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Strop Cleaning

stitchawl said:
True, but you guys knew the rules of Soccer looooong before us public school kids did. There were only two guys in my high school who actually knew how to play, and they were both recent European arrivals.

And they both had really cool switchblades! Those were the days long before metal detectors at the school front door and guards in the halls.


Stitchawl
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What a coincidence. My school was situated so that you had to go through a certain ethnic community to reach it. We went to the shops and bought the most awesome Italian stilettos - cheap. Then promptly went home with them and put them in Dad's vice surrounded by shop rags then pushed the lock bar down and filed the tang with tiny files he had - file & test - repeat - repeat until the mojo took hold and they slammed open with ease. They were magnificent gravity knives. Dad snapped a couple blades off in the vice while lecturing me. But the work went on. I had some respectable gravity knives. Left unfiled I'm sure many decades later they would be worth quite a sum of money. Real Ivory (legal, I'm a bit older than I act) , Stag, Mother of Pearl.....beautiful!
 
cziv said:
Dad snapped a couple blades off in the vice while lecturing me.
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Are we brothers?

Left unfiled I'm sure many decades later they would be worth quite a sum of money. Real Ivory (legal, I'm a bit older than I act) , Stag, Mother of Pearl.....beautiful!
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When I think back on some of the knives I destroyed as a kid... I lived in Germany for two years ('53, '54) while 'our' father was in the Military. I traded great 'toys' from the German kids; genuine Hitler Youth Knives, switchblades, German Paratrooper gravity knives, Black Forest hunting knives with Solingen blades... all take away from me by our father while delivering his lectures... Today some of those, had they not been either thrown away or trashed, would be worth a pretty penny.

Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
Are we brothers?



When I think back on some of the knives I destroyed as a kid... I lived in Germany for two years ('53, '54) while 'our' father was in the Military. I traded great 'toys' from the German kids; genuine Hitler Youth Knives, switchblades, German Paratrooper gravity knives, Black Forest hunting knives with Solingen blades... all take away from me by our father while delivering his lectures... Today some of those, had they not been either thrown away or trashed, would be worth a pretty penny.

Stitchawl
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Most of us knifenuts have a kinship for sure. You sound very close to the same age as me. Wow - the knives you had your hands on would fetch a TON of money in pristine condition, which they probably were at that time. My uncle brought home a German officer's dress attire dagger - a long bladed ivory slabbed handle with ornate Swatstika stuff on it a defective blade (damascus - I thought something was wrong with it). and gold wire inlaid in certain places. It one of the knives I lusted over as a little kid. I wouldn't want to own it now given it's background but it was "knife art" for sure. Hitler Youth knives. Special forces gravity knives. You sure had your hands on some great blades! ;)
 
cziv said:
You sound very close to the same age as me.
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I was around when Noah was a midshipman and God's dog was a puppy!

Hitler Youth knives. Special forces gravity knives. You sure had your hands on some great blades! ;)
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Traded for glass marbles... ;)
Like buying Manhattan Island for $24 worth of beads.
The German kids could only afford to buy baked clay marbles and were glad to trade anything and everything they could get their hands on for different sized glass ones. They found the knives in bombed out buildings and rubble in the towns and cities (around Frankfurt.) It was only a few years after the war and there were many bombed out buildings on every block.

Stitchawl
 
It must have been quite a spectacle to look over the ruins of Germany right after the fall of Hitler's war.
 
cziv said:
It must have been quite a spectacle to look over the ruins of Germany right after the fall of Hitler's war.
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It was something to see. Being a young kid I didn't feel the angst that an adult would experience, knowing and internalizing that each pile of rubble probably represented a number of dead human beings. No such thing as death at that age. Not the terminal type. More like, 'bang' your dead.' (Bang, groan, fall down, get back up and continue playing.) More of 'hey, this is a great place to go exploring!' We were lucky buildings didn't collapse on us...

Stitchawl
 
Getting back to strop and leather cleaning Goop or GoJo work very well. They're both waterless and contain lanolin which conditions the hide, glycerin is the cleaning agent.

On the other hand, I've been processing and peddling honing leather since 1994 and won't be happy until people stop using compounds on leather, or at least my leather.

Stitch is right, horse hide (not just any horse hide though) is one of the best leathers for honing but there are things you can do to turn bovine into a good honing surface without having to use compounds.

I'm getting to the point where I will have some time to offer tips on my site. Prolly later in October.

