The burr should be almost gone by the time you're done on the stones. I would suggest doing a couple of edge-leading passes, very very light, at a slightly higher angle to take off any burr/wire edge. Then when you move to the strops, you're just doing a little extra polishing/refinement, not fighting with a stubborn burr or wire edge.
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New to stropping, should it take so long?
- Thread starter shadowspawn
- Start date
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- May 2, 2004
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- 6,848
Without a lot of experience, stropping can do more to dull an edge than using the knife. The apex is being "pushed" from side to side; what is to indicate you are at the right place to stop the strop?
If the edge has not been prepared correctly, stropping is a waste of time.
If the edge has not been prepared correctly, stropping is a waste of time.
I think that's wise advice. Stropping also is kind of a crutch for some sharpeners. It was for me for a while. My crappy edges would become acceptable after I stropped them a bit on leather loaded with compound.
I can now achieve the edges I want, almost always, with just stones or plates. Deburring on the stone works quite well. I think the strop can help, but as I said, it should be done in moderation. You'd do yourself more good learning to deburr on just stones and using the strop only on very difficult to deburr steels.
Brian.
- Joined
- May 15, 2018
- Messages
- 129
When stropping is it implied that you are aiming for a mirror edge finish? There's no reason to strop a toothy edge right?
Stropping can help deburr an edge that's coarse, medium, or very fine. There's some polishing action in stropping, but it's rather minor in my experience. I think people that chase an extremely fine finish see some polishing benefits from stropping, but that's the minority. Stropping is more like deburring combined with a bit of micro polishing. Stropping will definitely take away some of the toothiness of a coarse edge and it will deburr it. Less is more with stropping.
Brian.
Brian.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,433
Depends on what your objective is. Stropping works over a wide range of possible results, depending on how you go about it.
If you're going for a mirror finish, then stropping with a compound or a series of compounds suited to that task can work very well, and fast. In uses like this, the choice of backing (substrate) for the compound is equally important, to make the compound work aggressively (fast) and also to prevent excessive rounding of the apex.
If you're just wanting to clean up a toothy edge created on a stone (de-burring, in other words), then some very minimal stropping with less-aggressive compound, or no compound at all, can take care of that. At the very least, some light stropping on something like bare leather or denim can strip away loose, weak remnants of burrs and also align a very fine edge.
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