Need help sharpeing

N

NRXTM

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Jul 12, 2012
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I need a little help with stropping , I am using a cheap leather strop stapled on wood with stropman green compound on my crkt drifter. After a while I got the top part of the blade to shave but the recurve part is still pretty dull. Do I need to start over with coarser compound? Higher quality strop? Any advise is appreciated , thanks. Also can any mod change the title to "need help stropping"?

sharp part

dull part
 
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you might need to make yourself a strop that is curved a bit. My guess is that you are not getting the polish you want inside that recurve, because there isn't much flex in the leather. try wrapping your leather around something like a jar or can, something that is an equal or tighter curve than the knife.
 
gadgetgeek said:
you might need to make yourself a strop that is curved a bit. My guess is that you are not getting the polish you want inside that recurve, because there isn't much flex in the leather. try wrapping your leather around something like a jar or can, something that is an equal or tighter curve than the knife.
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This :thumbup:

You also need to ensure during sharpening the inside of the recurve also fully apexed.
 
You can work the outside long corner of the strop, have to lower the handle when working the recurve, elevate it when working the belly. A few dots from a Sharpie along the cutting edge will give you an indicator without covering the strop in marker streaks.

Keep in mind the strop won't help a whole lot if the edge isn't sharp to begin with.
 
HeavyHanded said:
You can work the outside long corner of the strop, have to lower the handle when working the recurve, elevate it when working the belly. A few dots from a Sharpie along the cutting edge will give you an indicator without covering the strop in marker streaks.

Keep in mind the strop won't help a whole lot if the edge isn't sharp to begin with.
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That bolded part is the biggest consideration, as I see it. In order for a strop to be really effective, the edge needs to be pretty good to start with.

Good news is, you can still 'strop' the recurve to sharp, but using some different materials. Some wet/dry sandpaper on a hard cylindrical backing (section of pipe, dowel or broom handle, bedpost/rail, etc.) can work very well, when using an edge-trailing 'stropping' stroke. Some 220-400 grit paper would work pretty quickly to put crisp, new bevels on it. Take the same technique to higher grit, if desired, depending on the edge finish you're working toward. Stropping will be much more effective, after establishing the crisply-apexed bevels with the sandpaper. And using a firm/hard backing for stropping, like paper + compound over the same cylinder, will help protect that crisp apex from the rounding that might otherwise happen with softish or compressible leather.


David
 
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thanks for the help guys , using the long edge has been successful. Now i just need to make a better strop
 
There are lots of threads around about methods, plus you can make things work for you by customizing things. Keep in mind that the entire point of the effectiveness of a strop is that it very tolerant of difference. So you don't need perfection (when doing knives) over time I'm sure you will end up with a collection of different materials and compounds as you experiment.
 
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