Keith
 
Thanks Keith - I'll be looking for some "tips and tricks" info on your site! :thumbup:
 
I have used a scotch brite type pad to clean the old compound off. I got most of it off without any trouble and quickly then simply re applyed the fresh compound. Worked great :thumbup:
 
handamerican said:
Stitch is right, horse hide (not just any horse hide though) is one of the best leathers for honing
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HandAmerican sells "Horween" brand bark tanned horsehide, cut from the 'butt' section of the leather. This just just about the very best horsehide available on the market today! If you want to know what a leather strop should do to an edge, you MUST try some of this stuff!

P.S. I said 'just about' only because leather cut from the 'shell' section would be just a wee bit better as it's thicker and slightly more dense than the 'butt' section. The 'shell' and the 'butt' sections are right next to each other on the hide, and unless you had one of each in your hands at the same time, you'd never realize the difference. Perhaps not even then! Try the HandAmerican horsehide and see what stropping really is all about!


Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
HandAmerican sells "Horween" brand bark tanned horsehide, cut from the 'butt' section of the leather. This just just about the very best horsehide available on the market today! If you want to know what a leather strop should do to an edge, you MUST try some of this stuff!

P.S. I said 'just about' only because leather cut from the 'shell' section would be just a wee bit better as it's thicker and slightly more dense than the 'butt' section. The 'shell' and the 'butt' sections are right next to each other on the hide, and unless you had one of each in your hands at the same time, you'd never realize the difference. Perhaps not even then! Try the HandAmerican horsehide and see what stropping really is all about!


Stitchawl
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I'm going to get a peice and if I screw up - I'll feel close to a horse's a**! :D
 
Horse leather is great but something I am noticing is that if used on a mirror finished edge random scratches will appear in the surface. You can even tell the abrasive material is of random size too because of the difference in scratch size. It does not seem to effect the edge as the resulting edge is typical of that stropped on bare leather but the bevel finish is effected.

I've talked to Keith about this but has anyone else experienced this?
 
yep with HA bovine used straight after 10k naniwa. the strop definitely scratched the finish.

and btw, IIRC my strop had like a thin ''skin'' if that makes sense are you sure sanding won't change how the strop works ? i meand the strop didn't look sanded at all when i received it. (long ago but i think i remember pretty well what it looked like.)
 
knifenut1013 said:
Horse leather is great but something I am noticing is that if used on a mirror finished edge random scratches will appear in the surface. You can even tell the abrasive material is of random size too because of the difference in scratch size. It does not seem to effect the edge as the resulting edge is typical of that stropped on bare leather but the bevel finish is effected.

I've talked to Keith about this but has anyone else experienced this?
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so this would not be finishng strop? bare leather last? balsa + 1 micron paste? what's your last strop on your general mirror edges, irregardless of any special steels? :)
 
Usually my final polish is 1 micron, bare horse leather works fine as a final strop but I feel it would be best for a final and single stropping step after my EEF stone.

It's natural and comes from a animal so the abrasive material within can vary.
 
The abrasives in leather (natural silicates) DO vary... but from between .01 micron to .1 micron. Still at least half as small as the finest compounds. If you are getting scratches from your strops, it's because of contaminates on the surface of the leather, not from the silicates within it.

Stitchawl
 
At this point I don't see how two different samples were contaminated. My first sample I questioned but when I got the same results from a fresh out the wrapper HA horse leather I knew there was more to the story. So far Keith has told me this question will soon be addressed on his site.
 
knifenut1013 said:
At this point I don't see how two different samples were contaminated. My first sample I questioned but when I got the same results from a fresh out the wrapper HA horse leather I knew there was more to the story. So far Keith has told me this question will soon be addressed on his site.
Click to expand...

How does something with a smaller size grit than you've been using show up scratching the larger grit's finish? Natural silicates are much smaller than any other abrasive in our arsenal. In fact, the largest of the silicates is still just half the size of the finest DMT diamond spray.

I know that Keith somehow 'treats' his leather before selling it. I wonder if that has anything to do with it, though I doubt it. I've always been quite satisfied with his leathers. But my horsehide comes directly from Horween, shell cordovan, and I get no scratching at all, just a richer, deeper mirror finish. The leather has the creamy feeling of mozzarella cheese! :D

Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
How does something with a smaller size grit than you've been using show up scratching the larger grit's finish? Natural silicates are much smaller than any other abrasive in our arsenal. In fact, the largest of the silicates is still just half the size of the finest DMT diamond spray.

I know that Keith somehow 'treats' his leather before selling it. I wonder if that has anything to do with it, though I doubt it. I've always been quite satisfied with his leathers. But my horsehide comes directly from Horween, shell cordovan, and I get no scratching at all, just a richer, deeper mirror finish. The leather has the creamy feeling of mozzarella cheese! :D

Stitchawl
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Mozarella is made from "buffel" milk ( dont know trnslation, too lazy to use google trnslate too ;)) so maybe we should order some leather strops made from those beasts:p
 
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