with the firmer support of wood I don't have that problem as it doesn't give, does that sound likely?. Maybe with the smooth side of the leather I'd do better, as you say you have. so much to learn...
 
We haven't quite hit the realm of scientific testing yet, which is a good thing given my OCD. However, I'm far from a pro. I can get sharp, I can get ridiculously sharp, but it is not yet a guaranteed repeatable thing. Yet. Hence all the strops. Too much pressure is a thing though, that is for sure. Too little pressure is an issue too though, so keep at it and eventually you will find your stride. It took me months to get to where I could properly sharpen an edge. Careful use of the sharpie method helped tremendously though, and use a magnifying glass, because even if the sharpie looks gone from the edge, it might not be. Other than that, practice, practice, practice!
 
I'm building two new strops and will load them w/ Dico's Emery (E5) and Stainless (SCR) compound. I already have the Cromium (CR1), so we'll see how each does. These are all the compounds Dico recommends for ferrous metals. I'm curious if the cromium is too fine a jump from my white ceramic stone.

I did re-establish the profile on my BK14 yesterday, starting with the coarse diamond stone, then to fine diamond, fine ceramic, and ending with the cromium strop and a light touch. It's a heck of a lot sharper than before. I was definitely using too much pressure on the strop.
 
Derek, I don't mean to stomp all over your thread, so if you want me to post a new one, let me know.

All this strop-making discussion has got me thinking. I've been using Dico's chromium buffing compound for several years now, and always wondered if it's too fine a jump from my white ceramic stone to the strop. Then I watched that video in the thread cschol posted (Balanced Strop) and was amazed. So, trip to <highlowcard> Hardware.

I've had a leather belt I bought at Goodwill a couple of years ago for just this purpose, but I wasn't motivated to try other compounds. I like the idea of using compounds readily available, rather than special high-tech ninja stuff that sharpener companies sell. I am frustrated by the lack of micron or grit size available on these products, though. I'm not really sure how they compare to my diamond or ceramic stones.

Trip to <highlowcard> yielded this:
MSEV6Vb.jpg

Hoof knife? How did that get in there? It was sitting there all alone, calling to me. I already have a mora curved blade and have made a few spoons with it. That's a different post. The wife had to drag me out before I bought more stuff.

My existing strop, plus some spare boards long enough to create more. The belt I have for this is smaller than the one I used for the other strop, so these boards work fine. One of the boards was actually part of a 2x4 that I ripped to the right size. I love my table saw.
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Cut down to size.
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Sanded the edges a little.
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Here, I trimmed the belt to size with my BK14.
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I just used regular wood glue.
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Both sides were fairly smooth, I put the smoothest (public side of belt) up. Then I clamped the strops together. Convenient!
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I waited a day. Here's a blurry pic of them after I unclamped.
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I trimmed handles into the boards, sanded them, and did a crappy job of drilling holes.
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Here they are with the past on. It's hard to tell which is which. Emery is on the left, a dark grey. Stainless is in the middle, light grey to white.
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I had trouble getting the Stainless on the strop. You can see the black on the compound tube from where it rubbed the leather.

I had recently reprofiled my 14, because the edge had become too convexed. I used too much pressure when stropping. After reprofiling, it was awesome. My 16 had similar issues. Right after I strop it with the chromium, it shaves, but dulls fairly quickly. Keep in mind, we're talking relatively dull. It's still sharper than what most people carry around.

I started the 16 with the emery paste, with a light touch, and kept at it until I could feel it cut a new edge. By this time, my secondary grind had gone from shiny to cloudy. Then I switched to the stainless paste, and ended with the chromium. It's the sharpest I've ever gotten a blade. It not only shaves, the back of my neck is razor-smooth.

I hit the 14 with the stainless and then chromium paste, and it's sharper too. Neither has that mirror edge any more. I didn't spend much time on the chromium.
 
First, what I know about stropping MIGHT get the bottom of a thimble wet. When I remember stropping going on in the old barbershops I went to as a kid, when they were still allowed to use razors to trim your neck and around your ears, the barbers would hold the bottom end of a leather strap that hung from the wall and had no wood on the back of it. Neither did my great-grandfather's or my grandfather's strops have wood. I know that for a fact from their being tested on my backside.

I also do not remember their strops having any kind of compound on them.

So what is the purpose of the wood? What difference does having wood make with stropping over not having wood?
 
wood lets you use thinner leather and a shorter overall strop -- not everyone can afford a full size butcher/barber strop -- or has room to use it.
It's also hard to find a doorknob to hang your strop by in the woods. ;)
 
The barber's strop is also better suited to the full hollow-ground edge of a straight razor. If you're not very careful and pull it tight, you could easily round the edge of a blade. Some barber's strops did contain compound, although most seemed to have leather on one side and canvas on the other. You'd strop with the leather first, then the canvas. This stropping was also touching up the edge right before use, almost like a butcher's hone. It wasn't meant to sharpen, or even polish the edge.
 
Mac - confusion on my part... do you mean that you should pull it tight or should not pull it tight? I THINK you mean it should be pulled tight, since the above described small strops are all on boards, which would make them VERY tight. Just trying to make sure I understand since I'm a noob at stropping...meaning I haven't done any at all, yet.
 
By all means Mac, post up as much info as you can in here. Might have us a definitive thread on stropping before we are finished, and that is never a bad thing.

Leather backed with wood still has give. It has a limited amount of give, and since the density of most leather is somewhat consistent, backing it with wood allows us to remove a variable from the process. Less variables means more consistent results, and I think that is something we are all after. Whereas with a barber strop you could determine the amount of convex by pressure and tension on the strop, leather backed with wood allows you to determine the amount of convex merely with pressure alone. Adjust the angle back, push harder, more convex. Lighten pressure, increase the angle forward, less convex.
 
Thank you mac and Derek for the additional explanations. Looks like I need to get stropping. :)
 
Thanks for how to Derek! It's a really easy way to make a nice strop.

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It's also much more practical than what I have been using!

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Is holding a precise angle less important with a strop than with stones because the leather has give? Or am I over simplifying it? I find that my technique with a strop is faster and a little sloppy compared to how careful I am when using stones. Just wandering if I should correct that.
 
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