Questions about strops and stropping

[aznpos531]

Up until now I've only been using stones to maintain my knives. I would touch them up regularly then strop the blade on newspaper wrapped around the stone. This has worked just fine for my thus far. However, I've been itching to give leather strops a try and want to start by building one of my own. Before I begin, I just have a few questions that I'm hoping some of you can help me with.

What type of leather is best suited for building a strop? How thick?

I see strops coming in all different sizes; some wider, some thinner, some longer, some shorter. Longer strops obviously makes stropping a longer blade easier. However, is there any difference/benefit to a wider or narrower strop?

Between hanging strops and leather-on-a-piece-of-wood strops (for lack of a better term) I prefer the latter type because it's closer to a bench stone. Is there any reason a hanging strop would be superior to the leather-on-a-piece-of-wood strop (other than being easier to say)?

Are stropping compounds necessary? Will bare leather be an effective stropping surface?

That's all that I can think of now. I'll update if I think anything else.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RickeeDee]

I'll take a stab at providing some answers here.

The thickness of the leather won't matter too much, but the thinner it is the easier it is to manipulate and the less expensive it will be. 1/8" to 3/16" should be fairly common. The type of leather is dependant on what you can get, but untreated cattle rawhide is pretty much standard across most strops, although premium horse hide is apparently great for bare stropping. You also don't need a premium cut either, seconds or even scraps will work if you can find the right size.

The width of the strop tends to be dictated by the length of your knives and availability of leather; a wider, longer strop is usually preferred as it covers more edge area in a single pass and accommodates large knives. 2" x 8" x 1" is a pretty useful size for a block-type strop. The hanging strops are more barber-oriented for straight razors; other than being totally unattached to anything, I don't think there is anything inherently different about them. The block-strops, however, have the benefit of being double sided, so you can get 2 (or more) strops out of a single block.

Unless you're using extremely fine stones, then you're gonna want a compound of some kind as bare leather really just refines and already extremely sharp edge. I personally use diamond pastes and sprays and I love them, but you can use a variety of things from green block compound from hardware stores, to automotive metal polish. There's several threads already covering compounds so I'd recommend perusing those to find something readily available to you.

Hope this helps, I'm sure someone with greater expertise than me will chime in.

 

[fireincairo]

Here are a couple tutorials on sharpening with a strop. The second link has in-depth videos on the subject:

http://www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm

http://www.knivesshipfree.com/pages/Sharpening-Videos

 

[aznpos531]

I'll take a stab at providing some answers here.

The thickness of the leather won't matter too much, but the thinner it is the easier it is to manipulate and the less expensive it will be. 1/8" to 3/16" should be fairly common. The type of leather is dependant on what you can get, but untreated cattle rawhide is pretty much standard across most strops, although premium horse hide is apparently great for bare stropping. You also don't need a premium cut either, seconds or even scraps will work if you can find the right size.

The width of the strop tends to be dictated by the length of your knives and availability of leather; a wider, longer strop is usually preferred as it covers more edge area in a single pass and accommodates large knives. 2" x 8" x 1" is a pretty useful size for a block-type strop. The hanging strops are more barber-oriented for straight razors; other than being totally unattached to anything, I don't think there is anything inherently different about them. The block-strops, however, have the benefit of being double sided, so you can get 2 (or more) strops out of a single block.

Unless you're using extremely fine stones, then you're gonna want a compound of some kind as bare leather really just refines and already extremely sharp edge. I personally use diamond pastes and sprays and I love them, but you can use a variety of things from green block compound from hardware stores, to automotive metal polish. There's several threads already covering compounds so I'd recommend perusing those to find something readily available to you.

Hope this helps, I'm sure someone with greater expertise than me will chime in.

Thanks for the reply. Your answers were very helpful.

Here are a couple tutorials on sharpening with a strop. The second link has in-depth videos on the subject:

http://www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm

http://www.knivesshipfree.com/pages/Sharpening-Videos

Thanks for the that. I'm already pretty confident at stropping. I was more concerned with building the right strop.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Up until now I've only been using stones to maintain my knives. I would touch them up regularly then strop the blade on newspaper wrapped around the stone. This has worked just fine for my thus far. However, I've been itching to give leather strops a try and want to start by building one of my own. Before I begin, I just have a few questions that I'm hoping some of you can help me with.

What type of leather is best suited for building a strop? How thick?

Veg-tanned cowhide is a good choice for building one inexpensively. It's readily available, too. Thickness is a preference issue. My preference leans toward thinner leather (1/16" or less). If thicker leather is used, I'd find some that's also very firm. Very thick and SOFT leather will increase the likelihood of rounding off the edge.

I see strops coming in all different sizes; some wider, some thinner, some longer, some shorter. Longer strops obviously makes stropping a longer blade easier. However, is there any difference/benefit to a wider or narrower strop?

Wider strops allow greater ease of stropping for larger blades. Length obviously helps too. Strops in the 2" - 3" width are ideal, I think. For a small pocketknife, and for a suitable 'pocket' strop to go with it, something narrower would be fine. My sharpening and stropping habits are centered around holding my hone/strop block in one hand, while holding the knife in the other hand. Used like this, my strop block is sized accordingly, about 5-1/2" long and 2-1/2" wide, by 1/2" thick. It's a pretty effective compromise, and will handle any blade up to 6" easily. I have actually stropped some large kitchen knives with it, up to 8" blade length. With some practice, it's pretty easy.

