Question about stropping

[jokrswylde]

I am thinking about trying a leather strop to touch up some blades and I had a couple of questions. I was wondering if the type of leather matters? I have a couple of old weightlifting belts that are really wide and thick. Would these work? If so, is it best to hang them, or nail them to a piece of wood? Do you have to have the compound? I have heard of people stropping on their blue jeans, I am assuming they are not putting stropping powder on their clothes!
Finally, what kind of results can I expect (assuming I do everything correctly), can I expect an edge like I can get from a touch up on the sharpmaker? Better? Would be great if someone who is good at this technique came up with a mini-f.a.q. for DA's like myself. It almost seems like a lost art in the barbershops and I think it would be cool to learn this method.

Excuse me if this has already been discussed, but my search is not working.

 

[J.Davey]

After sharpening a knife on a steel, rod, or stone, try stropping it on some cardboard (I've found that the backing of legal notepads works well for smaller knives, currogated-with the grain-for bigger ones), or a canvas-over-cardboard book cover. Hey, they work for me. Pulls the burr forward and polishes up the edge nicely.

 

[airyq]

I have some scraps of leather that I place flat on a hard surface and strop slowly. J.Davey is probably doing some thing similar, only with cardboard. Some times, I apply a metal polish on the leather as I have not found any stropping compounds over here. Works. Be careful about stropping on a hanging belt, it is easy to round the edge and the knife ends up blunt. If your belt if too thick and has to much "give", this could happen as well when you strop on a flat surface. Unless you are trying to get a convex edge, but that is some thing else altogether.

 

[Gossman Knives]

You'll get alot of different methods of doing this. The way I recommend for my knives is to use a piece of leather 1 1/2" to 2" wide about 3 feet in length. An old belt works well for this. Clamp to a table or work bench, pull straight out and lay blade flat. Strop away from edge from heel to point. Flip over and repeat on the opposite side. This takes some pratice. You'er better off doing it on a flat surface in the beginning until you get the hang of it. I provide a piece of 600 grit aluminum oxide compound to rub into leather. This is your cutting agent to hone edge. Your weightlifting belt will work, but not by way of the hanging method. It's to wide for that. Better to use that on a flat surface. Not using a cutting compound will mearly polish the edge and not actually sharpen it.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

You can keep it rigid, or let it hang. The looser the belt the more curvature you will apply to the edge.

If you don't use a buffing compound then stropping will do little except a mild aligning effort. If you use a buffing compound the result is dependent on the type of compound, some are very coarse (80 grit) some are very fine (8000+grit).

Don't be too concerned about the type of leather, you can strop on almost anything that will take a buffing compound, I have even used scrap bits of fabric.

-Cliff

 

[jokrswylde]

I have some blue magic liquid metal polish that my wife uses for silverware, it says that it is "safe and non abrasive" does this mean that it is not a good option for stropping?

 

[Lavan]

STROP !......... in the name of love. tee dum tra la.

 

[Steelhed]

I made a very effective strop out of an old weight lifting belt. I simply took the belt and cut it to the width of a 2x4 and to a length of 15 inches and then glued it to the top of an oak 2x4 I had laying around (which happened to be 15 inches long). I then took a diamond hone and glued that to the side of the 2x4. I use a fine grit valve grinding compound on the leather and that seems to work well once it dries out. Between the hone on the side of the 2x4 and the leather strop on top I can produce a very sharp edge in no time at all.

 

[TorzJohnson]

Excellent strops are so cheap that if you don't feel like making one yourself, you can buy one for a song. Check out Hand American, Knives Plus, or Lee Valley, they all have nice ones at $20 or less. I have the Hand American smooth flatbed strop and it works great, plus they include CrO powder with it.

 

[gud4u]

jokerswylde:

Non-abrasive metal polish works chemically to dissolve metal oxides. If 'active ingredients' are listed, you'll probably see 'oxalic acid' as an ingredient.