New strop

K

Kai Winters

Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Messages
939
Hi all,
Got a bit of 6u Dia Paste from Blade HQ yesterday and with a piece of 3/16 balsa from a local craft shop and a piece of leather pillaged from an old couch a neighbor was tossing I made a nice little strop.
It works quite nicely.
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How do you know it works nicely? Did you case the leather? 6mic is close to a 3000 grit shapton if memory serves, What is your desired result when stropping with this paste? Just curious why you picked 6mic?

Russ
 
It works nicely? Because the edge has a higher polish than when I started.
Desired result? A bit more polish.
Why 6u? It is a bit higher than the Lansky "Blue Sapphire" I usually use prior to stropping with black then green compounds. I'm using Bark River brand compounds. I've used compounds sold at big boxes...Sears, etc. and find the BK compound to be better...perhaps a higher percentage of grit to wax compared to the others I've tried.
I notice some metal residue on the diamond paste strop so I guess it is working as the residue means it is removing some surface material as it polishes.

I use a Lansky system with a combination of diamond, Arkansas and ceramic hones to sharpen followed by stropping for the final edge.
I wanted to "try" diamond paste and considered the 6u a reasonable step after the green compound.
I don't feel the need or desire, thus far hehehe, to go any farther...the edge on my ZT770cf has a nice polish. To test the cutting edge I use paper from telephone books...if the edge cuts cleanly and smoothly without any "grabs" I consider it sharp...I use a microscope, at work, to inspect my work...honestly not a great idea in general because I never remove every micro marks???...need a more accurate word...but the edge tops arm hair and slices through telly book paper at all points I use without grabs...sharp and shiny enough for me.
 
Kai Winters said:
It works nicely? Because the edge has a higher polish than when I started.
Desired result? A bit more polish.
Why 6u? It is a bit higher than the Lansky "Blue Sapphire" I usually use prior to stropping with black then green compounds. I'm using Bark River brand compounds. I've used compounds sold at big boxes...Sears, etc. and find the BK compound to be better...perhaps a higher percentage of grit to wax compared to the others I've tried.
I notice some metal residue on the diamond paste strop so I guess it is working as the residue means it is removing some surface material as it polishes.

I use a Lansky system with a combination of diamond, Arkansas and ceramic hones to sharpen followed by stropping for the final edge.
I wanted to "try" diamond paste and considered the 6u a reasonable step after the green compound.
I don't feel the need or desire, thus far hehehe, to go any farther...the edge on my ZT770cf has a nice polish. To test the cutting edge I use paper from telephone books...if the edge cuts cleanly and smoothly without any "grabs" I consider it sharp...I use a microscope, at work, to inspect my work...honestly not a great idea in general because I never remove every micro marks???...need a more accurate word...but the edge tops arm hair and slices through telly book paper at all points I use without grabs...sharp and shiny enough for me.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, glad it is working for you. The paste will cut the higher alloy steels that the bark river black and green will only burnish.
When you get the itch, try some 1mic or .5mic, I think you will not the result. Try lightly sanding some balsa and skip the leather, apply the paste to the balsa itself. Less chance of rounding an edge when stropping.
Have fun, sharp is where it's at.

Russ
 
While riding my bike today and thinking about this strop and thread I came to these thoughts: Balsa is very soft and I'm thinking not the best for a strop because if I apply to much pressure I may wind up rounding the edge a bit...so thinking a harder surface would work better.

The leather is just a cosmetic touch...not being used as a stropping surface, merely a backing and handle wrap...as it was lying around in my shop I thought "why not?".

I prepped the surface by sanding it with 400 grit, then 800 followed by 1000 grit wet/dry paper to smooth out the surface before applying the paste.

I'm doing this just for the fun of it and to see what happens.
Thanks for the tips...
 
Kai Winters said:
...so thinking a harder surface would work better.
Click to expand...
Go to your local big box store and get some 'finished lumber' in a hardwood like Poplar or Maple. It's about $2/ft. No need for flattening or smoothing.

Try your paste on bare wood, printer paper, denim, etc.
 
I have a lot of bits and pieces of varied woods in my shop and grabbed a piece of 1x2 pine in a 10" length.
Sanded it up to 2500 grit for the hell of it...nice and smooth...added paste and tried it out...worked better than the balsa, much better in fact...
I should have time tomorrow before work to hit Home Depot and grab a piece of maple...
 
Hi,
Kai Winters said:
I have a lot of bits and pieces of varied woods in my shop and grabbed a piece of 1x2 pine in a 10" length.
Sanded it up to 2500 grit for the hell of it...nice and smooth...added paste and tried it out...worked better than the balsa, much better in fact...
I should have time tomorrow before work to hit Home Depot and grab a piece of maple...
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "much better" exactly?
update: higher polish than the balsa? Did you also sand the balsa ?
update: so balsa only sanded to 1000 grit, I wonder what happens if you sand it up to 2500 as well :)
 
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Kai Winters said:
I have a lot of bits and pieces of varied woods in my shop and grabbed a piece of 1x2 pine in a 10" length.
Sanded it up to 2500 grit for the hell of it...nice and smooth...added paste and tried it out...worked better than the balsa, much better in fact...
I should have time tomorrow before work to hit Home Depot and grab a piece of maple...
Click to expand...

Keep playing around, its a real complex topic in some respects but very fascinating and fun.

The harder the backing the more prone to burring and the faster it tends to load up. Surface texturing will certainly have an effect. At some point you're more knifeboard than strop, but there's a lot of overlap.

If you can do samples and look under your microscope would be helpful - often the only cues at low magnification are a slight change in how hazy the scratch, how soft the shoulder transition becomes etc, while a much closer look reveals all kinds of stuff that can be more predictive of cutting character, verified of course with cut tests.
 
I think what I mean by "much better" is the feel of the edge's contact with the pine opposed to the edge's contact with the balsa...I suspect it is the feel of the pressure as I move the edge across the surface...with the balsa I feel I have to be so much more careful? to prevent rolling the edge while the pine, being a bit harder, is more forgiving...I need to improve my stroke pressure in either case.

At this point I don't want a burr as I want to polish but looking at the residue I must be removing some material...I'd guess it is because I'm reducing the scratch patterns???

Looking at an edge under a mic is not a good idea for "anal" people. An edge that will easily shave hair and slice through telly paper will look gnarly under magnification using a mic. My mic is nothing to brag about...a 2x and 4x mag selection. Using the 2x gets me to smile a bit while the 4x makes me cringe lol.
I had a chance to go over my ZT770 yesterday evening and started with the Lansky fine diamond hone followed by an Arkansas medium and hard/black with the yellow and blue ceramic hones to finish...I paid close attention to strokes and stroke pressure with the goal to reduce "scratch" lines. I followed up with the strop...black/green compounds on veggie tanned leather...finished with the diamond paste on the pine.
Using my loupe I could see that the scratch line pattern was much more even and fine. The cut test with telly paper sliced through the paper cleanly and smoothly at all points along the edge.
When I go to work this afternoon, 3-11 this week, I'll check under the mic. I'm hoping to see a very even and small? scratch line pattern with a very clean edge with no "rounding"...almost a secondary bevel I suspect I make when increasing the stropping angle opposed to maintaining the same angle.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions...My aim is to learn, improve ad increase my skill while enjoying myself.
 
I love balsa strops. I use the dialux green compound on balsa and it leaves a beautiful mirror edge that push cuts newspaper and shaves on my opinel #10. I switched from leather to balsa, and gotta say I definitely prefer the balsa.

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