Between hanging strops and leather-on-a-piece-of-wood strops (for lack of a better term) I prefer the latter type because it's closer to a bench stone. Is there any reason a hanging strop would be superior to the leather-on-a-piece-of-wood strop (other than being easier to say)?

A bench strop (I call it a 'strop block') provides a firm/hard backing, which enables better control, especially for larger blades. Hanging strops can work very well on edges that are already very refined, where a light touch is more productive. A hanging strop also flexes (obviously), which is preferable (by some) for convex edges and straight razors. Conversely, without some skill and the right touch, that 'flex' can also make it easier to round off an edge.

Are stropping compounds necessary? Will bare leather be an effective stropping surface?

Stropping, either with or without compound, is all about refining an already very good edge. The more refinement is done prior, the more a strop will be able to really make an edge 'pop'. Most prefer to use at least two strops, one with compound, and one bare. The compound used will be most effective, if it's grit size isn't too big of a jump from the grit used in the final sharpening stage on the hones. Knowing something about abrasive types and grit sizes can make choosing the right compound much easier. Ideally, staying consistent in abrasive type (such as all diamond, or all silicon carbide, start to finish) will produce more predictable results. Lots of possibilities. But just for example, an 'all diamond' sequence, using DMT hones & pastes, might go something like DMT 'Fine' (25 micron) hone, followed by a DMT 'Extra Fine' (9 micron) hone, followed by DMT Dia-Paste compounds in a 6/3/1/sub-micron sequence on strops (separate strops for each grit). I emphasize staying within one type (even one manufacturer) of abrasive, because there's too much variation in grit size & performance if you start 'mixing' types/manufacturers. Impossible to predict results, UNLESS you've been doing it long enough to become familiar with how each performs. In a nutshell, just remember that a 'fine' diamond grit will not be the same as a 'fine' silicon carbide, and neither will be the same as a 'fine' aluminum oxide. They all are spec'd to different standards, size-wise. And there's also the variation due to differences in grit shape & hardness. Diamond is hardest and pretty angular, silicon carbide isn't as hard as diamond, but is very sharp/jagged, and aluminum oxide is slightly less hard than SiC, and not quite so sharp/jagged as Sic. This all makes for drastic differences in how they perform, when comparing one to another.

I know that's pretty long-winded, but being aware of these things ahead of time can save you a lot of frustration in the long run.

 

[aznpos531]

Veg-tanned cowhide is a good choice for building one inexpensively. It's readily available, too. Thickness is a preference issue. My preference leans toward thinner leather (1/16" or less). If thicker leather is used, I'd find some that's also very firm. Very thick and SOFT leather will increase the likelihood of rounding off the edge.

Wider strops allow greater ease of stropping for larger blades. Length obviously helps too. Strops in the 2" - 3" width are ideal, I think. For a small pocketknife, and for a suitable 'pocket' strop to go with it, something narrower would be fine. My sharpening and stropping habits are centered around holding my hone/strop block in one hand, while holding the knife in the other hand. Used like this, my strop block is sized accordingly, about 5-1/2" long and 2-1/2" wide, by 1/2" thick. It's a pretty effective compromise, and will handle any blade up to 6" easily. I have actually stropped some large kitchen knives with it, up to 8" blade length. With some practice, it's pretty easy.

A bench strop (I call it a 'strop block') provides a firm/hard backing, which enables better control, especially for larger blades. Hanging strops can work very well on edges that are already very refined, where a light touch is more productive. A hanging strop also flexes (obviously), which is preferable (by some) for convex edges and straight razors. Conversely, without some skill and the right touch, that 'flex' can also make it easier to round off an edge.

Stropping, either with or without compound, is all about refining an already very good edge. The more refinement is done prior, the more a strop will be able to really make an edge 'pop'. Most prefer to use at least two strops, one with compound, and one bare. The compound used will be most effective, if it's grit size isn't too big of a jump from the grit used in the final sharpening stage on the hones. Knowing something about abrasive types and grit sizes can make choosing the right compound much easier. Ideally, staying consistent in abrasive type (such as all diamond, or all silicon carbide, start to finish) will produce more predictable results. Lots of possibilities. But just for example, an 'all diamond' sequence, using DMT hones & pastes, might go something like DMT 'Fine' (25 micron) hone, followed by a DMT 'Extra Fine' (9 micron) hone, followed by DMT Dia-Paste compounds in a 6/3/1/sub-micron sequence on strops (separate strops for each grit). I emphasize staying within one type (even one manufacturer) of abrasive, because there's too much variation in grit size & performance if you start 'mixing' types/manufacturers. Impossible to predict results, UNLESS you've been doing it long enough to become familiar with how each performs. In a nutshell, just remember that a 'fine' diamond grit will not be the same as a 'fine' silicon carbide, and neither will be the same as a 'fine' aluminum oxide. They all are spec'd to different standards, size-wise. And there's also the variation due to differences in grit shape & hardness. Diamond is hardest and pretty angular, silicon carbide isn't as hard as diamond, but is very sharp/jagged, and aluminum oxide is slightly less hard than SiC, and not quite so sharp/jagged as Sic. This all makes for drastic differences in how they perform, when comparing one to another.

I know that's pretty long-winded, but being aware of these things ahead of time can save you a lot of frustration in the long run.

Thanks for that very comprehensive answer! It cleared up a lot of my doubts and suspicions. I don't mind long-winded answers as long as they're full of good, helpful info. Thanks again!

 

[BRO]

I think there is at least one Blade forum member that sells ready made strops, which I understand are some nice strops. I purchased my strops from a member of another forum, my point being look around the forum and you may find what you need, ready made.