Nano Cloth Stropping

BluegrassBrian

BluegrassBrian

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The retail site that specializes in chef knives has a handful of cool stropping options for the Edge Pro. Aside from the standard bovine leather they offer felt, horse, kangaroo, balsa, and now NANO CLOTH.
I needed a new bottle of diamond spray and the nano cloth was highly regarded so I picked one up for $15.
I loaded it up with 1 micron spray and stropped all of my folders.
At the very least it worked as well as my horse hide strop. It may prove to be more durable and long lived.
If you're in to stropping on the edge pro I think it's worth a look.
TxM4x2a.jpg
 
The biggest advantage of nano cloth IMO is that it really holds a lot of abrasive.

When I load a hone I try to get the thickest, most even coat. Just an eyeball guess, but I'd say it holds about 3X as much compound as leather.

More abrasive makes nano cloth a more aggressive hone, and it's a perfectly uniform surface.

I've been using nano cloth since it came out, and have several 3x8" nano cloth hones. I use them more than my leather hones.
 
It doesn't really compare. Nano cloth is totally dependent on what you load it with, so it's completely variable.

In other words, I use up to 16um poly diamond, down to 0.025um poly diamond on different nano cloth hones. You get to come up with your own progressions.

The EP tapes are really very fine. How fine? Dunno. Ben seems to have made his own grit designations. They load immediately and aren't easy to clean. They work slowly and wear quickly IMO.

You can put almost any compound on Nano, and you get perfect results for that compound. One loading lasts an amazingly long time.

It works just as well with CBN or anything else.
 
I always finish with 4k or 6k Shaptons.
This nano strop loaded with 1 micron diamond is really the cherry on top.
 
grizzled gizzard said:
The biggest advantage of nano cloth IMO is that it really holds a lot of abrasive.
Click to expand...

How much abrasive does one really need?

When I load a hone I try to get the thickest, most even coat. Just an eyeball guess, but I'd say it holds about 3X as much compound as leather.
Click to expand...

If 'thickness' counted, wouldn't polishing film be thick?

With all due respect, the abrasive action of stropping occurs at that micron level. If you are using 1 micron grit, so long as there is 1 micron above the substrate there will be effective abrasion. Having 1/8 inch thick layer of compound isn't going to improve that. Because of the pore structure of leather or wood, it's true that you might need a 10 or 20 micron layer to insure that there is 1 micron standing proud of the substrate, but that layer will still be thinner than a human hair. While it may be fun to smooth on a thick layer of compound, ironing it on with a ski-waxing iron, it's really not needed. If it were, there wouldn't be 'spray bottles' of compound with a watery base. Compounds would come in peanut butter jars.



Stitchawl
 
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Nano cloth requires very little abrasive to be effective. In my experience less is more. It holds the dried compound, CBN or diamond for example, so well there really isn't any need to go overboard. I have one small strop of nano cloth that has had one small application of poly diamond (I think)10 months ago. Still going strong.
 
pjwoolw said:
Nano cloth requires very little abrasive to be effective. In my experience less is more. It holds the dried compound, CBN or diamond for example, so well there really isn't any need to go overboard. I have one small strop of nano cloth that has had one small application of poly diamond (I think)10 months ago. Still going strong.
Click to expand...

I've posted this before but it bears repeating... About 20 years ago HandAmerican started selling 'Liquid' Chromium Oxide compound. First I'd ever seen. As HA's products were always top notch, I ordered some. I guess it's an 8oz bottle. And because I knew I'd like it so much, I ordered two of 'em! No sense running out, or having it not be available when I need it, right?

And I was correct... This stuff is GREAT! It's all I've ever used (regularly, other than experimentation with other brands and styles) when I want to strop with a .5 micron Chromium Oxide compound. And I do that pretty damned often! So I've been using this stuff for about 20 years now.......

...... 20 years now.... and I've gone through HALF A BOTTLE! I still have one and a half bottles of this liquid chromium oxide compound left. Fact is, I used the stuff for OTHER polishing jobs too... seriously scuffed up silver jewelery, motorcycle chrome, brass ship's clocks.... and I STILL have one and a half bottles of the compound left.

Yeah... I think some folks just might be using more compound than is really needed to get the job done right. On the other hand, using a ski waxing iron to apply compound can be fun... for a skier... during the summer months... :)


Stitchawl
 
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