powernoodle
Power Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Messages
- 11,972
I was fortunate enough to receive a free strop from mr2blue, and thought I give my brief thoughts. Today's victim was an almost-new Buck 112. Love the 112, btw.
Pretty straight forward. First thing was to grab some green buffing compound from Sears for $2.19. Opinions vary on the compound selection, but there seems to be a general consensus that you can't go wrong with the green flavor:
Colored it on the strop like using a crayon, and gave the 112 a few light passes, trying to keep the angle right. The knife was pretty sharp to begin with, having come that way out of the box and been given a few licks on a DMT extra-fine dia-sharp.
There is no doubt that the stropping polished up the edge a bit. The good old back of the arm shaving test demonstrated a real improvement. Note how the compound is not evenly displaced on the leather, indicating micro hills and valleys. It feels flat as glass to the touch, and I suspect that any natural irregularities in the cow hide will flatten out over time. [Edit: Mr2blue indicates that these very small natural irregularies will smooth out over time]. Might need to go a little heavier on the compound. In any event, it seemed not to affect performance, and I am very happy to now have the means of taking sharpness to the next level.
Mr2blue noted that the latest strops have beveled edges, which my early model does not.
Mr2blue's strops start at $27.50 shipped, and go up from there depending on the wood selected. See here, or contact mr2blue directly.
Pretty straight forward. First thing was to grab some green buffing compound from Sears for $2.19. Opinions vary on the compound selection, but there seems to be a general consensus that you can't go wrong with the green flavor:
Colored it on the strop like using a crayon, and gave the 112 a few light passes, trying to keep the angle right. The knife was pretty sharp to begin with, having come that way out of the box and been given a few licks on a DMT extra-fine dia-sharp.
There is no doubt that the stropping polished up the edge a bit. The good old back of the arm shaving test demonstrated a real improvement. Note how the compound is not evenly displaced on the leather, indicating micro hills and valleys. It feels flat as glass to the touch, and I suspect that any natural irregularities in the cow hide will flatten out over time. [Edit: Mr2blue indicates that these very small natural irregularies will smooth out over time]. Might need to go a little heavier on the compound. In any event, it seemed not to affect performance, and I am very happy to now have the means of taking sharpness to the next level.
Mr2blue noted that the latest strops have beveled edges, which my early model does not.
Mr2blue's strops start at $27.50 shipped, and go up from there depending on the wood selected. See here, or contact mr2blue directly.
Last edited:
