PLEASE try this new strop!!!

Z

Zeasor

Joined
May 29, 2007
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386
I wanted a better strop for concaved curved blades like linoleum knifes, hawkbill blades. I found it. The strop is made using heavy clay-coated paper which is readily available in your mailbox, newspaper, magazines,... It has a hard, shiny, slick surface like the paper used in many magazines. (the clay coating enhances color printing) I used an advertising piece of heavy paper (similar to the weight of a color picture postcard) measuring 10"x6". I rolled the paper over without creasing it, forming a stiff tube by bringing the two 10" sides together and taping them. The end view of the tube is shaped like an apple seed or a drop of water. Gripping the taped edges in hand presents a stiff 10" long curved surface for stroping; ideal for curved blades. I don't know if the clay coating has any abrasive effect but it sure dresses the edge of my blades nicely, especially the softer steels of my SAKs. Anyone, please try it and report back how it works for you. There is no hair left on my arms/legs for testing.:mad: Am I imagining the effectiveness of this strop???:confused:
 
Interesting, kind of like the thing of sharpening or burnishing the old double edged razor blades on the inside of a glass.
 
Good idea. I've used on occasion a softwood dowel carved to fit the curvature of the edge with CrO compound on it. Also tried cardboard wrapped over the dowel and then CrO adds a bit more give.
 
Nosetotail said:
How do you recognize the clay coated paper from regular paper?
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Per the post: "The strop is made using heavy clay-coated paper which is readily available in your mailbox, newspaper, magazines,... It has a hard, shiny, slick surface like the paper used in many magazines."

Get a U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope
 
Nosetotail said:
How do you recognize the clay coated paper from regular paper?
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It's glossy and slippery feeling. Most catalogs, color magazines and the like are printed on it. Some fraction of my local newspapers sunday ads are printed on it; an increasing number aren't.
 
Zeasor said:
Per the post: "The strop is made using heavy clay-coated paper which is readily available in your mailbox, newspaper, magazines,... It has a hard, shiny, slick surface like the paper used in many magazines."

Get a U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope
Click to expand...

Great idea...now post a picture of the darn thing. :p
 
Examples of clay-coated paper are the covers of National Geographic Magazine and Money Magazine (as are many other popular magazines). Lay such a magazine flat and strop away on the cover. For a concave curved blade, roll a magazine to form a tube and strop away on the wall of the tube. If/when that roll becomes cumbersome, try the configuration described in the original post. Just get to stroppin' and let us know if it works well.
 
I just wasn't sure if it was any glossy paper in a magazine, or a particularly thick page that was glossy. Thanks for the info.
 
Chris "Anagarika";5391184 said:
Do you strop lengthwise, i.e. along the same part of the curvature of the teardrop, parallel to the glued part?
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Yes, if I am interpreting you question properly. I strop from one end of the tube to the other along the curve (the "fat" end of the tear drop), opposite the edge where the two paper edges come together (the "pointy end of the tear drop). By using heavy weight paper (i.e. cover of phone book) and gripping the tube by the "pointy" edge (where the two edges of paper come together) I have a stiff but "springy" tube. Using a bit of pressure, the curved edge of the tube will "give" slightly as I strop, conforming perfectly to the blade. The sides of the tube work well for stropping the end/tip portion of the blade. The sides of the tube also "give" slightly, conforming to the end of the blade.

I tried wrapping a sheet of wet/dry sand paper around the tube. WOW!!! Stropping on progressive grits then on the bare tube easily brought my concave curved blades (and straight blades) to hair popping sharp.

HAS ANYONE HAD SUCCESS WITH CLAY-COATED PAPER, or am I in a stropping delusion???
 
Zeasor said:
HAS ANYONE HAD SUCCESS WITH CLAY-COATED PAPER, or am I in a stropping delusion???
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I haven't tried it, but I don't believe you're in a stropping delusion; stropping euphoria, perhaps. :)

I don't know much about clay-coated paper, but I assume the clay involved, like all clays I believe, contains silicon compounds which should be abrasive. Can't tell you the hardness of those abrasives, but I don't doubt that the results you're seeing are real, so something in that paper must be hard enough to be polishing the steel.

