Rough side strop, with the grain or against?

[Muaddib1116]

So I made a couple of strops yesterday, my first. Each one has two sides, one I mounted the leather smooth side out and the other rough side out. So far, I've only experimented with one rough side, loading it with green Formax. I've had pretty decent results with it so far, being able to get a hair shaving edge on most of my knives' blade straights (I'm having trouble with the curves and tips).

The way I've been stropping so far has been to drag the blade down on one side of the edge, and then back up on the other side of the edge. Should I be flipping the strop so that I only drag with the grain of the leather for both sides of the edge? or does it not matter?

 

[Ballon Corp]

In my experience it really doesn't matter

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Direction of the stroke, versus the grain of the leather, shouldn't matter at all. Having said that, leather in itself is very unpredictable in how it'll perform. Each piece will be different, in one way or another. I'd suggest trying all possibilities (both directions/both sides) with each piece you use. You might detect differences in the 'feel' (the 'draw') of the blade on the leather, especially when stropping on bare leather, using no compound. The 'feel' might influence which direction you prefer, relative to the grain. Whether it makes any difference in real results, is another question. With the 'rough' side of leather, the little fibers protruding above the surface will tend to bend over or flip either way, depending on the direction of the stroke, like the pile of a shag carpet. So overall, it likely wouldn't make much, if any difference either way.

To me, the bigger difference made by alternating direction of the stroke on a strop, will be in maintaining the same consistent angle going in each direction. In other words, the results are all about training the hands to be consistent both ways, and less about the strop itself.


David