AFAustin
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,505
A while back, I inquired about denim strops: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/915222-Denim-Hone-Strop
I since have experimented a little, though not a lot, and what has worked best for me is the simplest possible construction. I just wrapped a rectangular piece of old worn out jeans around a paint stick and attached it with rubber bands. I have played around a while with this "plain" version, especially as a last step to clean off any green compound from my leather strop. It is just 2 layers of denim, so there is a little "give" but not a large amount.
Recently, while sharpening up a (fortunately, inexpensive) knife on my Work Sharp, I managed to tarry too long up close to the choil, and so put a little unintended "recurve" in the blade. Maybe I should've just taken out the curve, but I got curious on how I would sharpen it if I left it as is. I found that my crude little denim hone, narrow and cushioned a little that it is, seemed to work pretty well. I decided to experiment further, though, and made another denim strop, except this time I gave it 3 layers of cloth for more cushioning in order to better conform to the recurve. And I applied some Bark River green compound as well. Voila'---this little strop seems to fill the bill quite nicely. In fact, the recurve portion now seems to be the sharpest portion of the blade!
Anyway, thought I'd share this extremely cheap and easy denim hone with you guys.
Cheers,
Andrew
I since have experimented a little, though not a lot, and what has worked best for me is the simplest possible construction. I just wrapped a rectangular piece of old worn out jeans around a paint stick and attached it with rubber bands. I have played around a while with this "plain" version, especially as a last step to clean off any green compound from my leather strop. It is just 2 layers of denim, so there is a little "give" but not a large amount.
Recently, while sharpening up a (fortunately, inexpensive) knife on my Work Sharp, I managed to tarry too long up close to the choil, and so put a little unintended "recurve" in the blade. Maybe I should've just taken out the curve, but I got curious on how I would sharpen it if I left it as is. I found that my crude little denim hone, narrow and cushioned a little that it is, seemed to work pretty well. I decided to experiment further, though, and made another denim strop, except this time I gave it 3 layers of cloth for more cushioning in order to better conform to the recurve. And I applied some Bark River green compound as well. Voila'---this little strop seems to fill the bill quite nicely. In fact, the recurve portion now seems to be the sharpest portion of the blade!
Anyway, thought I'd share this extremely cheap and easy denim hone with you guys.
Cheers,
Andrew
, still cant get over how good plain denim is 
