Stripping and hair whittling edge

[rollintent]

I have been struggling with loosing my edge when stropping. I have been freehanding on stones ultrafine diamond then spiderco ultrafine ceramic bench stone before going to a knives plus strop and leather strops loaded with 1.0, 0.5 and .25 micron diamond sprays. I sometimes get a hair whittling edge but never tree topping sharp. I have tried varying my pressure from just barely touching the strops to maybe a pound of pressure and have varied my stropping angle from nearly flat on the strop to approximately the angle I work on my stones to just slightly steeper than sharpening angle. I get varied results but it seems the more I strop the duller my knife gets most of the time. Most of the time my knife cuts and feels better right off my Spyderco ultrafine ceramic stone.

Can anyone point me to a video that goes into more detail or some resource that explains a good way. I feel my work on the stones is as good as it needs to be but am usually making it worse with the strops as often as not but usually I am really not improving the edge much at all by stropping.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

"...it seems the more I strop the duller my knife gets most of the time. Most of the time my knife cuts and feels better right off my Spyderco ultrafine ceramic stone..."

That's the nature of overstropping on leather used with compound. On bare leather, used without compound, the dulling effects are reduced, because bare leather is very limited in it's ability to shape the edge. But with compound, the more one goes at it with the slightest bit of too-heavy pressure (compresses the leather) or too-high an angle, the more likely the edge will get rounded off in the effort.

A big part of effective stropping is looking closely at the effects produced as you go, and recognizing when enough is accomplished and STOPPING there. Going too far beyond that, in the pursuit of just a little more sharpness or polish, is usually detrimental to the finished result.

If you're looking for more polish by stropping, you're better off using a hard substrate for the compound, like smooth & firm wood. It won't compress as much as leather, if at all, and will tolerate some slightly heavier pressure and more passes, so long as the held angle is maintained conservatively low and stable.

A good rule of thumb for stropping on leather with compound is, if you can't accomplish what you want in maybe ~5-10 passes or less, you likely need to do more refining on the finishing stones first. Once that's done, a leather strop with compound should give you anything else you need in very, very few passes; maybe down to 1-3 passes per side. It should be that easy, if done right.

 

[tonymp]

I have been struggling with loosing my edge when stropping. I have been freehanding on stones ultrafine diamond then spiderco ultrafine ceramic bench stone before going to a knives plus strop and leather strops loaded with 1.0, 0.5 and .25 micron diamond sprays. I sometimes get a hair whittling edge but never tree topping sharp. I have tried varying my pressure from just barely touching the strops to maybe a pound of pressure and have varied my stropping angle from nearly flat on the strop to approximately the angle I work on my stones to just slightly steeper than sharpening angle. I get varied results but it seems the more I strop the duller my knife gets most of the time. Most of the time my knife cuts and feels better right off my Spyderco ultrafine ceramic stone.

Can anyone point me to a video that goes into more detail or some resource that explains a good way. I feel my work on the stones is as good as it needs to be but am usually making it worse with the strops as often as not but usually I am really not improving the edge much at all by stropping.

I was right there with you a while back, I switched to a balsa strop and my results were way better, now I use diamond spray on kangaroo leather and I'm getting great results I'm not getting the dulling affect I was getting I'm thinking that my technique must have improved because the dulling has disappeared all together.

 

[rollintent]

I’m only interested in performance based results. Polishing if any would be a byproduct only. Might try to get my hands on some balsa. I was going to go with balsa but tried leather first. I’d say I’ve been over stropping if anything.

 

[jc57]

I used to be prone to slightly rounding off my edges when I first got into using a leather strop. I think it was a combination of over-stropping, using too much pressure, and not maintaining the same angle as the actual bevel.

I can't tell you exactly what I changed, but over time I seem to have learned how to do it in a manner that doesn't round off a sharp edge. I think the main thing is that I don't spend a lot of time on the strop. Really just going for burr removal and not so much trying to polish up the edge.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I’m only interested in performance based results. Polishing if any would be a byproduct only. Might try to get my hands on some balsa. I was going to go with balsa but tried leather first. I’d say I’ve been over stropping if anything.

If you're going to look into using wood, I'd suggest basswood, instead of balsa. Can usually find basswood at hobby supply stores, as with balsa. I suggest basswood, because it's firmer than balsa, and also can be found in sizes convenient for stropping, without having to cut it to size.

Balsa can even be soft enough to compress and round over the apex, if pressure gets a little heavy. It's soft enough that it'll also be deformed (dented, cut, gouged, etc) by pressure that's a little heavy. So, the wood itself can be somewhat 'needy' of occasional maintenance, to flatten & smooth it out.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

@HeavyHanded’s washboard with 1 or 2 layers of copier paper might give a flatter result, I’d say zero rounding.

 

[eugenechia1989]

I had this problem with barber strops, switched to a paddle strop and never had this issue again. That said, it's still down to technique and if I was careful, I could go back to the barber strop and not have the same issue again. But you really do have to go very light on the pressure and really make sure the strop is flat or taut.

I've since switched to cardboard, but I don't strop too much anymore. I use three different compounds and only really do about ten strokes alternating sides each, which equates to five strokes per side per compound. Very minimal. I'm pretty sure an edge off the Spyderco fine ceramic stone is quite a polished edge already, anyway (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm not really pursuing a mirror polish either.

Anyway, what I've always understood about stropping is that it's for burr removal, so once there are no burrs left, you can (and should) stop there.