Using the paper to fit the contour of the recurve -- similar to my razor blade in a glass comment, where it's the thin blade that's made to conform -- is also pretty clever, IMO ... the paper is stiff enough, and the abrasive fine enough, that it doesn't tend to deform and round off the fine edge as can happen with leather, for example.

I like the idea, while I'm not much into recurves I intend to try it on some regular, straight edged blades.
 
Dog of War said:
I haven't tried it, but I don't believe you're in a stropping delusion; stropping euphoria, perhaps. :) ... I like the idea, while I'm not much into recurves I intend to try it on some regular, straight edged blades.
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I'm definitely not in Euphoria. I think that's somewhere in Colorado or California (one of those "C" states). I'm in Fort Worth, Texas. :D:D:D

Please let us know if the clay-coated paper works for you. THANKS

BTW: I use the term "concave curved" to describe the curve of a linoleum or hawkbill knife because I am not sure of the proper term. Is the proper term "recurve"?
 
Nope, that's a fine way to describe it. Recurve would be "s" shaped, most commonly with the belly curved in (see figure 1, although that's a pretty mild recurve) or more rarely what spyderco calls an "s-curve blade", where the curved-in part is just before the tip of the blade (Figure 2)

Figure 1:
1670rd_large.png


figure 2:
47841.jpg
 
Zeasor, a few quick tests confirm you're definitely not delusional.

Stropping on the cover of a yellow pages phone book noticeably improved sharpness of both a Calypso Jr. and Junkyard Dog II, each of which got a fresh finish sharpening on fine ceramic beforehand. Both knives saw pushcutting performance on newsprint improve by 0.7" or more due to the stropping.

Few comments and observations; not enough data to draw any conclusions, but maybe some things to watch for and perhaps look into a little further:

The 13C26 JYD2, which takes an exceptional edge anyway, would consistently pushcut free-hanging newsprint at 5.6" or more from the point of hold after stropping (for reference, around 4" is hair-whittling sharp.) This surprised me for a couple of reasons, and is the largest improvement I've ever seen made to an edge when going to strop immediately after sharpening on fine ceramic.

The VG-10 Caly Jr., while not taking as keen an edge as the JYD2, actually showed the greater improvement from stropping. However the edge wasn't as consistent -- not surprising, VG-10 having a much higher carbide fraction than 13C26 -- with variations in sharpness along the length of the edge seeming to be more exaggerated after stropping.

Stropping on the fairly stiff phone book cover showed no sign of tending to round off the edge as is often seen with regular abrasive-loaded strops. I've never developed the fine motor control needed to be really proficient at stopping a blade edge trailing with very light pressure, and in fact stropped the blades very casually just to see what would happen, with no ill effects.

Thanks for sharing this slick little sharpening trick you've discovered, Zeasor.
 
Hi guys,

Just saw this post and thought I would chime in. Zeasor is onto something here for sure. I wanted to mention that over on the HI forum with large curved convex ground blades we have been using a variant of this for years. Using a section of mousepad or heavy foam or a computer wrist rest, wrapped with hi-grit sandpaper. The paper does the sharpening, and the foamy pad conforms to the blade.

With a concave grind, using the above method will scratch the sides of your blade more, but that happens with the kukris, and I just buff the scratches out later. On higher end hi-polished production knives that might be more of an issue.

However Ken Warner over at new Blackjack and Mike Stewart at BRKT both make knives with convex grinds, and have mentioned at various times that a simple roll of cardboard will clean up and hone their edges nicely. It really does work, and I believe would work on your knives as well. I think that's what you've found here. Try a square of cardboard with the blade on your knee, pushing down to the edge from the sides of the blade, and I think you'll be surprised to find it works very well, and is easy to do.

You can also make a thicker bed of cardboard, and strop the knife along it just as you would on an oilstone. This allows you to put a lot more pressure downwards.

Norm
 
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